STEM Literacy Course – Exhibition held at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur (UTMKL) campus with CCSL

Sathiabama T. Thirugnana

Wednesday, 13 February 2019 – A co-curriculum Booth Exhibition Day was held on 13th February 2019 at UTM Kuala Lumpur campus which involved all the co-curriculum clubs to set up their booths to display and talk about their clubs. During this event, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) STEM Literacy students had also set up a booth to exhibit and share information as well as news about the STEM Literacy course. The event was held at the MJIIT (Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology) building foyer which started from 11 am to 4 pm. For this event, a group of students from the STEM Literacy course were selected to be in-charge of the process and the flow of the event. The team consisted of 12 students from the Industrial Design course. The event involved all members of the STEM Literacy course (30 students) as well as two (2) lecturers of the course which were Ts. Dr. Sathiabama T. Thirugnana as the lecturer and Dr. Mohamed Azlan Suhot as the assistant lecturer.

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[Photo 1: The team in-charge of the Booth Exhibition Day]

The participation of the STEM Literacy course in this event was mainly driven by several objectives. One of the main objectives of setting up the booth was to use the booth as a platform that helped to promote and educate others about STEM education. It is important that the public has a better understanding on what STEM Literacy course is all about and how the members of the club contribute to society. In addition, this will also help develop social responsibilities among students. Consequently, this will help to encourage more students to participate in STEM Literacy activities. Another objective of participating in this event was to inculcate leadership skills, communication skills and presentation skills of the students who are involved in the event. The objectives were successfully achieved through the participation in the program as those involved were directly in charge of mending the booth and interacting with the visitors are required to demonstrate and explain STEM-related activities that were carried out at the booth.

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[Photo 2: The students of the STEM Literacy course preparing the necessary items for the exhibition]

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[Photo 3: One of the members of the STEM Literacy course explaining to the visitors]

The audience who visited the STEM Literacy booth during this event include degree and diploma students of UTMKL, lecturers, staff as well as other visitors at the campus.

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[Photo 4: A UTMKL lecturer visiting the STEM Literacy booth]

During the event, the STEM Literacy course students also carried out several activities related to STEM education. These activities were carried out to give the audience a better understanding on STEM education and how STEM subjects could be taught in a fun yet informative ways. Three (3) activities were carried out physically by the members along with a video presentation shown displaying other types of STEM-related experiments and activities. The activities that were carried out physically at the booth were Paperclip on Water, Oobleck Clay and Matchstick Rocket. These activities showed different STEM-related elements. Carrying out the activities have attracted many visitors to the booth and sparked their interest to find out more about STEM Literacy course, which was indeed a positive thing.

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[Photo 4: The layout of the STEM related activities at the booth]

The visitors that came to the booth were also given a chance to carry out the activities themselves as the procedures were also provided. What’s more, this gave the visitors a first-hand experience on STEM-related activities as well as hands-on experience on STEM-related activities.

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[Photo 5: The Paperclip on Water activity carried out by students]

The booth set up by the STEM Literacy students was a big achievement for every individual who was involved in the event. Besides being able to share information about STEM education through this event, the relationship among the members and lecturers of STEM Literacy course also became better and stronger as they learnt to communicate with one another and to work together as a team to make this booth exhibition a success.