“Ecological Popular Science Tour”, aimed at schools, rural areas and communities for the communication of popular science knowledge and promotion of ecological concept for citizens in an all-round way, is a branch event forged by the Ecological Society of China for science popularization as the development and extension of its previous brand event “Ecological Popular Science Campus Tour”. In 2019, under the support of relevant units including the Popular Science Working Committee, committees for all disciplines, and local ecological societies, the ESC conducted varied ecological popular science activities respectively in over 10 provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Chongqing, Jilin, Guangdong, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Shandong, attracting over 124,000 participants. 

From March to August, the popular science activity--a Plant Journey with QR Code was carried out in Guangdong Province. Scientific practices for improving students’ information application ability and cultivating their information literacy such as making name cards for plants, searching plant information, making plant QR code tags were carried out in various places including Guangzhou No.2 High School, Chongwen High School in Dongyuan County, Heyuan City, Yangjiang No.1 High School, School of Life Sciences of South China Normal University, and Jilonggang in Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Meanwhile, 4 popular science lectures on plant diversity conservation were held for local schools and residential communities, attracting more than 4,230 participants. 

On May 18th and June 2nd, “Science Rubik’s Cube” was held in the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. In the theme of scientific knowledge related to ecological environment, this audiences’ experience-oriented popular science practice transmitted scientific knowledge and the fun of science learning through popular science lectures, interesting experiments and field study. A total of 41 middle school students from Miaocheng School and 60 from Bohai Middle School in Huairou District, Beijing respectively participated in the first and second popular science practice activities. Through the field investigation activities of “Journey in Spring--First Encounter with Ecology”, 4 popular science lectures such as “Explore the Mysterious World of Soil”, and interesting experiments such as “Approaching Soil Organism”, the distance between teenagers and science were vastly narrowed so as to achieve the goal of cultivating teenagers’ awareness of scientific and technological innovation practice ability. On July 17th, Ecological Society of Beijing held a popular science lecture on “Nature Practice for Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains--Plant Science and Our Daily Life” for over 500 faculty members and students in RDFZ Chaoyang Branch School, expounding the close relationship between plant science and people.

During the “Guangxi Ecological Popular Science Tour” event held from May 18th to June 5th, a series of popular science publicity activities focusing on the International Biodiversity Day were carried out for Guangxi International Biodiversity Day 2019. Cooperated with the Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Ecological Society of Guangxi Province, the main venue of the event was in Liuzhou City of Guangxi where a series of popular science publicity activities such as popular science reports, biodiversity photo exhibitions, biodiversity knowledge Q&A, bird-watching experience, creative mosaic of plant seeds and orchid grafting experience were carried out in 14 prefecture-level cities, aiming at arousing the public’s awareness of protecting nature and biodiversity, spreading the idea of ecological conservation so as to contribute to the construction of a magnificent Guangxi. The event also paid special attention to the needs of schools for ethnic minorities, special education schools and schools for children of migrant workers for popular science and organized relevant popular science personnel to hold a nature education salon during that period. The cumulative audience of the event reached 60,000. 

On May 19th, the “Magic Soil and Weather” Ecological Popular Science Campus Tour was held at Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Jilin. More than 100 students from Yingcai School Affiliated to Jilin University attended the event. Focusing on “The Secret of Soil” and “Meteorology and Life”, the popular science knowledge on soil and meteorology was publicized through vivid color pictures, video display and interaction. 

From May 21st, the ESC and the Ecological Society of Yunnan jointly launched a one-month long campus popular science activity “China Ecological Popular Science Tour·Yunnan--Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use” in 12 primary and secondary schools including the Affiliated Schools of Kunming NSAU Research Institute and held 12 photo exhibitions of biodiversity science popularization and 5 popular science seminars, and launched a live webcast in Xichong Primary School. The cumulative audience of the event reached 24,615, and about 3,000 questionnaires were collected. These activities have improved the primary and secondary school students’ scientific literacy, and stimulated their emotions and values such as caring about biodiversity and the earth and protecting the environment. 

From May 29th to October 24th, the “Meteorology Plus Ecological Popular Science Rural Tour” event was held in four designated points for science popularization in two counties and one district in Hefei, Anhui Province. Oriented to primary and secondary school students and residents in urban communities and rural areas, the event publicized the science knowledge related to meteorology and ecology, distributed popular science publicity materials such as “Ecological Civilization Brochure”, “Meteorological Knowledge” and “Scientific Exploration of Meteorological Stories” supported by on-site consultation and relevant promotional posters, attracting a total of 1,000 people participants. 

From June to August, in Erguna, Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia, ecological popular science rural tour activities were carried out for field stations of “frontier regions, border areas and borderers”. Efforts were made to hold the ecological science popularization lectures, carried out popular science practice activities for more than 100 people including those from Dalian Minzu University and Shenyang Normal University, instructed primary and secondary school students in Erguna City to practice scientific research, provided science and technology training for local farmers and herdsmen, and organized farming and herding science and technology consultation, science popularization work exchange and cadre training. Nearly 500 people participated in the event. 

On September 1st, November 15th, and December 6th -12th , the Ecological Society of Jiangxi Province carried out the activities of ecological science popularization entering campus, and held 6 popular science lectures such as First Class Begins “Ecological Poyang Lake” in Jiangxi Science and Technology Museum and 7 primary and middle schools including Yunfeilu Campus of Nanchang Zhanqian Road School Education Group respectively, explaining the popular science knowledge of birds and Yangtze finless porpoise to the students. 880 people attended the event. The event was webcast live by Netease News with 67,759 participants, also covered by Jiangxi Radio and TV Station and Nanchang Radio and TV Station. 

On December 11th, Shandong Ecological Popular Science Campus Tour was held in Jinan No.13 High School, Shandong Province, which brought wonderful popular science reports such as “Mysterious Insect World” and “Baboon Orphans’ Growth Record”. At the same time, students were presented with popular science books, bringing the concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” and ecological civilization into the campus. 

Centered around the theme of ecological civilization construction throughout the year, Zhejiang Ecological Popular Science Tour organized of 54 ecological popular science activities in some underdeveloped areas in Hangzhou, Quzhou, Lishui, as well as primary and secondary schools, urban communities, party schools, summer camps, research bases and villages in Hangzhou and other places, with a direct audience of 4,000 people. Some activities were broadcast live by TV, radio, and other media. WeChat official accounts of relevant organizations reported and reposted the event hundreds of times, which drew the attention of all sectors of society and produced favorable social impact. 

Chongqing Ecological Popular Science Tour, focusing on the ecological civilization construction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) and effective protection of the ecological barrier of TGRA and our mother river Yangtze River, carried out the education and practice campaign on lake and reservoir water ecological and environmental protection and hydrological information in 16 schools including  Chongqing Nankai Middle School through popular science lectures, exhibitions and being volunteer docents so as to foster the development of campus environmental protection associations, improve teenagers’ awareness of ecological environment protection and enhance their ability of practice and innovation in environmental protection. More than 28,000 people participated in the event. 

The Ecological Popular Science Campus Tour 2019 events covered a wide range of areas and audiences, involving schools, urban communities, villages, party schools and other social fields in more than ten provinces and cities across the country, providing the public with an informative and comprehensive ecological popular science banquet. The events were widely recognized and aroused good repercussions in the society, playing a positive role in the overall improvement of the public’s ecological science literacy.