20 August 2018, QSNCC:- Ministry of Science and Technology by the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) has organized an international conference "The 15th Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness 2018:
APCG2018" with the objective to increase public awareness, generate enthusiasm among stakeholders in the government, academia, and private/non-government sector, which hopefully will lead to the development of future knowledge in this field as well as suitable policy and strategy for the education of gifted and talented students. It will bring leaders in gifted education from around the globe to share their knowledge, expertise, and practices.
Dr. Kanyawim Kirtikara, Vice Minister for Science and Technology in the opening ceremony said the Thai government recognizes education as a key pillar to driving the future of the Thai economy and thus, has allocated approximately 20 percent of the annual budget towards education. And to strengthen young bright minds, this year the Ministry of Science and Technology has obtained an extra budget of 30 million US dollars to promote STEM education. We have organized Science fairs in different parts of Thailand. Two hundred thousand embedded artificial intelligence system boards for learning programing are being distributed to over 1,000 schools. Fabrication labs are being installed in 150 schools with the collaboration from 10 network universities who would provide mentorship. And a science competition which would lead to the Prime Minister award is also underway.
Dr. Narong Sirilertworakul, President of NSTDA said APCG2018 is organized into two main components, which are the Conference which is held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center during 20-23 August 2018 and the Youth Camp which is held at the Sirindhorn Science Home and Thailand Science Park Convention Center, Pathum Thani during 20-24 August 2018. The conference has brought together leading academic researchers, teachers, educators, and policy makers in the domain of gifted education in the Asia-Pacific region. It was organized with the main theme “Inspiration, Motivation, and Creativity: Leading the Way to Giftedness”, and 8 sub-themes which are: 1) Policy and Management for Gifted Education 2) Identification, Assessment and Evaluation of Giftedness 3) Curriculum Development for Gifted Education & Teacher Training 4) Programming for Various Groups of Gifted Children 5) Neuroscience, Psychology and Counseling for the Giftedness 6) Technology for Gifted Education 7) Gifted Education Trend in the 21st Century and 8) Parenting and Families of Gifted Students.
19 professionals from 9 economies have been invited to be keynote, plenary, and invited speakers, and to organize the symposiums, and workshops. 107 abstracts are accepted for oral and poster presentation. In addition, the parent workshop, conducted in Thai, will be organized in parallel to the conference sessions. All together, more than 500 participants from 27 economies have registered to the Conference. The other component of APCG2018 which is of equal importance to the Conference is the Youth Camp, held at the Sirindhorn Science Home, aims to team-up gifted and talented children from different interests from Grade 5 to Grade 12 in various camp activities. 255 gifted and talented students from 13 economies will join the APCG2018 Youth Camp in 4 and a half day of activities conducted by the professionals in various fields. The camp are designed to encourage the children to express their curiosity and creativity through a range of interdisciplinary activities, covering mathematics, science, language, art, and dance. They will be motivated to present and share their talents, while fostering friendship and cross-cultural communication.