2016 ANNUAL REVIEW Ministry of Science and Technology

Ministry of Science and Technology 22 In order to increase citizens' S&T literacy and knowledge, MOST actively promotes public science education, and hopes that every citizen will take pleasure in learning about science, understand the uses of science, enjoy the wonders of science, and appreciate the beauty of science. The following were some of the most important results achieved in 2016: A. Popular Science Activities MOST has promoted various popular science activities via a wide range of channels, and has encouraged domestic university scholars, either by themselves or in partnership with companies, foundations, academic groups, or associations, to use innovative, diverse, accessible, and interesting methods to hold workshops, hands-on activities, demonstrations, performances, guided readings of articles throughout the country, and also provide guided online popular science activities. A total of 3,200 popular science activities were held throughout 2016, and attracted 870,000 participants; the 56 websites established in conjunction with these activities provided free browsing and shared science resources with the public, and achieved outreach in excess of 1,452,000 person times. The "Sci-Tech Vista" website is an online sharing service providing popular science resources. This website has had an average of more than one million visits monthly starting September 2014. Apart from setting up a Facebook fans page and a Google+ page, the website has its own YouTube channel, and has uploaded several hundred short popular science videos provided or licensed from academic personnel and multimedia companies. As of the end of 2016, the Sci-Tech Vista Facebook fans page had received over 30,500 "likes," and the YouTube channel had been viewed a total of more than 5.7 million times. In order to enhance the online dissemination of S&T news, MOST has continued to implement the "Projects for News Media for Popular Science," which are meant to encourage interdisciplinary academic cooperation, introduce new S&T knowledge via special reports, and provide full-scale, in-depth reports on major news events and facts. The public can view reports and quickly obtain information using computers or mobile devices, and the projects promote public understanding of science and boost citizens' scientific literacy. The writing teams have completed more than 1,300 popular science areas up to the end of 2016, and 323 new articles were published during the year. Funding was provided to seven writing teams in 2016, and the topics reported on chiefly consisted of healthcare, food nutrition and safety, life science, space science and technology, energy development, environmental protection/ sustainability/environmental education, finance, and climate change. The project projects' implementing teams will produce at least 288 popular science articles within a year's time, and will rely on the Sci- Tech Vista website and Facebook posts to help the public to conveniently obtain new S&T knowledge. MOST held over 120 lectures of the popular science lecture series "Vision" in northern Taiwan, "Meet the Scientists on Sundays" in southern Taiwan, "Let's go! Sharing the Master's Vision" in central Taiwan, and "Bringing Fun Science to the East" in eastern Taiwan. More than 25,000 students and members of the public took part in these events, which received 130 media reports. In order to give students living in remote areas near-live access to these fascinating lectures, videos of the lectures have been placed on the "Sci-Tech Vista" website enabling viewers to watch at times and places of their choosing. B. Popular Science Communication Industry-Academic Program In order to continue to provide citizens superior, domestically-produced science programs, and thereby achieve the goal of promoting scientific literacy, MOST Increasing Citizensʼ S&T Literacy Ⅳ MOST Ministry of Science and Technology 2016 ANNUAL REVIEW