National Science Challenge (NSC)

Through the activities implemented in NSC, students who participated benefited and gain knowledge from new ideas, trends, and demands in STEM subjects. NSC also increased the awareness on science and showed that science is fun to the students who attended the NSC Grand Final.

Recommendation:

• To increase number of schools participating, especially from rural schools.

• To include new activities for NSC  every year, in accordance with the current STEM subjects.

Improvements made:

New awards for achievements at different level were given to students as follows:

• top 750 students nationwide were awarded a Certificate of Achievement for their outstanding achievements. There were three categories which are Gold, Silver and Bronze.
• Green School Award
• Best Innovation Award

New strategic partners:

• Persatuan Sains Matematik (PERSAMA)
• MYSTEM Ambassador
• Global Environment Centre (GEC)
• Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Sabah (KSTI)
  – In collaboration with KSTI, NSC Sabah State Level was held from 16 to 17 July in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) in increasing awareness and interest in STEM among the Sabah students.

Implementation of new components as follows:
Introducing the Green Innovation Prototype by constructing an actual prototype based on the theme of Water Management to solve issues in their own school. The best five teams with the prototype were awarded cash, whereas the Champion for the Green Innovation prototype was awarded National River Care Fund (NRCF) Grant to carry out the proposed project immediately on a larger scale and was required to submit a report within six months.

Challenges:

• Keeping students engaging during the virtual bootcamps at the Semi Final Level. Compared to when this bootcamp was held on-site, virtual activities required a different set of online activities to ensure students are enjoying the sessions.
• The duration of science lectures and workshop were distributed equally to ensure that students were able to focus and engage well during the virtual bootcamp.

The following are the future plans and way forward for NSC:

• To collaborate with MOE’s DidikTV to promote and broadcast the 2023 NSC Grand Final.
• To build a stronger network with NSC’s stakeholders such as KPM, Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) and Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri (JPN).
• To include more “hands-on” activities during the Semi Final Level virtual bootcamp.
• The winners will participate in a study visit to Japan in May 2023.