Computational thinking is regarded as an essential 21st century skill that students of all levels need to master because education is evolving towards meeting the IR 4.0’s technological demands. In order to produce individuals who are able to thrive in this digitally emerging society, starting 2017, coding has been added to the national curriculum for the primary and secondary level students. The instructional modules are aimed to encourage students to use logical and computational thinking so that they are able to solve problems given to them using programming applications such as Scratch.
This new change in the national curriculum has fueled the interest of lecturers, Dr. Corrienna Abdul Talib (Program Director), Dr. Chuzairy Hanri and postgraduate scholars from the Departments of Science, Mathematics and Creative Multimedia, the School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSH), UTM to explore how coding can be integrated in the curriculum, not only to foster computational thinking, but also to augment the interest and consequently improve academic achievement. With the collaboration of Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor (JPNJ) and Digi Telecommunications, Sdn. Bhd, a state level community outreach programme called ‘Scratchtopia Challenge 2019’ was conducted among secondary school students from various districts in Johor. ‘Scratchtopia Challenge’ was open for Form Four students who take up the chemistry subject, and the participants of the challenge were required to create a Form 4 or 5 chemistry content-based presentation, including notes and quiz/games using the ‘Scratch 2.0’ programming tool.
Starting from 21st March to 13th June 2019, the programme was conducted in several phases for approximately three months. Around 52 secondary schools were selected with the help of Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri Johor (JPNJ) and an invitation letter was sent to all the shortlisted schools. Fourteen teams from seven schools confirmed their participation and took part in the challenge.
Prior to the programme briefing, six facilitators of the programme who presently are postgraduate students of a Technology in Chemistry Education course went through Scratch 2.0 intensive training. The briefing of ‘Scratchtopia Challenge’ was held at the Raja Zarith Sofiah Library, UTM on April 9, 2019. Following the briefing, all the participants of ‘Scratchtopia Challenge 2019’ were divided into two groups according to their respective venues in the ‘Scratch 2.0 Workshop’ . The first group of students attended ‘Scratch 2.0 Workshop’ on 13th April 2019 at Cempaka Internet Centre, Kempas. Meanwhile the second batch’s workshop was held at Kampung Sri Jaya Internet Centre at Tampoi on April 20, 2019. Both workshops were conducted from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm and all the students were accompanied by their committed teachers. The venues for both workshops were provided by Digi Telecommunications, Sdn. Bhd.
Throughout the workshop sessions, the participants never failed to be enthusiastic in learning how to simply code using ‘Scratch 2.0’, although they were never exposed to any form of programming applications before. Even though the workshop session stretched for long hours, we were amazed with their high energy level and eagerness in exploring these new skills. Their excitement and enjoyment were reflected from their happy faces even until the end of the workshop. Subsequent from the workshop sessions, all the participants were given a month to complete their ‘chemistry scratch project’ and submit it to the organizing committee with a deadline of May 27, 2019.
We, the organizers and executors, were astonished with the creativity and talent showed by the participants in completing their projects. Undeniably, all the participants had really invested hard work and commitment in completing their project. Elements such as voice input, interactive games and animations were added to their projects and these were really impressive and exceeded our expectation. Not forgetting, kudos to their teachers who tirelessly assisted and encouraged them throughout the challenge.
The prize giving cum closing ceremony of ‘Scratchtopia Challenge 2019’ was held at Dewan Alumni, UTM on the 13th of June 2019 and was officiated by Prof. Madya, Dr. Azlina Binti Mohd Kosnin, the Chair of the School of Education. SMK Ayer Tawar, Kota Tinggi walked away with the first prize worth RM 300 cash value, while the second and third prizes each with cash worth RM 200 and RM 100 respectively. These were given to the teams from SMK Tunku Putra, Batu Pahat. All the other participating teams were awarded with a consolation prize which was a hamper with certificates and goody bags from Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd.
With the success of ‘Scratchtopia Challenge 2019’, we look forward to conducting more programmes that will not only benefit the participants, but also bring UTM closer to the community. For more details and future collaboration please contact Dr Corrienna Abdul Talib, corrienna@utm.my.
Authored by Parimalah Shanmugan, Dr Corrienna Abdul Talib and Dr. Rainer Zawadzki.