Comparative Study Of Non-government Popular Science Education In Shanghai (China) And Hamburg(Germany)

Science and technology, as a symbol of the highest productivity, is not only the development of science and technology itself. To what extend it can be understood and participated by general public is also important. To enhance the role of science and technology to lead social progress and promote economic development, popular science education (similarly to western term:public understanding of science) is essential. In order to improve China’s popular science education system, we must vigorously develop non-government popular science education. German non-government popular science education is strong which is the main force to lead the overall improvement of the scientific literacy of the public in Germany and it is also the reason why Germany became the world power. Popular science education in China started late. It is mainly organized by government, and the power of non-government popular science education is comparatively far weak.This article studied non-government popular science education in Shanghai (China) and Hamburg (Germany)comparatively. Investigation and comparative research are the main research methods, focusing on the analysis of Shanghai private scientific and educational institutions and Hamburg schulerlabore of their respective backgrounds, characteristics and existing problems.This study reveals the differences between five aspects of non-government popular science education in Shanghai and Hamburg:the nature of the scale, the object of education, curriculum and teaching, teachers and social support, and found that non-government popular science education in Hamburg has the following advantages:1) curriculum, the independent development of Hamburg non-government popular science education pay more attention to the curriculum, and the protection of the traditional cultural heritages. Their curriculum content is more reasonable; 2) teachers, the whole level of teachers in Hamburg are much higher than that of Shanghai;3) social support, German foundations, professional enterprise and other non-governmental forces are actively supporting popular science education, and formed the influential schiilerlabore in German area. Finally, this paper points out suggestions for the improvement of China’s popular science education.