Empower Rural China Students - 21st Century Skills

Evergreen wanted to know how well we were meeting the needs of Evergreen educators in China; therefore in a deliberative, intentional process, we initiated a plan to obtain feedback on priorities for support from Evergreen in future years. In the summer of 2020, Evergreen initiated an inquiry on WeChat asking for feedback from all of the educators in China who had received Evergreen grants to conduct projects and successfully completed those projects. Feedback is coming in from many educators in China. In the first phase, the core question we are asking educators is: To improve the learning experiences and learning outcomes of your students, what is the most important support that Evergreen could provide for you? In a second phase planned for 2021, we will organize all responses received in phase one into categories of desired support from EEF; then we will ask educators to rank the categories using a five-point scale (1 being least needed, 5 being most needed). Such a needs assessment effort will help EEF obtain a more clear idea of how to most effectively and efficiently support Evergreen educators and therefore more meaningfully inform EEF’s funding and programming directions.

As part of this process, in the first set of responses from educators, we have received some very much appreciated remarks on the value of past Evergreen support for educational improvements in the local schools and libraries in China. We are sharing these comments with you through this report.

Feedback from Teachers & Librarians

• Evergreen opened the door to robotics for us. Over the years, Yaozhong’s robot club has grown rapidly. They have successively won awards in the Shaanxi Province and World Robotics Competitions in 2017, 2018, and 2019. They have become an important force in school clubs and have trained a group of robot instructors.
• In the past, with the kind support from Evergreen, I (Teacher in Gansu Province) was able to lead students in conducting projects, where they not only learned a lot but also improved their abilities in various aspects. I’m grateful for Evergreen. What we learned at Evergreen is real knowledge, especially in project-based learning. Now I find that there are many benefits to team projects.
• The former Evergreen team members of Tongwei Maying Middle School are now distributed in Tongwei No. 1, 2, and 3 High Schools. No matter where we are, the spirit of Evergreen urges us to use the ideas, methods, and thinking provided by Evergreen to improve education and teaching. . . . After receiving the 2016 Wuhan Evergreen training, we were inspired to guide students in technological innovations. Some of the student-designed products, such as "Smart Flower Watering System", "Smart Trash Can", won awards above the provincial level.
• With the help of Evergreen, Tongwei County Library has organized and carried out 3 large-scale projects and applied for 16 small projects. Forty-three people have participated in the annual meetings and various training organized by Evergreen. In recent years, participation in various activities organized by Evergreen has played a positive role in the overall development of Tongwei County Library and the growth of library staff's professional skills.
• In recent years, the country [China] has also attached great importance to the development of public libraries. In order to promote the development of public libraries in various places, the government has passed the "Public Library Law," and conducts a nationwide evaluation of public libraries every four years. Tongwei County Library was recognized as a national first-class library two times in a row in the nationwide evaluations. Of course, the achievement of this honor cannot be separated from the strong support and help provided by Evergreen over the years