In a bid to support Malaysia’s goal of growing the interest of children in STEM-related curriculums from its current rate of 47% to its goal of 60%, the nation’s first STEM Edutainment Academy, 5T3M is on a mission to create greater awareness around STEM education amongst Malaysia’s young trailblazers by utilising gamification and interactivity.
This is what 5T3M looked to achieve with the recent first-of-its-kind STEM Avengers Carnival targeted at children from ages 3 to 15. ]
While Malaysia is moving towards the future with technological advances, there is still a majority of our population who are unaware of the positive outcomes that STEM can provide to children. 5T3M’s STEM education academy is designed to help children gain the skills required to succeed in the 21st century. This includes a wide variety of soft skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, creativity, digital literacy, and more.
The STEM Avengers Carnival which was held from June 4th to June 12th focused on allowing children to explore the multiverse of Science and Technology at their academy located in Starling Mall. The superhero-themed carnival looked to cultivate children’s inner creativeness through 5T3M’s gamification and application-based workshops and activities.
5T3M believes this unique approach to science and technology helps drive children’s natural curiosity, passion and creativity rather than rely on a rigid curriculum. With 1000 participants attending the carnival, the event has been viewed as a stepping stone to further solidify 5T3M and STEM subjects within the community.
“As a team, it was great to see our slots fully booked throughout the week. We genuinely believe STEM is the way forward for children, families and the nation as a whole. We know there is more to be done to keep the cultivation alive to build these trailblazers for the future and equip them with the required knowledge to solve real-life challenges, “said Mr EH Lim, Founder and CEO of 5T3M Edutainment Academy and Centre.
The nine-day carnival was focused mainly on creating an environment for children to ‘play and learn’ about robotics, coding, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (A.IOT), sciences and entertainment tech through engaging activities. Some of the mini-challenges included were to empower children to complete these missions using simple problem-solving skills, develop their motor skills by piloting drones and experience technology via virtual reality (VR) and 3D printing. Through these activities, children were not only able to explore the multi-dimensional world but also develop and strengthen their cognitive skills.
Beyond this, to provide better insight to parents who attended the STEM Avengers Carnival, 5T3M also invited guest speakers to share more on the evolving STEM sector in Malaysia.
Some of the speakers include Chui Ling, a celebrity entrepreneur, host, speaker and TV personality, Eleanor Cheah, a computational thinking specialist, master trainer, and educator, Mohd Farid Mohamed, 3D Printing specialist, master trainer and chief technical expert at Cuberlab, and Paul Siew, a specialist in product and industrial design and founder of Formventor.
In Chui Ling’s session, ‘Does My Child Need STEM’, she commented, “Understanding STEM helps kids thrive in a tech-heavy environment. With the rise of the technical and digital age, kids need to have a basic appreciation and knowledge of STEM to succeed in an ever-changing world and to be solution-oriented, enabling them to float rather than sink in any situation.”
Meanwhile, Eleanor Cheah echoed similar sentiments, stating, “In a space like 5T3M, children are able to learn future skills to not only be future-ready but to also have transferable knowledge which can be used in their everyday life. For example, coding helps children problem-solve. Understanding computers and learning the basics of coding helps children to develop an appreciation of how things work. It also teaches them how software engineers use maths in order to solve problems in a logical and creative way.”
Experiencing a significant increase in walk-ins over the last few months, rising about 50% from month to month, 5T3M is in the midst of rapidly growing its presence in the local scene.
The success of the academy can be attributed to the researched and futuristic educational approach which emphasises individual development with modern technology for children. Creating a conducive learning environment, 5T3M hopes to carry forward this effective strategy by bringing in-home STEM experience with their eTutor programmes’ home-based learning tools.
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