Developing interest in STEM through 3MSPC

In order to enhance the interest of school students towards STEM in Terengganu state, a Mentor-Mentee Programme which aims to support the agenda of the nation as well as Terengganu state was organised by mentors from the STEM Foundation Center, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and mentees from schools all around Terengganu. To further understand the mentor-mentee programme, a webinar titled “Developing Interest in STEM through Peers Mentor-Mentee Programme” was organised during the e-KLESF 2021 on 26 October 2021 via Zoom and Facebook Live.

Invited to be the speaker for the webinar was UMT STEM Foundation Centre Dean Assoc Prof Dr Laili binti Haji Che Rose.

Dr Laili began her webinar by providing a brief introduction on UMT with a corporate video presentation. She also shared the experience of UMT taking part in the KLESF from the year 2017-2018.

“The three main focuses today include what Mentor-Mentee Programme is about, why we conduct the Mentor-Mentee Programme and how we conduct it,” said Dr Laili.

She then explained the current issues faced in the STEM field such as the decrease in the number of students choosing the STEM fields; students’ perspective on STEM (regarded as difficult subjects); the exposure to STEM applications in daily life is not widespread and the graduates produced do not meet the requirements.

Dr Laili said, “3M (Mentor, Mentee, Mentor) STEM Peers Coaching (3MSPC) is the name of our Mentor-Mentee Programme. It aimed to enhance school students’ interest in STEM and advocate them to be interested in STEM. They may not know STEM in school, but they are exposed to activities about Science and Mathematics in their daily lives so we explain it to them.” She then shared a video on “Mentor-Mentee STEM 2016” to further explain how the programme was carried out.

She continued, “Our STEM foundation students are students who have just completed their SPM. So in 3MSPC, they will be the mentor for Form 3 and Form 5 students. We chose Form 3 and Form 5 students so that we can see the results of running this programme with school students and measure its impact.”

According to Dr Laili, the objectives of 3MSPC include expanding access to STEM learning in rural communities, especially among low-income families; strengthening the STEM field in the state of Terengganu and encouraging students to choose the STEM field at their next level.

“School students from rural areas are brought into UMT and we give them the opportunity to be in the laboratory. They will conduct experiments and learn from the mentor so that they will be able to relate to STEM knowledge. It will arouse their interest to find out more and this will directly open their minds and attract their interest in STEM,” said Dr Laili.

She said, “There are two parties involved in this programme. Each party will have their own facilitator. For mentors, the facilitator will be a lecturer or research officer. Whereas the facilitator of the mentee will be their school teacher.”

She then continued by sharing how they measure the effectiveness of 3MSPC with students’ achievement and students’ enrolment in Science subjects. Testimonials from participating students were also shared during her presentation. According to Dr Laili, a new module on the Ocean is expected to be released next year, which will be carried out with 3MSPC in the whole of Terengganu. She also further shared how they continued 3MSPC via online platforms and developed apps in game mode during the pandemic. Currently, they have also expanded their mentor-mentee programme by introducing it to the special needs students to ensure that they were not left behind.