November 30, 2022, by Communications
The Merdeka Lectures: Where Fun Meets Learning
The Merdeka Lectures is an inaugural lecture series organised by the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FOSE) and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) of the University of Nottingham, Malaysia (UNM).
A project inspired by the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, the Merdeka Lectures aspires to create awareness and interest in high school students about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) topics through exciting live demonstrations, science experiments and activities held by lecturers from UNM.
There were four unique lectures hosted by experts from various STEM fields, and four more hosted by experts of arts and social sciences from the FASS.
These were held both physically at the UNM campus, attended by participants from selected schools, and on Zoom by online participants.
The Goal of the Merdeka Lectures
The Merdeka Lectures’ main goal was to encourage high schoolers to take interest in STEM topics as well as art and social science subjects by performing live demonstrations and fun activities to challenge the students’ minds about these subjects being uninteresting, difficult and unpopular.
Online participation
To achieve the goal of the Merdeka Lectures of encouraging the interest of the younger generation in STEM subjects, the choice to conduct the Merdeka Lectures in a hybrid model was a deliberate one.
Both as a result of the pandemic and increasing importance of providing people the access to knowledge, the Merdeka Lectures strived to include online participants joining from anywhere in the country – or even the world!
All in all, the Merdeka Lectures 2022 by the University of Nottingham, Malaysia was the first of its kind in the country and holds a promising future with room for improvement.
Dr Marina Ng spearheaded and chaired this project alongside Ng Kah Kit, the student chair, and with a team of 25 volunteers and 13 lecturers, they made the Merdeka Lectures 2022 a reality and a success.
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