This year, this carnival was led by ChM. Dr. Mohd Akmali Mokhter, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, UTM as a programme director after three years of being on hiatus mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This carnival aims to attract secondary school students to love chemistry and science subjects by joining fun and interactive activities and games. Besides, K2M also serves as a medium for the students to know more about the chemistry field in the actual career world, mainly as a scientist and a good knowledge for the society of Johor state to explore this field.
By organising such a carnival, students can also express their creativity and innovative skills through the competitions held by the organiser. More than 750 secondary school students and teachers from all around Johor (Johor Bahru, Muar, Batu Pahat, Kluang, Mersing and other districts) have participated in this carnival.
It was reported that 683 students and 96 teachers have registered for the carnival by participating in the competitions and experiencing a lot of fun and exciting activities held by different exhibition booths from various departments like chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics.
There were a lot of interactive chemistry and science activities conducted by researchers, lecturers and science officers from the Faculty of Science, like acid-base reaction demonstration, glassware blowing demonstration, etc.
The most interesting and exciting parts were the competitions held during this carnival, which included the Chemdemo- Chemistry Demonstration Competition, Crime Scene Investigation Competition, Periodic Table Games, Chemistry in Living Lab Competition, 3 Minutes Chemistry Competition and Chemistry Olympiad.
All the competitions were held for lower and upper-form students. The students showed great effort towards this competition, where it can be seen most of them came to the carnival well prepared and equipped with many props and materials to be presented.
The carnival kick-started with the ‘Meet the Scientist Talk’ by the former Dean of the Faculty of Science UTM, Prof. ChM. Dr. Zaiton Abd Majid.
It was a great session that discovered school students’ passion and enthusiasm towards chemistry and science field. It can be seen during the Q&A session, where many students asked remarkable questions to the speaker.
After that, a talk related to the safety measures in the laboratory was also given by Assoc. Prof. ChM. Dr. Jafariah Jaafar, one of the most active OSHE CHRA auditors, aimed for the school teachers who teach chemistry or science subjects in the school laboratory.
Jabatan Kimia Malaysia Johor also participated in this carnival by opening an exhibition booth for the visitors. A lot of visitors were interested to know more about the chemistry-related job.
All the participants from 44 secondary schools and competition winners from different schools around Johor were acknowledged during the closing ceremony of K2M, which was officiated by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) of UTM, Prof. Dr Mohd Shafry Mohd Rahim.
The Dean of the Faculty of Science UTM, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shafinaz Shahir and IKM(S) committees also attended this closing event.
The closing was completed with a gimmick performance related to the chemistry reduction-oxidation reaction and montage video.
We hope that this K2M is beneficial and has become one of the best platforms for all the students to explore more about chemistry subjects. K2M can be held on a bigger scale with more participation from other schools and communities from all over Johor in future.
