A hands-on French education method or the “La main à la Pâte” programme will be piloted at junior high schools in five districts in Hanoi in the 2012-2013 academic year. The revolutionary method, which encourages science education through experience, will be used for the majors of physics, chemistry and biology at high schools in Hoan Kiem, Long Bien, Thanh Xuan, Ha Dong and Thach That districts. Initiated in 1995 by Georges Charpak, Nobel prize winner for physics in 1992, the "La main à la Pâte" programme is dedicated to develop inquiry-based science teaching at primary schools. Its goal is to place children in a position whereby they can experiment, observe, query and reason, opening them up to the beauty of the world around them and its intelligibility. Finally, children will be invited to express their thoughts (through short statements, writing in an experiment book) on what they have just experienced together, being thereby obliged to enrich their vocabulary and refine their logic and, hence, the syntax. The pilot project is part of the Ministry of Education and Training’s programme on hands-on method implementation in high schools for the 2011-2015 period./.
