On December 29th evening, the 37th session of the Hongrun Education Forum was held online. This forum was not merely a project summary; it was more like a "roundtable discussion": Vice Principal Ma Zhiqin, the project coordinator, student representative Hu Weiyu, and teacher Wang Wei sat together to review the journey of our school's "Building Shanghai" project-based learning (PBL) that had lasted for six years, and also talked about how education can thrive in real-life situations.
Over six years, a path that has become increasingly clear. Vice Principal Ma Zhiqin led everyone to review the evolution of this project: in the first year, the program focused on Shanghai’s development over the past four decades, exploring how this city grew from a small fishing village into a vibrant international metropolis, and various groups conducted research in fields such as transportation, architecture, hospitality and tourism to gain an in-depth understanding of Shanghai’s evolving journey; in the second year, the theme was defined as building a "Sustainable Shanghai", and groups launched research on topics including animal protection, fast fashion and green campuses to promote a lifestyle and development model centered on green sustainability; in the third year, teachers and students visited Yangshan Port to personally experience the implications of a "Global Shanghai"; in the fourth year, participants went deep into SAIC workshops and CATL’s R&D centers to get a firsthand glimpse of a "Future Shanghai"; in the fifth year, the focus shifted to "Healthy Shanghai", with solid research carried out across areas ranging from cat food production and testing to health-related media sectors. This year’s theme is "Smart Shanghai" — where "smart" refers not only to technological tools such as AI, but also to the wise application of these tools, i.e., true wisdom: humanistic care, and the program covers diverse content including AI-generated films, smart agriculture, smart sleep solutions, as well as attention and support for the autistic community.
At the end of the salon, the participants also talked about their expectations for the future: students hoped to have more time; teachers were thinking about how to provide more systematic support to enable more students to become "designers" from the very beginning of the project. This conversation shows us that the "Building Shanghai" project is not just a learning activity; it is growing into a platform that enables students to connect their interests, integrate resources, and see more possibilities for themselves.
The true educational breakthrough often begins when we are willing to hand over the stage to our students.
繁体
