By Eszereen Juferi
Pictures by Marina Ismail

SERDANG, July 28 – Universiti Putra Malaysia Science Faculty has organized  a seminar r Bringing STEM To Live 2015 to inculcate interest among our students to take up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as their career of choice.

National Professor Council chief executive officer Datuk Raduan Che Ros expressed hope that the seminar will make studying Science to be more meaningful, and Malaysia a better nation.

“My hope is that UPM will continue with its relentless efforts to meet the nation’s objectives of targeting 60 per cent of children and youth to pick STEM as their study choice,” he said when opening STEM seminar at UPM Briefing Hall here.

He said the seminar provided a platform for researchers and academic institutions in Science and Mathematics to exchange ideas to introduce new and the latest methodology in the teaching and learnning of STEM.

“This (seminar) provides an avenue (for the participants) to relook at ways to improve and enhance the methodologies in the teaching of Science and Mathematics besides focusing on research and the latest findings in the field” he said.

Speakers who presented their working papers included those from the National Professor Council, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Universiti Malaya and Malaysian Industry-Goverment Group for High Technology (MIGHT). The forum moderator is Malaysia Science Academy (ASM) fellow, Prof. Dr. Mohd Basyaruddin Abdul Rahman.

UPM Physics Department lecturer from Science Faculty, Dr. Yap Wen Fen said he had been involved in STEM since 2012, expressing hoped that he could promote UPM STEM to students, locally and abroad.

“My hope is that the programme could be a source of inspiration for students to suceed in this field and that more experts who major in STEM could be produced as fewer students are presently taking up such courses,” he said.

He and his colleague, Dr. Suriati Paiman, presented a working paper entitled “UPM STEM: Initiatives, Implementation and Direction” with focus on UPM Science Faculty’s efforts to establish faculty students as facilitators for its STEM outreach programme which is being carried out with the involvement of secondary and primary students and to promote knowledge transfer among  faculty undergraduates.

Dr. Suriati said UPM STEM’s objective was to produce students who could make up STEM competitive human capital and to encourage UPM students to think in a more creative and critical manner so that they could make productive choices upon graduating.

“This seminar also helps in forming a network for them to achieve STEM mega activity that is beneficial to the community through strong cooperation and financial aid from external industries and organizations for the needs of STEM activities at the national level.

“Our main targets are researchers because they are the assets which will benefit STEM study in Malaysia and promote continuous STEM expertise, right from pre-schoolers to career options,” she said. - UPM.

Date of Input: | Updated: | hairul_nizam