Golden Snake Year ALOHA! NSYSU and Yuan T. Lee Foundation Science Education for All Join Forces for Sustainability

At the beginning of 2025, the massive wildfires in Los Angeles signaled the growing urgency of global climate change and its threats to human survival. The United Nations has declared 2024–2033 as the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD), underscoring the pressing need to enhance public literacy in sustainability. To mark the start of the Year of the Snake, National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) collaborated with the Yan T. Lee Foundation Science Education for All Kaohsiung Office to launch the five-day “2025 Yan T. ALOHA! Sustainability—Science and Art Winter Camp & STEAM Cross-Disciplinary Seed Teacher Training.” The theme ALOHA was framed around five key elements of Earth: Aerosols, Land, Ocean, Human, and Air, with issue-based interdisciplinary courses designed under this concept.

The camp opened with Professor Chia C. Wang, Director of NSYSU’s Aerosol Science Research Center and Head of the Yan T. Lee Foundation Science Education for All Kaohsiung Office, addressing the topic “What’s Happening to Mother Earth?” She highlighted how human activities are driving ecological crises, threatening biodiversity—including Taiwan’s endemic Maki’s Keelback (Hebius miyajimae)—through habitat loss, pollution, and roadkill, leading to one of the most severe mass extinction events in 60 million years. In response to the Year of the Snake, the opening featured a science-art ecological theater, “The Quest of Electron Clouds,” co-written by Wang and Associate Professor I-Lien Ho (Department of Theatre Arts, NSYSU), with original music by Izumi, a Taiwan-born musician trained in Japan. Wang played a modern scientist, while Professor Wei-Hsiang Chen (Director of the Institute of Environmental Engineering, NSYSU) portrayed Friedrich August Kekulé, father of modern organic chemistry. Through a cross-temporal dream dialogue, the play reenacted Kekulé’s famous inspiration from dreaming of a snake, which led to the discovery of the benzene ring structure. The interactive performance invited participants to “dance molecules,” demonstrating that all matter is composed of vibrating molecules, while also drawing on Tesla’s words that “everything is energy,” and using Schrödinger’s quantum electron cloud to symbolize the interconnectedness of all life.

Air, shared by all living beings, can also be a medium of disease transmission. Beyond COVID-19’s airborne spread through virus-laden aerosols, seasonal flu, measles, and even norovirus can also be transmitted via inhalation of pathogen-containing air. The program featured Professor Tsui-Ling Ko (Post-Baccalaureate Medicine Program, NSYSU) explaining the human respiratory system and lung functions, Professor Yu-Chi Wang (Department of Medical Science and Biotechnology, I-Shou University) introducing microorganisms including bacteria and viruses, and Professor Wang elaborating on the mechanisms of aerosol transmission of pathogens and related prevention strategies. The urgency of clean air was reinforced with WHO data showing nearly seven million premature deaths annually due to air pollution. To address this, seed teachers from ASRC demonstrated hands-on activities: Teacher Chiung-Yi Hsieh (Wun-Fu Elementary School) led “The Adventure of PM,” and Teacher Ho-Chieh Wu (Guoguang Laboratory School, NSYSU) guided participants in building a “Mini Air Quality House,” fostering practical visions and actions for clean air and sustainable living.

With global warming intensifying and extreme weather becoming more frequent, achieving net-zero carbon emissions has become a worldwide priority. Professor You-Ren Wang (Department of Marine Environment and Engineering, NSYSU) introduced the science of global warming and the current state of climate change. Participants also engaged with TCHAR, Taiwan’s only enterprise certified with the European Biochar Certificate (EBC), to learn about negative carbon technologies and experience biochar art-making activities. Clean energy development is one of the UN’s 17 SDGs: Professor Jyh-Tsung Lee (Dean, College of Science, NSYSU) explained the principles of batteries with a fruit battery experiment; Teacher Hong-Da Wu and Shu-Hua Chen, recipients of the National Excellent Teacher Award of MOE, guided participants in exploring wind and hydrogen energy. To emphasize the value of clean water, Professor Wei-Hsiang Chen designed a “Water Purification Magic” course, transforming polluted solutions into clear water, leaving participants amazed. To protect marine life, researchers Fu-Wen Kuo and Chuan-Ho Tang (National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium) presented the threats of ocean acidification, warming, plasticization, and deoxygenation, along with live coral observation to stress biodiversity. For terrestrial life, Mei-Yin Lin, Executive Director of the Taiwan Macaque Coexistence Promotion Association, introduced the ecology and habits of Formosan macaques, teaching ways to coexist harmoniously with them.

Distinguished guests attended the opening, including Academia Sinica Academician Kopin Liu, Hui-Mei Hsu (President, National Volunteer Association), Hsiu-Hui Huang (Vice President, Kaohsiung Chapter of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women), and Min-Ching Huang (President, LomiLomi International Aroma Health Care Association). President Huang shared that in Hawaiian, ALOHA stands for kindness, unity, empathy, humility, and patience—key inner qualities for advancing sustainability, resonating with the event’s spirit. She also led participants in Hawaiian Hula dance to embody the spirit of ALOHA.

Professor Wang emphasized the necessity and urgency of cultivating public literacy in sustainability science. The camp aimed to nurture holistic sustainability literacy through interdisciplinary courses, combined with a STEAM seed teacher training program that encouraged co-learning between teachers, students, and even parents. Teaching methods included lectures, fieldwork, hands-on experiments, science picture book readings, and artistic exploration. With participants ranging from elementary and secondary students to adults and teachers, the program applied mixed-age group teaching, inspired by successful practices in countries like Germany and the Netherlands. Research has shown that such learning fosters stronger interdisciplinary competence, problem-solving, communication, and adaptability. This innovative program provided an exemplary model for advancing cross-disciplinary sustainability science education in Taiwan.