THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1975
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BIOLOGY SEMINAR
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A SEMINAR WILL BE HELD TOMORROW (FRIDAY) FOR ABOUT 50 BIOLOGY LECTURERS AND TEACHERS TO INFORM THEM HOW TO BREED THE AFRICAN CLAWED TOAD, KNOWN AS AMPHIBIAN XENOPUS, WHICH IS NOT NATIVE TO HONG KONG.
THE SEMINAR IS ORGANISED DY THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND THE SCIENCE CENTRE OF THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY AND WILL BE HELD IN THE CENTRE'S AUDITORIUM.
LECTURES WILL BE GIVEN BY DR. KONG YUN-CHUNG AND MR. TONG TAT-MING OF THE UNIVERSITY. THE PARTICIPANTS WILL ALSO HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY OF MEETING PROFESSOR M.C. NIU OF TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, PHILADELPHIA, WHO IS WELL KNOWN FOR HIS WORK IN EMBRYOLOGY.
PROFESSOR NIU IS ON HIS WAY BACK TO THE UNITED STATES FROM PEKING WHERE HE WORKED WITH CHINESE SCIENTISTS FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
THE AIM OF THE SEMINAR IS TO INTRODUCE THE AFRICAN CLAWED TOAD TO SCHOOL LABORATORIES GEARED TO SCIENCE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT TREND IN HONG KONG WHICH PROMOTES PRACTICAL APPROACH IN SCIENCE EDUCATION AND LEARNING BIOLOGY BY ENQUIRY.
PAIRS OF THE AFRICAN CLAWED TOAD WILL BE PROVIDED FREE TO SCHOOLS. THIS WILL BE THE FIRST TIME THAT THIS TYPE OF TOAD WILL BE USED IN SECONDARY SCHOOL LABORATORIES IN HONG KONG.
THE TWO UNIVERSITIES HAVE BEEN EXPERIMENTING WITH IMPORTED SPECIMENS FOR MORE THAN A YEAR AND THE RESULTS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL.
A SPOKESMAN FOR THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SAID THE TOAD RESPONDS BETTER IN EXPERIMENTS THAN THE COMMON FROG NOW USED. IT WAS HOPED, HE SAID, THAT THE TOAD WOULD BE INTRODUCED ON A WIDER SCALE AND TO INCORPORATE THE CULTURE TECHNIQUES OF THE XENOPUS INTO THE FUTURE SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM.
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