Sandakan school wins state-level National Science Challenge 2018

KOTA KINABALU: Three students from SMK Sung Siew of Sandakan have won the Sabah state-level National Science Challenge (NSC) 2018.

Under the tutelage of their teacher Moh Sin Yee, Form Four students Mitrina Ernestal, Jensen Jung and Rania Florian beat four other teams to move on to the semifinal round. The SMK Sung Siew students, who were tested through a math and science quiz and presentation, impressed the judges with their teamwork and sound understanding of math, physics, chemistry and biology subjects.

The annual NSC is the nation's foremost significant Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based competition for Form Four science students.

Students compete in teams of three, accompanied by a mentor teacher to support them through the different rounds of the challenge.

Organised by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) with the support of the ExxonMobil Subsidiaries in Malaysia, the programme aims to promote greater interest in STEM among students and encourage STEMrelated choices for their tertiary education and future career.

“ExxonMobil is proud to partner with ASM in this exciting competition as part of our long term investment in the development of Malaysia¡¦s human capital. We believe that the NSC can play a significant role in cultivating passion and interest in science, technology and innovation among students,” said Sukiman Mohamed, general manager of public and government affairs, ExxonMobil Subsidiaries in Malaysia.

“We also invest in STEM teacher training and development as we believe that great teachers are critical to the success of our students and their future careers,” he added. The Sabah team will now compete at the semi-finals in Johor Bahru from August 9 to 15 with 15 other state level winners. The semifinalist teams will be part of sevenday residential science camp hosted by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at its Skudai campus.

With the theme of “Smart Community”, students will be challenged to carry out research and assignments including producing solutions that could support and create a smart community environment.

The four teams with the highest scores at the end of the semi-finals camp will go on to compete in the Grand Final in Kuala Lumpur where they stand a chance to win the grand prize of a study visit to Stockholm, Sweden and witness the prestigious Nobel Prize Award Ceremony held each year on December 10.

While the students battle it out at the semifinals in Johor Bharu, their mentor teachers will get to participate in a sixday Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) workshop.

Teachers play a key role in igniting interest among their students for STEM subjects and the workshop aims to build on the teachers¡¦ knowledge and further strengthen their STEM education lesson plans through an interactive inquiry learning experience.

This is the second consecutive year where teacher's workshop is included in the semi-finals camp programme.

The 18 mentor teachers will be introduced to interactive education methods and trained in the use of online labs and inquiry learning.

The Sabah leg of the National Science Challenge 2018 saw 15 students representing five teams from six Sabah schools.