SoSE 2019: Innovation in STEM education

Front row, from left: Prof Ewe, TS Farah, Dr Ahmad Rafee, Prof Faidz and Dr Yong with the participants

About 200 teachers and educators participated in the Symposium on Science Education (SoSE) 2019 organised by the Institute of Postgraduate and Research (IPSR), supported by the Division of Programme Promotion and the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) on 24 August 2019 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus.

Held for the sixth time, SoSE 2019 aimed to showcase innovative and effective ideas and techniques of teaching methods for STEM subjects. With its theme, ‘Sparking the Quality of STEM Education through Innovation’, the symposium took cognizance of the fact that emerging technologies are part of innovative teaching methods where it is used to facilitate the teaching and learning of STEM to engage students’ learning.

Present at the event were Ministry of Education (MoE) Director of Educational Planning and Research Division Dr Ahmad Rafee bin Che Kassim, Vice President for R&D and Commercialisation Prof Ts Dr Faidz bin Abd Rahman representing UTAR President Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik, Vice President for Internationalisation and Academic Development Prof Ir Dr Ewe Hong Tat, UTAR Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research Director Assoc Prof Dr Yong Thian Khok, staff, teachers and lecturers from various schools and universities.

Prof Faidz speaking about the importance of STEM education

Prof Faidz in his welcome speech said, “SoSE is a place for educators and researchers to share innovative and effective teaching methods in STEM education; create awareness of innovative teaching methods and incorporate innovative elements in STEM teaching and learning. It also provides networking opportunities for STEM educators to share their experiences. Today’s Science Education Symposium 2019, which is part of the KLESF initiative, aimed at promoting innovative and effective learning and teaching on STEM subjects. We hope to leverage this collaboration with SoSE 2019 as a platform for educators, facilitators and teachers to share and exchange creative and innovative ideas to make science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning more effective in schools.”

Dr Ahmad Rafee advocating the importance of hands-on activities to educators

Dr Ahmad Rafee spoke about the importance and needs for STEM education. In his message, he said, “Stem is the future, a new economic driver, producing creators, innovators and problem solvers. Innovation-based economies require the talent of future scientists, innovators and inventors. The issues with STEM education are the decreased percentage of student enrolment, lack of awareness about STEM education among parents, pupils and teachers, lack of hands-on activity in STEM subjects, and students’ perception on STEM education.”

“There is a need to change the practice of what we have so that we will have the ability to think and move forward. We need to realise that when there is a problem, blaming is not the solution. We need to seek for a solution even if we have to start at our own capacity. As long as we take the initiative to put a step ahead, we are moving forward towards building a better society,” added Dr Ahmad Rafee.

Prof Faidz (middle) presenting the token of appreciation to Dr Ahmad Rafee as Dr Yong (right) looks on

Dr Choong (left) and Muhamad Zaim Kassim (right) delivering their talk

Politeknik Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin lecturer Ts Dr Choong Chee Guan who is also the award winner of Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) presented the first talk titled “Experimental of Energy Conservation Using the Concept of Magnetic and Solar Energy”. He said, “In the experimental study, the magnetic drive is used as a power transmission instead of a belt or chain driver. Theoretically, magnetic energy provides no friction when it is converted into another form of energy. DC motor generator is used to test out the efficiency of power transmission.” He added, “Some of the things we will look into the future would be to replace power transmission method chain drive to magnetic-drive to chain drive in solar panel bike and to scale up the magnetic-drive prototype by increasing the layer of the disk in order to increase the magnetic field strength.”

MRSM Kubang Pasu Kedah physics teacher Muhamad Zaim Kassim who won the Excellent Teaching Award in Physics spoke about “Robotics in STEM Education: Redesigning the Learning Experience”. He said, “We include robotics class for the students to increase their interest in STEM education and at the same time to introduce programming to students to enable them to acquire skills that are relevant to the future jobs.” He continued, “Some of the robotic equipment needed are Lego, humanoid, icon base coding, C+ coding, drone, 3D printer and software. For beginners, you may choose Tinkercad. It is a free online collection of software tools that enable educators and students to create and make. We need to challenge the students to think and question critically.” 

Idris bin Abdul Talib (left) and Rema Regavan (right) encouraging participants to do interesting STEM-related activities in the classroom

Sekolah Izzuddin Shah, Ipoh teacher and MTSF Award Winner Idris bin Abdul Talib in his presentation titled, “Inovasi dalam Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Fizik SPM” spoke about innovative teaching method and his experience as a teacher in exposing students to STEM education through hands-on activities. He mentioned, “We can increase the students’ interest towards STEM education by incorporating hands-on activities in the classroom as these approaches will teach the students the meaning behind the theory while learning the application of science in real life.”

The session was followed by the last talk conducted by SMK Sultan Abdul Samad teacher Rema Regavan with the title “STEM Teaching Practices”. In her talk, she said, “Malaysian teachers need to know about the industrial revolution, 21^st century learners, Malaysian Education Blueprint, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), DSKP KSSM, STEM education, higher-order thinking skills and how to be an effective science or math teacher.”

She added, “The 4 C’s in 21^st-century learners are Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication. We need to train the students to find solutions to problems, to think outside the box, to work with others and to convey the ideas in their mind.”   

The symposium also featured parallel workshop session on “21st Century Technology in Teaching and Learning of Sciences” by Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris Prof Dr Rosly Jaafar and “Robotics Operating System - Introduction of ROS for use in Robotics” by UTAR lecturer Ir Danny Ng Wee Kiat

Malacca Matriculation College Mohd Izzat Iqbal bin Mohd Zahar said, “I may have the foundation and basic knowledge about robotics but with the opinions from other participants, I will be able to acquire more knowledge.  I will definitely join the upcoming symposium as it exposes me to more knowledge and helps me to network with other educators of different expertise.”

“SoSE helps me in terms of my professional development as it motivates me to continue teaching physics. I hope in the future SoSE would be more related to Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 and how teachers can integrate it with the syllabus so that students can engage with the environment and the industries,” said A. Thilagavathi from SMK (P) Taman Petaling.

Norlizawaty binti Baharin from Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah Putrajaya commented, “As a teacher, there is a need to improve my knowledge and skills along with the changes of time. We noticed that there is a decrease in student enrolment for STEM education, thus teachers are advised to take the initiatives to conduct various hands-on activities as well as giving students the exposures they need to increase their interest in STEM education.” 

Click here to watch SoSE 2019 video interview.