At the fourth-grade (1) class of Muyin Primary School in Luodian County, Qiannan, Guizhou, children gathered around a 100x microscope, eagerly inserting synthetic fibers, cotton, and wool under the lens—they were trying to answer a seemingly ordinary but seriously posed question by scientists: "Why can winter clothes keep warm?" This reflects the fundamental logic of materials science, where structure determines performance, and performance determines function.

In the X-classroom at Zuxuan Primary School in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, children held cards labeled "cooperation" and "competition." In the first round, they randomly found partners; in the second round, they chose a fixed companion; and in the third round, they had to team up with their "family," experiencing different social relationships and competitive strategies that led to "survival" and "elimination." Amid the complex emotions of "betrayal" and "warmth," they reached conclusions similar to William Hamilton's in 1964: individuals can make self-sacrificing "altruistic behaviors" to increase the chances of survival and reproduction of their kin. This is one of the foundational theories of evolutionary biology: kin selection.

These two courses come from the "Light-Chasing Classroom"—a project aimed at enhancing the scientific literacy of teenagers. It is implemented by the Basic Education Department and the Science and Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Education, supported by Tencent and the New Frontier Science Foundation. The project was co-developed by 49 frontline scientists and 56 educators, offering 112 high-quality science lessons covering four major fields—material science, life science, earth and space science, and engineering and technology—with 27 teaching units. These free courses are available for primary schools nationwide to apply for use.

In the spring semester of 2026, the "Light-Chasing Classroom" will begin pilot testing in 112 primary schools across the country, aiming to bring a new look to science classes: allowing multiple frontline scientists from different disciplines to personally participate in creating courses with frontline educators; combining the "frontier perspective" of top research with the "启蒙 logic" of primary school classrooms, cultivating scientific thinking that students can carry with them, expand, and even use throughout their lives.

What does it mean when scientists take part in the classroom?

Are we used to this kind of classroom—where teachers explain "heat conduction," and students remember "heat moves from hot to cold," scoring well on exams? In the "Light-Chasing Classroom," Professor Luo Kun, Dean of the School of Energy Engineering at Zhejiang University and winner of the Science Exploration Award, tells children: "Heat doesn't disappear; it just 'travels' elsewhere—energy conservation is one of the most fundamental rules of the physical world."

From "knowledge points" to "underlying rules," from "remembering answers" to "seeing how scientists ask questions," this is the cognitive gap that the "Light-Chasing Classroom" aims to bridge.

This cognitive gap is reflected in every detail of the course:

Zhou Ji Professor Zhang GuoJie, a Zhejiang University Chair Professor and Science Exploration Award winner, discusses "evolution" rather than "evolution"—"From an evolutionary perspective, humans aren't necessarily more advanced than cockroaches," "In the process of natural selection, the organisms that survive and reproduce are the successful ones." This reshapes children's entire worldview of life.

Peking University Professor Yang Yue does not start with the "Bernoulli principle" from textbooks, but instead begins with "why Cristiano Ronaldo's banana kick curves," introducing aerodynamics and then guiding children to design gliders without engines, walking through the path of "phenomenon → principle → engineering" as scientists do.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University Associate Vice President Wang Zhuankai brought his lab’s cutting-edge research on "liquid drop friction electricity generation" directly into the primary school classroom—a topic that even experienced teachers hadn’t thought of before, such as the idea that liquid contact with objects can produce friction and generate electricity.

"The greatest value of a scientist's popular science course is not that children remember scientific knowledge, but that they gradually develop a way of seeing the world like scientists through real problems," said Chen Yongmei, deputy director of the Innovation Education Research Center at the Beijing Haidian Teachers' Training School, during her participation in the development of the "Light-Chasing Classroom."

Not another science class, but a collaboration between scientists, educators, and frontline teachers

The "Light-Chasing Classroom" is funded and implemented by Tencent's Sustainable Social Value Division (SSV). The scientists involved mainly come from nearly 450 outstanding Chinese scientists supported by the New Frontier Science Foundation—among them are academicians, former chief scientists of the "Sky Eye" FAST, experts in ancient DNA research, and those at the forefront of high-speed rail and chip research, spanning multiple fields such as materials, energy, life sciences, astronomy, geoscience, and engineering.

However, merely having top scientists does not automatically result in "good science classes."

The "Light-Chasing Classroom" uses a "triangle" structure for course development—frontline scientists propose course themes and driving questions based on common phenomena in daily life, shaping the overall framework of the course—ensuring "scientific accuracy"; educational authorities collaborate with educators to select researchers and excellent teachers, translating the scientists’ "frontier ideas" into practical and implementable teaching designs—ensuring "teaching effectiveness"; and frontline teachers test the courses, feeding back the real reactions of students in the classroom into the next iteration—ensuring "practical implementation."

Because of this, the "Light-Chasing Classroom" has developed a series of courses that combine scientific depth with warmth: deep collaboration between scientists and educators; 100% of courses start from everyday phenomena; 112 important scientific questions are distilled, integrated with 159 hands-on practices from frontline research, cultivating scientific thinking in young people.

These courses also come with a complete set of "package-style" implementation resources—including lesson plans, PPT presentations, videos, student books, worksheets, interactive games, and lists of experimental materials—to support high-quality course delivery in schools of all regions and conditions, enabling teachers to prepare a class in just 10 minutes.

112 Classes, 4 Fields: A "Frontier Map" for Elementary Science Classes

The "Light-Chasing Classroom" currently offers 112 high-quality science lessons, each recommended to last 40 minutes, divided into 27 complete teaching units, covering grades 3-4 and 5-6 in elementary schools, and can serve as content support for after-school services ("3:30 classes").

Four fields form a "primary school version" of a scientific frontier map—

• Physical Science: From "Why do winter clothes keep warm?" to "Can water droplets generate electricity?" and then to "A journey of light energy," transforming the fundamental principles of materials, mechanics, thermodynamics, and energy science into touchable experiments.

• Life Science: From Darwin's finches to Homo sapiens leaving Africa, from sea anemones' "laziness" to the evolutionary logic of cooperation and altruism, and from fluorescent proteins to robot tactile sensing—giving life science courses a philosophical dimension of society and thought.

• Earth and Space Science: From "Earth's spacesuit" to "Searching for another Earth in the Milky Way," from the source of volcanic eruption power to "Two faces of water: water resources and water disasters"—placing the universe, Earth, and humanity within the same spatial-temporal coordinates.

• Engineering and Technology: From "Breathable buildings" to "Amazing origami," from "How do high-speed trains run fast and stable?" to "Chips Explained," and finally to "Mars Energy Pioneer: Intelligent Photovoltaic Mars Rover"—encouraging children to think and act like engineers.

Each course identifies a real and cutting-edge scientific issue beneath its surface problem: the "curve" of a football is based on aerospace engineering fundamentals; the end of origami art lies in solar sails and satellite antennas for spacecraft; the chip course starts from sand, moves to lithography, and then to atomic layer deposition, building a complete industrial chain from "materials → devices → systems," helping children learn to "identify problems, analyze problems, and solve problems."

Preparing for the AI Era: Science Class Is a "Thinking Class"

When combined, these 112 classes ultimately point to a more long-term question: What will children rely on to stand out in the AI era?

The answer from the "Light-Chasing Classroom" is: scientific thinking.

When large models can instantly answer standardized knowledge points, and the marginal value of "memorizing" is rapidly declining, what children truly lack is the ability to "ask a good question in the real world," to "dare to experiment with open-ended questions," and to "migrate core thinking across disciplines"—exactly what scientists do every day.

The "Light-Chasing Classroom" has embedded this concept into its course structure from the beginning:

• Starting from everyday phenomena and distilling scientific questions—training the ability to "identify problems";

• Gradually approaching a question and posing further questions—training the ability to "think deeply";

• Incorporating real scientific research methods from scientists into interdisciplinary exploration—training the ability to "transfer and model";

• Introducing videos from scientists themselves and a "message and reply" mechanism—bringing "science career guidance" and "humanistic spirit" into the classroom together.

"Science class is not only a knowledge class, but also a thinking class—it needs children to acquire a scientific worldview and way of thinking," said a senior curriculum researcher who deeply participated in the course development and production. "This is precisely the most scarce and irreplaceable thing in the AI era."

"Learning with Scientists 'Don't Know'

This is the slogan of the "Light-Chasing Classroom" and its worldview.

The "don't know" here is not a knowledge gap, but the daily work of scientists.

Scientists themselves understand this best. A senior science education researcher once said to scientists: "Great, with you here, we won't make mistakes." But the scientists replied: "Why fear 'mistakes'? How many times can scientists be right in their lives?"

People who have done frontier research all know that real scientific progress never starts from "knowing," but from a precise, honest, and worth questioning "don't know"—the most precious starting point of science.

The "Light-Chasing Classroom" aims to return this starting point to children: letting scientists personally enter the classroom, bringing their real, unsolved problems from the lab into the classroom; letting teachers shift from being "knowledge authorities" to organizers of classroom order and guides of thinking games; letting children shift from "waiting for answers" to "daring to ask questions." A group of people gathering around the same "don't know," asking, verifying, and continuing to be curious—this is the thinking style the course hopes children will pursue.

Therefore, all 112 classes present questions in this "don't know" format—“Can rolling water droplets generate electricity?” “Can robots have human-like real touch?” “Can we defeat aging or change the rules of life evolution?”—questions that children might think of in their daily lives, and there are a group of scientists working on them.

When a group of China's top scientists are willing to step into primary school classrooms and honestly say,

“I am still thinking about this question,”—

This itself is the best science class that today's children can attend.

(To apply for the Light-Chasing Classroom, please register at the official website https://zhuiguangedu.org.cn/)

Related Introduction

Tencent SSV

In 2021, Tencent proposed a strategy to promote sustainable social value innovation and established the Sustainable Social Value Division (SSV), focusing on major social issues in the new development pattern, exploring high-quality and sustainable paths for social value, and supporting basic scientific research is an important part of this effort.

About the New Frontier Science Foundation

In August 2022, the New Frontier Science Foundation was established by Tencent with an initial investment of 10 billion yuan, making it one of the largest public welfare science foundations in China. The foundation operates programs such as the Science Exploration Award and the New Frontier Researcher Program, providing long-term support for outstanding Chinese scientists to focus on basic research, having supported nearly 450 frontline scientists so far.