TRANSFORMING THE WORLD THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
This term has been a whacking success as we unveiled an unhackneyed club in the school, the STEM club (SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING AND MATHS). One of the mission is to transform the world through technology and embed science into the daily thinking of students – it is undoubtedly the path the world is trailing to, from the invention of the wright brothers in 1902 to the proposed and ongoing creation of yet another wonder of the world, the mirror line in the Saudi Arabian desert.
I am honored to be the Cambridge coordinator of the STEM Club and I can confidently say that our numbers in the club are growing expeditiously (I have registered students from as low as year 7 to our lovely seniors, year 13s) and the number of registrations forms I’ve rummage through since we officially made our existence known to the school could probably run a whole newspaper printery.
Over the 3 months, we have been privileged to relaunch the Annual National Math Contest to the school – this contest last happened in 2019. The excitement that flooded the faces of students was unbelievable, they rushed to pay the participation fee and practice began instantaneously with the help of our phenomenal highly dedicated teachers and patrons. On the D-day, the numbers were confounding, 47 students from both schools sitting for the A and 0 level paper.
On the 15th of May, 2023, we had our pompous official club opening across both compasses that comprised of a quiz and a projects exhibition. The preparation for the showcase was in high gear since we had whip-smart sophisticated brain boxes come together to erect an invention from wires and components to greatness. I vividly remember the days and nights we worked tirelessly with our eyes glued to a breadboard that we didn’t notice time fly. We sketched circuit diagrams and followed through. Truth be told, we did it more than 5 times with fail but for very ‘’ fail’’ we learned something new, the sovereignty of precision, accuracy, determination, patience, confidence, and application of class concepts was key. And after much work, we birthed the LDR light and a clock alarm.
The team had 17 members, you may be wondering aren’t the projects physics based and were all team members majoring in physics? No, we have a team of students offering various sciences and arts but it is the passion that matters. The Light Dependent Resistor is one that is wholly based on the abundance of light on the LDR that then could complete or cut the circuit. Similar to what is common on the busy streets of Uganda or your homes, the street lights, they go off automatically at around 7am and go on at around 7pm. The momentous reduction of daylight increases the resistance of the LDR consequently increasing voltage across it so the light goes on.
This project was espoused since the country faces high levels of darkness, although blessed with an abundance of sunlight and power dams. (The triumph of the projects was an eye opener that we can positively impact lives through science). In a multitude schools, there is a timekeeper to control the smoothness of the school schedule, however there are minute or more long delays during the switch. Imagine having an self-executing alarm system that could be alternated accordingly, therefore there wouldn’t be a delay in activities.
The quiz (containing a wide range of STEM based questions) was a heated 10 second answer session that put brain power and intellectual capacity to the test. At the apogee of the quiz, we allotted the top 3 finalists with high quality club shirts, calculators and question banks.
What are the future plans of the club, this year we are having coding competitions that are to happen in China come this September and Taibah international school is the only school in Uganda that is invited, following our last success in the 2019 coding competitions where we materialized the top and won a fully funded trip to partake in another competition in Ukraine. We are also planning to engage in the world of robotics and collaborate with specialists in that field. Once we have learnt the basics, we are dyed in the wool to compete with other schools in and out of the country in robotics (In Taibah International School, we don’t underperform in anything we do)
Incorporating science in our daily activity will restructure our thinking - to look at challenges and create long-lasting solutions. As the STEM Club we aspire to add to the numbers of existing scientists, the body and soul of innovations. To bring fervid students that share the same vision of caring for the community and have a dire need to see the world be transformed from the current inventions to even greater ones with a miscellaneous duty range.
Kudos to all members and well-wishers of the STEM Club!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
GIFT LING SEIIY LIN
Coordinator of the Stem Club Cambridge school
YEAR 12 RAPTORS
