Hello, guys!

I am Fatimah Nopriardy from Indonesia. I am a Science Teacher and also Vice-Coordinator for the Science Laboratory at my school.

I am so glad to be invited as contributor for #STEMDiscoveryWeek . I hope it could engage our vision and mission in STEM together.

So, let me explain about STEM in Indonesia based on my experiences as a Science Teacher with International Baccalaureate and Cambridge curriculum.

First, I take a chance that leads me to improve my STEM passion by teaching students. This has come from my passion and curiousity. As my background is Bachelor of Physics, I have the motivation to engage in science as a fun subject, so students can understand it. It is because of the lack of students’ curiosity in science that they don’t. However, it is just for some students, but I dominantly feel like science is an abstract thing to do. Since then, I taught my students about  phenomena such as measuring a fisherman while sinking in a specific time. Some of them think that it is weird . They don’t need to know about them because it is not really useful for future. Then, this condition has challenged me to be an inspired teacher, which has broadened my knowledge. I must always have some explanations to show them the usefulness of science in the future.

Fortunately, I was introduced to Cambridge curriculum at my school. I have learned so much about the way teachers could engage, not only with students, but also with the subject that we have. Every single day I teach. I always give my efforts to lead my students by example and show them the effects of scientific phenomena in real life. Thus, they are excited. For example, I lead extracurricular activities called “Science For Fun”. I try to arrange the experiments in such a way that they can be understood by them in real life. For example, blowing a balloon with vinegar and backing soda and putting eggs into the bottle using fire. They were so excited and always curious about the next agenda in “Science For Fun” every week.

However, I feel that young people in Indonesia have not increased their empowerment in science well enough. Maybe it is just in my regions, but how is it in rural areas? I don’t think so. In fact, the STEM community also moves slowly entering schools and creating events for students.

Therefore, through this event, and from Indonesia, I could inspire young people around the world to share your experiences in empowering students to love science and understanding about science works in this universe. We can discuss together here. I also have a goal to inspire another teacher to be active promoting the life long learning spirit, so we can do some innovations as a teacher and students will be engaged with us and universe.

Thank you,

Regards,

Fatimah Nopriardy