Unimas’ CreativeCulture project receives research grant

KOTA SAMARAHAN: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak ( Unimas) was recently awarded a prestigious research grant under the Newton UK- SEA programme for the CreativeCulture project, collaboration between Unimas and Coventry University, UK.

The project is being funded under the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) UK and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia ( MoHE).

It aims to address educational challenges within the context of inclusive and playful learning for learners from the rural parts of Sarawak.

It also aims to explore, exploit and experiment on the impact of arts, design and culture in enhancing creative thinking and development in education (primary and secondary) through game design and computational thinking as an approach and instrument for fostering creative problem-solving and transcultural practices in Malaysia.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is an important agenda for Malaysia.

In recent years, the number of takers for sciencebased programmes has been decreasing, and it is in the interest of the country to encourage a positive uptake of science, technology and mathematics among young and adult learners alike.

The seriousness of the STEM agenda in Malaysia is evident in its educational system design, originating as far back as the 1970s.

The CreativeCulture project is organising a one- day workshop next week, to engage with educators and those who are keen to learn about strategies to enable innovative thinking through creativity.

The workshop will be led by Prof Dr Sylvester Arnab and his team from Coventry University.

The local leader for the project is Dr Jacey-Lynn Minoi from the Computer Science Department at Unimas.

The workshop will be held on Wednesday, Aug 16 at Unimas’ Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology.

Details about the programme can be accessed at http://mycapsule. my The project team may be contacted at gamemaster@ mycapsule.my