Last October, Notre Dame College Dhaka started a project on ‘Sustainable science education using STEM practice’ with a grant from the US State Department. Under the project, three workshops, five science days, and career and nutrition days were held. The STEM Nature Festival concluded the project.STEM Nature Festival
Sheikh Iraj
In addition to its regular nature festival, this year Notre Dame College in Dhaka hosted another nature festival based on the concept of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
About 117 participants from 10 different schools and colleges participated in the STEM Nature Festival, organised by Notre Dame Nature Study Club on August 19. Microbiologist Ashrafuzzaman and Shakib Ahsan, visiting professor at ULAB, were present as the special guests, while Father Anthony Sushanto Gomez, director of guidance, Notre Dame College, presided.
The participants included teams from Adamjee Cantonment College, Ideal College, Viqarunnisa Noon College, SFX Greenherald International School, Holy Cross College, St Joseph Higher Secondary School, Central Womens College, BAF Shaheen College, Bir Shreshtha Noor Mohammad Public College and Notre Dame College.
STEM based education practice is relatively a new concept in our country. The main idea behind STEM is to encourage and promote science education based on hands-on practice, which makes it more interesting and effective.
Last October, Notre Dame College Dhaka started a project on Sustainable science education using STEM practice with a grant from the US State Department. Under the project, three workshops, five science days, and career and nutrition days were held. The STEM Nature Festival concluded the project.
The fest was divided into five different segments _ Green Bee, Eco Project, Digital Story, Confab Seminar and the Green Mentor/Green club award.
Green Bee was actually an Olympiad event based on nature, environment and ecology. In this segment, participants sat for multiple choice questions on nature. The segment was divided into two categories _ in the school category, Zareen Subah of Adamjee Cantonment College won the first prize and in the college category, Zakia Sultana from Holy Cross College was the winner.
In the Eco Project, participating students had to bring and share the projects that they made on water, air and energy consumption in our daily life. Both schools and colleges separately participated in this segment. Among the schools, St Joseph Higher Secondary School came first for their project on minimising household water use. In the college category, Notre Dame College won for their project C-CH4.
Digital Story was a new and fun event where the participants not only submitted their photographs, but they also had to describe the theme and the concept behind the pictures. Ahmed Hasan Baky of Notre Dame College won the first prize, while Marzia Momtaz from Central Womens College became second.
Confab Seminar was a multimedia presentation contest where participants also had a chance to interact with the audience while giving their presentations on air, water, soil pollution and energy saving. In the school category, Ahir Mrittika from SFX Greenherald International School was selected as the best presenter by the jury. Tahmeed Hassan from Notre Dame College won the first prize in the college category.
The Green Mentor/Green club award was another exceptional event in which ecology, environment and nature based clubs of the participating schools and colleges gave presentations on their club activities. Notre Dame Nature Study Club bagged the top Green Club Award. SFX Greenherald International School secured the second position.
YI talked to some of the participants, judges, and organisers about their experiences at the festival.
Aahir Mrittika
Student, SFX Greenherald International School
I am very happy that I am able to participate in this fest. I hope this type of festivals will take place throughout the year in different schools and colleges. Its very interesting, and obvious that this kind of festival really helps us to enhance our knowledge. Like the rest of the world, in our society we come across problems like noise pollution, air pollution, traffic jams. To bring solutions to such problems, we tried to build different projects and it feels great to get a chance to display those in front of other like-minded people. I have to mention that our teachers have supported us a lot and I believe participating in such festivals is part of our education.
Rezone Ahmed Abir
Student, St Gregorys High School
For some time now, we had this wish that we will speak about different aspects of nature in front of a big crowd. Through this nature festival, our dream came true. Many of us live in the city surrounded by concrete walls, so we have little idea about the true beauty of nature. We wanted to unveil that beauty of nature and talk about natures other aspects. I thank the organisers for giving us such a platform.
Sanjana Islam
Student, Adamjee Cantonment College
For the last six months we were trying to establish a nature club, finally, we succeeded. Now through this nature festival, we came to know that there is a lot to learn outside textbooks. Our club members gave multimedia presentations on various aspects of nature. We hope through our presentations we were able to motivate others who will work on nature, too.
Nabiha Hussain, Student
SFX Greenherald International School
There are a number of benefits of participating in festivals like this. One, for example, I used to be scared of public speaking. I felt like I could not going finish my speech, but I practiced a lot to overcome that. In my school, we are taught how to get better in public speaking, and a festival like this has helped me to overcome my fear. I received support from the audience and it really feels great to be a part of such a festival.
Ahmed Hasan Baky
Student, Notre Dame College
I participated in the Digital Story segment of the festival on behalf of Notre Dame Nature Study Club. I submitted pictures of Buriganga River. Through my pictures, I wanted to portray that Buriganga has not lost all its beauty yet. If we all work together, we can still save that beauty. The audience and other participants appreciated my theme and that really encourages me to work more. Through this festival, I came to know many other students who also care about nature and want to work for it. In future, I want to continue my work with nature photography.
Salman Bin Sultan, Judge
STEM Nature Fest has been an amazing experience for me as an observer. New ideas, out-of-the-box concepts of science and technology have created a new dimension in understanding the impact of science.
Biplob Kumar Deb, Moderator
We received an overwhelming response from students and its wonderful. Through STEM education students feel more interested to learn about science, and they really get to learn more. Through this festival, the project Sustainable science education using STEM practice in a way is coming to an end. But looking at the response from the students and from other teachers, we want to continue this STEM education practice. We want to thank the US Department of State for funding this project.
Towhid Ahmed
Vice President, Notre Dame College Nature Club
We all love our Nature Study Club and everyone feels a part of it. We have received great response from students from both our college and other educational institutions. Through this festival, we have found many students who have the same interest in nature like we do.
Samio Ahmed
President, Notre Dame College Nature Club
We can proudly say we have been organising such festivals on a regular basis for years now. We try to enhance interest about nature through organising this kind of festivals. I like to thank all the participants and our club members for making this festival a success. Notre Dame is a brand and we want to make sure its reputation stays like that.
Mahmud Al-Amin and Benjir Abrar contributed to this article.
Photos: Courtesy
