The National Chiayi University has devoted to enhance the public understanding of science in Chiayi since 2011. We share resources with elementary, middle, and high schools as well as local community to fulfill the university's responsibility and lead regional development in science and education. In the past seven years, supported by the National Chiayi University(NCYU) Higher Education Sprout Project (HESP) and funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the university has cooperated with local governments to promote students' interest in learning science via various strategies. Many outreach activities, including the breaking through the science barricades, science camps and teacher empowerment workshops, have been organized for students with all ages and teachers in the Chiayi city and county. Children in Chiayi can experience the hands-on experiments without going to Taipei or Kaohsiung.

After the "Round Island Popular Science Train in Taiwan (RI-PSTiT )" activity held on October 27, 2020, we encouraged every student on board to write a letter to the Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Tsung-Tsong Wu, to show his or her appreciation. This action initiated Dr. Wu's visit to Chiayi. Minister Wu arrived at Chiayi on February 26 and got together with students from the Xing-jia elementary school and Yi-zhu middle school. During his visit, Dr. Wu's team, along with the pupils, demonstrated the applications of the virtual reality (VR) technology in learning science. This immersive interactive experience associated with the VR technology helped to broaden students' horizon. In addition, a workshop with the theme of science and innovation was arranged for faculty members from the National Chiayi University as well as the neighboring universities to discuss how to incorporate the new elements in the popular science education. Hopefully, the workshop will help teachers to come up with more innovate ideas and give children impressive experiences.

The president of the National Chiayi University, Dr. Chyung Ay, said that our faculty members' specialties are diverse. We encourage them to cooperate with middle and elementary schools to engage in the popular science education and share educational resources. By doing so, the students of NCYU have chances to demonstrate their professional knowledge and serve children from local schools. Chiayi city and county designated April and May as the month of the popular science. Students on the Round Island Popular Science Train had a lot of fun in doing experiments. Those who were not on board need not to be disappointed; NCYU designs and provides schools with materials to set up science barricades each year. Thus, children can also enjoy these hands-on experiments on their own campuses.

     Minister Wu said that technology is the main driving force for Taiwan to show the world what we can do. Teaching science and technology needs to adopt new strategies. Combining the elements of new technology, culture and art will give our students brand new experiences and motivate them to learn science. Hopefully, some of these students will devote themselves to research and become excellent scientists in the future.