OUTREACH

Education is a human right NOT a privilege. Education is the architecture of the soul. Education is for ALL. Therefore, I strongly believe  as educators our responsibility is to educate  everybody in the world without any discriminating based on gender, age, race and origin . This has driven me to be a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) ambassador. My aim is to share the knowledge, skill and experience that I have with as many people as possible and at the same time inspire the younger generation to love science. In order to become a STEM ambassador in the UK, we have to undergo a series of proper training, where we were taught on how to deal with different levels of public (from kids to elderly), engage them with STEM activities, communication skill, pitching, preparing exciting exhibition materials, safety issue to be considered and some do's and dont's as STEM ambassador. The courses were very helpful and interesting! Upon completion of the courses, then only we were allowed to do the outreach program in order to engage with the public. I was really lucky to get the opportunity to join a number of outreach program when I read my PhD at Keele University. One of the most exciting event that I joined was called "The Big Bang UK Young Scientist and Engineers Fair". This is a huge 4 days event taking place annually in NEC, Birmingham. There was thousand of visitors from parents, kids, teachers, investors, suppliers, scientists and engineers walked in and out. No doubt it was a total energy drained, but super duper exciting! Besides this event, I had also serve myself as STEM ambassador during the university open day, bioreactor short course and some outreach programs conducted at the schools as well as during the visit of the students to the institute I worked in. For me, STEM is simply amazing. It is the getaway to provide education for all! It is really important for us as educators to translate our deep knowledge in some specific area into a layman term understandable by everyone. Recently, I have also being an advisor for the science projects to our local high schools and colleges. Last year, the group of students from Kolej Mara Kulim (KMK) under my supervision had won a silver medal for the science fair at the national level. Good for them. I wished we could encourage more youngsters to get involve with STEM activities in the future as I believe education start at young age and develop throughout the lifetime. It does not happen overnight. Everybody has to play their own role in nurturing the next generation of nation. It is wonderful if we can also incorporate the arts element together with STEM and create STEAM! Hopefully one day we will have our own STEAM@USM team as this will perfectly reflect our vision in " Transforming higher education for a sustainable tomorrow". How can we transform knowledge to layman term? How can we serve the country using our expertise besides those black and white documents? How can we nurture our nation? How can we contribute to the development of society? These are the the food for thought that all of us as educators should ponder in crafting the next generation...