Grade-one students of a primary school in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, will try out US-edited scientific textbooks from autumn term this year, the People's Daily reported Wednesday.

The textbook "Science and Technology for Children" (STC) is designed for primary students from grade one to six, and covers 24 units of four subjects: Life science, geoscience, material science, and technology design.

The newspaper quoted the city's education bureau that a total of ten primary schools in China will try out the US textbook this year. The ten schools are in Shenzhen, Beijing, Wuhan, Jiangsu, Chongqing and Tianjin, and four in Zhejiang.

According to sources with a recent international seminar on primary science education, developed by the US national scientific resources center, the textbook was already adopted in schools of Sweden, Chile, and Mexico.

Each of the ten Chinese schools sent out two teachers to receive professional training, the daily said, adding that it's a probing subject, and only practice can prove whether the textbook suits Chinese students or not.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2006)