SMK (L) Methodist, Penang recently signed a MoU with Penang STEM for the conduct of STEM programmes and activities by Penang STEM centres for lower secondary students in the school under the StepUP Initiative.
This Initiative was launched by Penang Chief Minister, YAB Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, in Sep 2019 with the objective of offering interesting and fun-learning STEM programmes to schools to spark interests in students in Science & Technology and to inspire more to opt for science streams at upper secondary level.
The Initiative was supported by Multi-National Corporations (MNCs), Large Local Corporations (LLCs) and Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which “adopted” schools by sponsoring the programmes/activities to be taken to schools.
For SMK (L) Methodist, however, the sponsorship was actually personally undertaken by Dato’ Ooi Boon Chye (former Senior Vice-President of Broadcom Inc) an old boy of the school who had earlier stepped forward to support the initiative and to help provide extra-curricular STEM-learning to students in his alma mater.
The MoU was signed earlier between School Senior Assistant, En V. Pethaperumal and General Manager of Penang STEM, Mr Richard Chung (refer pic).
The exchange of signed MoUs was conducted virtually in the presence of Deputy Education Officer, Datin Wan Zuraida Amiruddin, Acting School Principal, En Mohd Mursalin Ramli, Tech Dome Penang CEO, Mr William Khoo and Penang Math Platform General Manager, Mr Johnny Ong
Raising STEM Interests in SMK (L) Methodist (MBS)
The StepUp Initiative received a further boost with sponsorship of RM20,000 each by two sponsors for the schools in the Timur Laut district.
The StepUP Initiative is a collaboration between Penang STEM and the Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Timur Laut to seek corporate sponsorship from industry players to adopt schools and help fund hands-on STEM workshops and activities for lower secondary students to complement what they learn in schools. These are mainly aimed at sparking the interests of students in STEM-learning and to inspire more to opt for science (STEM) streams in form 4 and beyond.
At a special ceremony held at the Penang Math Platform in Bukit Glugor on July 08, Mr Lim Wei Khoe, Managing Director of Analog Devices Sdn Bhd handed over a sponsorship commemorative plaque to En Omar bin Abdul Rashid, Principal of Penang Free School whilst Mr Ng Kok Yu, Corporate Director of Globetronics Technology Sdn Bhd to Mrs Lim Geaik Hong, Principal of SMKJ Phor Tay. Present to witness the simple ceremony was Datin Wan Zuraida, Northeast District Deputy Learning Sector Officer, Tuan Abdul Said Hussain, Northeast District Deputy Planning Sector Officer, teachers and representatives from Tech Dome Penang, Penang Math Platform, Penang Skills Development Centre and Penang Digital Library who are participating centres under Penang STEM.
The General Manager of Penang STEM, Richard Chung took the opportunity to brief about a new STEM Learning From Home (SLFH) programme which will be launched as part of the StepUP Initiative from Aug – Nov, 2020 leading up to a STEM Grand Challenge which will be conducted during a STEM Showcase to be held in Dec 2020.
Instead of just online workshops which are currently being offered by many education players to students, the 4-month SLFH programme will include Monthly Challenges to assess the students knowledge and skills acquired from the various programmes conducted under 7 categories / subjects which will be offered for participation.
Scores will be accumulated over the 4 months to determine qualifiers for the STEM Grand Challenge which will be conducted in December just prior to the year-end school holidays.
Participation and merit certs (with co-curriculum points) will be offered to students whilst winners for each category will also receive prizes. A Challenge Trophy will be awarded to the best school based on the achievement of their participating students during the Grand Challenge.
Stay tuned for further updates soon!
Enquiries can be made via email to stepup.pstem@gmail.com.
StepUP Sponsorship for MBS by Dato’ Ooi Boon Chye
On 9 June 2020, Senior Vice President of Global operations at Broadcom, Dato Ooi Boon Chye handed a personal sponsorship of RM20,000 for Methodist Boy School (MBS) under the StepUP Initiative.
StepUP is a programme aimed at bringing interesting STEM-learning extra-curricular workshops and activities to schools in Penang to complement the teaching of Science and Mathematics in schools under the formal curriculum.
The programme aimed at sparking the interests of lower secondary students and inspiring them to pursue higher studies and future careers in related fields.
Under the StepUP Initiative, industry players such as MNCs, SMEs, local corporations and others adopt schools of their choice to help fund STEM programmes to be conducted by the 5 participating centres under Penang STEM, namely PSDC, TDP, CAT, PMP, and PDL
StepUP was jointly initiated by Penang STEM and the Penang Education Department through its North East District Office and was launched in September last year.
Dato’ Ooi also presented a sponsorship plaque to Dato’ Khoo Cheok Sin (Chairman of the MBS Board of Governors) which was witnessed by Mr. Richard Chung, General Manager of Penang STEM, Northeast District Deputy Education Officer Mr. Abdul Said, School Principal, Mr Lau Chong Beng and other school teachers.
In his short address, Dato’ Ooi said that he was happy to help out the school since it was his alma mater and it was aimed at encouraging students to excel in Mathematics and Science. “Nowadays, parents are too worried about their kids being under pressure for studying Mathematics which I personally think it is not true. We need more engineers in my company and so does the country.”
He also mentioned in his speech that he hopes to be able to carry on supporting the school. He hopes that the StepUP initiative could give the encouragement to the children to have more interest in Science and Mathematics.
Dato’ Ooi is currently responsible for managing Broadcom’s worldwide manufacturing, outsourcing, procurement, order management, planning and logistic, and Quality Organizations. He was also the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations from 2003 until 2008.
Prior to Xilinx, Boon Chye Ooi had a long and successful career at Intel Corporation and the held the position of Vice President of Intel’s Corporate Technology Group and Vice President of Intel’s Systems manufacturing group. In that role he led Intel’s Systems worldwide plant operations
The StepUp Initiative is a programme aimed at sparking the interests of lower secondary students in STEM-learning and inspiring them to pursue higher studies and future careers in related fields.
Under the StepUp Initiative, industry players adopt schools of their choice to fun STEM programmes to be conducted.
Dato Ooi’ is giving his speech regarding StepUP Sponsorship at Methodist Boys School.
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Official Launching of StepUP INITIATIVE (13 September 2019)
We are delighted to have both the Chief Minister, YAB Tuan Chow Kon Yeow & Deputy Chief Minister II , YB Prof Dr P Ramasamy for the launch of our Penang STEM StepUP Initiative, a programme to nurture future STEM talents by sparking the interests of lower secondary students towards STEM-learning and to inspire them to opt for science stream in upper secondary & beyond. Thank you also to our Pioneer Sponsors: Inari Amertron, Flextronics, Greatech Integration, Mi Technovation, Motorola Solutions, Pentamaster & VAT Manufacturing for stepping up to support this Initiative.