Promoting STEM education

THE Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) module is an approach taken to help boost interests in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects among students in the country.

The IBSE module developed by the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry is a step in the right direction.

It envisions a paradigm shift in the teaching and learning of science.

Prof Dr Yang Farina Abdul Aziz from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysa and also a fellow of the Academy Sciences of Malaysia (ASM), an agency under the ministry, underscored that the module advocates shifting the role of teachers from instructors to facilitators in raising students’ curiosity, creativity and reasoning by including them in the investigative and discovery process through experimentation.

“The approach is to get learners involved. We need to tap into the curious nature of children, encouraging them to identify problems, find possible explanations or solutions, build hypotheses that need to be tested, design solutions, conduct investigations, validate the hypotheses that have been made, and structure the knowledge to answer the questions that arise, and compare them with proven facts,” Yang Farina added.

She added that there was a method called the la main a la pate or the “hands on” approach founded by the French Academy of Sciences in 1996.

“It is about simple experiments that teachers can conduct in the classroom.

“This is where they can make an impact on their students because seeing is believing.

“Science is not about things that you don’t see, students get interested with what they can see, and when they are interested, they will start asking questions ... this is how we get students to be interested,” said Yang Farina.

In its effort to disseminate the knowledge, ASM in partnership with ExxonMobil recently organised a three-day workshop for teachers from all over the country, held concurrently with the National Science Challenge.

The effort is seen as crucial in fulfilling the country's aim of 60:40 ratio of Science stream students to non-science students as Malaysia looks towards achieving a STEMdriven economy by the government’s National Transformation 2050 (TN50) initiative. – Bernama