Welcoming School Holidays by Studying in the Nature
STEM Education Center UPI successfully held the STEM Camp 2021 program which is held from December 13-15, 2021 located at the Sari Ater Camping Park, Subang, West Java. STEM Camp 2021 was attended by some junior and senior high school students throughout Bandung Raya. STEM Camp 2021 is an activity for learning while playing in nature. With the theme of Environmental Sustainability, the participants got new experiences in solving problems given that related to the Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (World Health Organization, 2015). With very good enthusiasm, the STEM Camp 2021 was very positively appreciated by the participants.
The first day of activities, Monday December 13, 2021, was opened with introductory games which are very exciting and also challenging. In this game, they are required to find out who the person who wrote from the hidden paper is. Furthermore, the participants received lectures on Environmental Sustainability from Mrs. Irma Rahma Suwarma, Ph.D. (Head of STEM Education Center UPI).
The activity then continued with Scientific Process in form of group discussion on problem-solving to reduce the impact of landslides catastrophe to the residentials. Each group before making a prototype looked for materials to test the example of a landslide by walking around the camping ground. After that the activity continued by Engineering Process in a form building prototypes that could reduce the reduce the impact, each group also presented the results of their prototype all other participants of STEM Camp. The activity lasted until the night, but the enthusiasm of the participants did not diminish at all. Then, the first day closed with a BBQ together.
The second day’s activities, Wednesday December 14, 2021, were no less exciting than the first day. On the second day, participants received lectures from Mrs. Dr. Lilik Hasanah, S.Si., M.Si. (Physics Lecturer from UPI) regarding Computational Thinking as an introduction and motivation in using the 4D Frame Mechatronics. Then participants in groups are faced with a problem as another Scientific Process. The problem given was that the participants seemed to be an engineer from a big outdoor vehicle company in Indonesia. For the Engineering Process, they must be able to offer prototypes of the best evacuation vehicles to the BNPB (National Evacuation and Catastrophes Agency) to be able to save victims and be able to pass through extreme routes when natural disasters occur. Similar to the previous day, the participants were very enthusiastic about making an evacuation car prototype capable of crossing extreme trajectories.
On the last day, participants were given the freedom to enjoy the facilities at Sari Ater Camping Park. During the activity, the committee did not forget to apply the health protocol as our effort to fight the current pandemic. Before the activity was carried out, all STEM Camp 2021 participants carried out antigen SWAB and during the activity wore masks. To find out the excitement of the activity, don’t forget to check the video below!
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See you in next activity!