





First of all, this project has been well planned and about to be organized until a serious pandemic which is the Covid-19 virus was spreading all over the world. Due to such unexpected tragedy, the entire plan got shelved. At first, the entire group members were very concerned that this project will be halted as well. We had to change the prospect and make slight amendments regarding this STEM project. However, the determination from each of us has made this project to go on through online. We also had our lecturer backing us up in order for us to get things done in the best way.
To be honest, conducting such activities virtually is very dreadful. We had tough times communicating with our own members so imagine the situation we went through to communicate with the participants. Disregarding all the challenges we went through, we still did not manage to attract enough participants for this activity. In order for us to attract as many participants as possible, we made posters, prepared some attractive prizes for winners and also certificates for every participants. That is when we manage to get an adequate amount of participants since most of them had a motive of winning the cash prizes as well. Those participants who joined this activity are very talented as each one of them had their own idea of innovation which was very mesmerizing to me since they were all just primary school students.
I was in control directly of finding and communicating with judges regarding their innovations. Despite the hard-hitting time, I was able to recruit 3 judges for our competition who are Dr. Nik Nazri, Dr. Sayuti and Dr. Ridha. All of them were very patient and cooperative throughout this project. Although they were only given about 4 days to evaluate every candidate’s innovation, they really did a splendid job which something to be applauded of. Honestly, I learned a lot throughout this STEM project. It is a good experience to gain since you are dealing with people outside and also develop your management skills which may be influential in future.
My name is Goh Yong Qing, currently a mechanical engineering undergraduate in University of Malaya, holding a matric number of KIG180039. I was one of the members in organising the STEM DIHATIKU programme, but it in fact was not the original plan from us. We, 10 in a group from the mechanical department, were formed to complete the project in our social engagement subject. The group consists of members from different races and gender. Our ultimate mission was to carry out social activities for the course taken, not only to promote social engagement in our daily life for university students, but indirectly to influence the community outside the varsity.
Planning stage
At first, our thoughts were to either have some sort of seminars in secondary school to aid in boosting their knowledge especially in the field of science or to visit a certain orphanage home and hold a sports day for the orphans. But it didn’t turn out to be that due to the sudden and silent enemy- covid-19 virus that had wrecked the havoc of this country in the middle of March. The announcement of MCO by the prime minister after the outbreak of the pandemic in Malaysia had affected our original plan. Students were stunned, neither the lecturer nor us knew when will all the schools and classes resume to normal. Once it had been confirmed that all the mass gathering and physical outdoor activities were strictly prohibited throughout the MCO period, we had no choice but to wait for further announcement from the faculty. We ended up with a proposed idea in handling an online carnival called KARNIVAL STEM DIHATIKU. There were few competitions in the carnival and thanks to Mr. Nurhafizan, our group had voted successfully for one of them, namely Pertandingan Rekacipta Dan Inovasi STEM & Teknologi Hijau. We were all fresh, new and ignorant about this concept, a brand new competition which is fully online. However, we happened to go through every situation and after several times of meetings and discussions, we were able to distribute the job evenly.
Execution stage
The promotional posters and captions were able to attract some secondary schools to register their interest in sending participants for the competition. Among the schools participating in our competition were SASER, MRSM Parit, MRSM Tun Dr Ismail and etc. At this stage, I would like to stress on more of my role in this project. All I did for this social engagement project was little, but it played an important part like others in completing this project. I was assigned to make sure all the participants uploaded their product or outcome to the google drive which would be further gathered and compiled for judges to evaluate. Starting from creating a google drive, I actually did a tutorial video guide on how to upload files and documents to google drive, just to ensure every participant was able to upload their product without any issues. Besides, I did send some reminders to participants to have them sufficiently informed about the due date and other important information. I used to keep myself updated in our whatsapp group chat and always keeping tabs on our progress. I hardly faced issues in completing tasks, however it didn’t mean the same for my other group members. They were facing some obstacles initially, to recruit participants, to look for judges and to conduct the online closing ceremony was not something easy. Fortunately, everything was just fine with objectives achieved in a good ending. Even on the closing ceremony, there were technical issues at times, but the technical team was able to deal with the problems calmly and around 80 attendees were recorded in our online closing ceremony and also the prize giving session. In my opinion, it was a remarkable session and could be considered as a successful one for this very first online social engagement project.
Post-event stage
After the closing ceremony, our team had prepared a feedback form for the participants to collect ideas and thoughts from the public, so we could analyse our event and hopefully come out with recommendations for the next coming event, if any.
Conclusion
I would like to address my appreciation of every member that has been a part of this event. Social engagement projects are a great platform for students to learn, in the meanwhile helping out the community. I would mark my ending with a thank you to all the lecturers, who have been guiding us and always be with us under any up and down. I sincerely hope to see this kind of project in the coming future. Thank you!
Pada mulanya, kami ingin menjalankan aktiviti penjalinan sosial ini di pusat pusat kebajikan seperti di tempat pemulihan kanser atau rumah anak-anak yatim, tetapi di sebabkan covid-19, banyak institusi telah menolak perancangan kami untuk melaksanakan aktiviti tersebut. Pada 23 Mac, akibat penularan wabak korona virus, program yang dirancang terpaksa dilaksanakan secara atas talian. Pelbagai pengalaman baharu yang dapat saya pelajari melalui pelaksanaan projek ini, antaranya adalah perihal kerjasama dalam kumpulan. Pada mulanya, semasa perbincangan di google meet pada 14 April, pelaksanaan projek STEM secara atas talian adalah agak sukar untuk digambarkan, dan ramai yang tidak memahami bagaimana projek ini akan dilaksanakan. Disebabkan kami hanya berpeluang untuk menghubungi antara satu sama lain secara atas talian sahaja, kerjasama dan komitmen daripada semua pihak adalah agak sukar untuk diperoleh, walaubagaimanapun, atas usaha pensyarah, ketua kumpulan dan semua ahli, program masih dapat dilaksanakan dengan jayanya. Kami, kumpulan stem 5 telah memutuskan untuk membuat pertandingan reka cipta inovasi teknologi hijau.
Saya ditugaskan untuk membuat poster bagi program karnival stem dihatiku, disebabkan kami masih cuba untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan cara baru iaitu aktiviti secara atas talian, sistem pendaftaran agak mengelirukan kerana banyak pertandingan yang dijalankan di bawah satu program. Selain itu, antara masalah yang kami hadapi sepanjang pelaksanaan program adalah bilangan penyertaan yang tidak memuaskan. Namun, hal ini dapat difahami kerana tidak semua pelajar mempunyai akses kepada internet dan disebabkan pertandingan ini memerlukan penggunaan perisian baharu iaitu TinkerCad, program ini perlu dihadkan bagi pelajar yang mempunyai internet dan komputer riba sahaja. Pada pendapat saya, untuk meningkatkan bilangan penyertaan, pertandingan yang dilaksanakan hanya memerlukan pelajar untuk membentangkan idea masing-masing melalui video sahaja. Dengan ini, dapat memudahkan pelajar untuk menyertai pertandingan kerana mereka tidak perlu memuat turun apa-apa aplikasi.Seterusnya, pada pendapat saya, pertandingan ini sebaik-baiknya melaksanakan sistem mentor mentee, setiap pelajar akan mendapat mentor masing-masing yang terdiri daripada pelajar UM. Pelajar sekolah yang menyertai pertandingan akan mendapat bimbingan yang lebih dalam membentuk idea-idea baharu dan mereka juga secara tidak langsung dapat mempelajari benda baharu daripada mentor masing-masing. Pada pendapat saya, sistem ini akan dapat meningkatkan lagi interaksi antara pelajar UM dan komuniti.
Fasa akhir
Untuk majlis penutup, banyak juga perkara yang dilakukan pada saat akhir, jadi keadaan agak kelam kabut kerana perlu buat poster, surat jemputan dan sijil. Hal ini mungkin disebabkan aktiviti yang dilakukan secara atas talian, jadi, ahli kumpulan kurang peka dengan apa yang berlaku pada pertandingan tersebut kerana hal pertandingan hanya dikemaskini melalui whatsapp berbanding dengan apabila melakukan aktiviti secara berdepan, ahli akan jadi lebih peka. Disebabkan aktivti secara atas talian juga, tempoh untuk melaksanakan program juga lebih lama, dengan tugasan-tugasan yang perlu dihabiskan untuk subjek-subjek lain, lebih banyak kerja yang perlu dilakukan.
Kesimpulannya, pelaksanaan program Karnival STEM di Hatiku secara atas talian tidak lah mudah dan masih banyak yang boleh diperbaiki. Namun begitu, program masih dapat dilaksanakan dengan jaya atas usaha semua pihak. Ini merupakan pengalaman baru yang menarik dan tidak akan dilupakan. Saya berharap agar projek akan datang dapat membuat aktiviti yang menyeronokkan yang lebih melibatkan interaksi dengan komuniti luar dan dapat memberi impak yang positif kepada masyarakat.