Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) - Winning ways with Science creations

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Winning ways with Science creations

Teacher Talk By NITHYA SIDHHU

What one needs is passion, persistence, patience, precision and perfection for a creative idea to take off and make an impact.

<< Malaysia Toray Science Foundation

IT was easy to see why Tan Mun Wai was all smiles when I met her recently a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

As one of the 2011 Winner Prize recipients of the Science Education Award given out annually by the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) to creative teachers and educators, she had every reason to be proud.

A lecturer with Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Pendidikan Teknik, Kuala Lumpur, Tan’s winning idea and the one that booked a berth at the 18th MTSF prize presentation ceremony was a model of the moon’s eclipse and its path relative to the sun.

Tan Mun Wai: Teachers should not feel that their creative ideas have no value or significance.

 

Sitting not too far away from her at the ceremony was another prize recipient, Dr Tan Ming Tang, a lecturer at the Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Batu Lintang, Sarawak.

He had created a simple winning model, using a tilting plastic bottle and a ball, to explain how the Earth’s seasons occur.

For those of you who are in the dark as to what the MTSF is all about, Toray is a Japanese foundation which has taken its corporate social responsibility role to the level of doling out lucrative annual science and technology research grants as well as science education awards to Malaysian researchers and educators.

Research projects

As was explained by the MTSF chairman, Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Omar Abdul Rahman in his message, the foundation has, since its inception in 1993, “funded 191 basic research projects and awarded 36 outstanding scientific achievements and 289 creative and innovative teaching methods.”

I can vouch for the truth of what he says because over the span of 10 years (from 1998 to 2009), I myself, as a government secondary school Biology teacher, submitted my own creative ideas to the MTSF and won seven Science Education Awards from it.

Dr Tan used a tilting plastic bottle and a ball to explain how the Earth’s seasons occur at the competition. 

I was named winner on three occasions, a runner-up once and won three consolation prizes.
The reward, recognition and respect awarded to a teacher like me by the foundation, not to mention the learning experience is unforgettable. I can honestly say that the MTSF spurred me to grow creatively as a teacher.

The jitters 

I still remember how nervous I felt the first time I participated in the competition in 1998 and was shortlisted and called to Kuala Lumpur to present my idea to the examination committee panel of the Science Education Award then.

At that time, the chairman of the Examination Committee was Royal Professor Ungku Abdul Aziz and I was understandably concerned as to what impression I would leave on him.

I shouldn’t have worried. The man was engaging, humble and a good listener, as were the other members of the committee.

Encouraged by my first win, I made it my personal and professional goal to “dare to be different” in the classroom and kept submitting my tried-and-tested ideas to the committee.

Lest you think I was motivated by the money (recipients are rewarded with cash prizes ranging from RM2,000 to RM6,000), I must tell you that my entries were often sparked off by my students themselves — who yearned for something “novel” , “fun” or just-the-right analogy to clarify their understanding of the material I taught them.

As a child of the 60’s, I spent countless hours playing outdoors. With no money to buy proper toys, I was often forced to fashion many of my own — from rubber bands, cardboard, stones and paper.

This allowed my mind a creative bent and as a teacher, I noticed early that I found it easier to “think out of the box” compared to some of my other colleagues.


Interacting or alone, in nature or in the man-made things that surrounded me, I would find inspiration for new ideas.

Today, I am no stranger to the MTSF prize giving ceremony which, by the way, is held yearly in the month of December.

I was honoured last year however, to attend the ceremony, not as a winner but as an invited guest.

The sight of its secretary, Susan Lim, was familiar and comforting. An MTSF stalwart, she is the woman with the kindly face who offers words of encouragement and advice before any teacher steps into the assigned room to present his or her ideas to the committee.

Talking to Tan Mun Wai and Dr Tan, two of the prize recipients at the ceremony, I was not surprised by their positive and winning attitude towards teaching and life.

Both their awards were definitely bred from their desire to do their best for their students and the willingness to work hard on their projects.

All winners know it takes time, passion and commitment to bring a good idea to fruition.

At school, despite having new ideas to improve their teaching or even using them in the classroom, many teachers stop there.

Some of them feel that their creative endeavours lack merit and some do not bother to take the trouble to write up their ideas or submit them in ‘innovative teacher’ competitions organised by the foundation or the district and state education departments.

Tan Mun Wai explained, “such teachers should not feel their creative ideas have no value or significance. They should just come out and say, ‘Hey, I have this idea and I want to share it with you’. Besides, whenever a teacher takes the trouble to communicate and make her ideas presentable to others, she clarifies it all over for herself.”

Dr Tan and I agree that it’s a boomerang effect. “Every idea of mine,” he shared with me, “starts with a misconception or misperception on the student’s part.It comes from them and then goes back to them.”

Simplfying matters 

“When there’s a frown on the face of one of my students, I start thinking to myself — how can I simplify this? What method can I use to make them understand it better?”

I enjoyed talking to them.The others whom I spoke to included two teachers from Sabah, Mr Wong Fu (from SMK Putatan) and his protégé, Ho Pui Shan (from SM All Saints, Kota Kinabalu) — both Physics teachers.

Wong Fu, a Guru Cemerlang (excellent teacher), is an old hand at the game. This is his sixth Science Education Award from MTSF and he plans to keep “charging” his brain to generate even more ideas to benefit his students.

His told me that his winning entry on the “lost dimension of the prism” came to him when he saw how the water in his son’s water bottle curved when the bottle was lying in a horizontal position.

Ho, meanwhile, had created a sensitive Bourdon gauge using a paper whistle and a straw pointer. She too confessed that the idea struck her when she saw a young child playing with a paper whistle.

By the way, the MTSF Science Education award attracted a record number of 131 entries last year.

As a platform for Science and Mathematics teachers to channel and share their ideas with the teaching community at large, the MTSF is doing a commendable job.

In his address to the audience and press, the current deputy chairman for the Science Education Award, Datuk Dr R. Ratnalingam, appealed once again for more corporate organisations to offer incentives and rewards to teachers who are innovative.

“Teachers often have to fork out their own money to work on their creative ideas. The expense incurred can be a strain on them. While planning and thought are needed to generate ideas, grants would be hugely beneficial to these teachers. ”

Supportive

I agree with him. I know for a fact that the MTSF motivated and supported many of my own creative endeavours at school.

My feelings on the matter were shared. Mr Lau Yong Fuei (from SMK Convent Ipoh, Perak), who was runner-up for his idea on how to trap mosquitoes as well as by Mr Yip Chi Kong (consolation prize winner from SMJK Chan Wa, Seremban, Negri Sembilan), who submitted the idea that impressions made by waves in sand were a useful teaching device.

Sitting at my table for lunch were also See Yik Chu (a winner of the Selangor State Innovative Teacher Award) and Eng Guan Guch (of SMK St. Thomas, Kuching, Sarawak) who were also recipients.

Like me, they too realise that while nothing can take the place of seeing “our students do well when we put them first”, it is always nice to be appreciated and acknowledged for our ideas in our own right.

As Seow Yoke Hock from HELP Academy, another winner said his speech as the representative of the 14 recipients who won this year, “it takes 5Ps to make it – passion, persistence, patience, precision and perfection!”

If you are interested to participate this year and you think you have these 5Ps, please visit the MTSF website at

www.mtsf.org and the closing entry for all submissions is May 31, 2012.

Why not give it a shot?

Sunday January 8, 2012 The Star

Acknowledging excellence

UNIVERSITI Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) vice president (Internationalisation and Academic Development) Prof Dr Ewe Hong Tat and Universiti Malaya Faculty of Medicine’s Prof Dr Mary Anne Tan Jin Ai have won the Science and Technology Award under the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF).

The MTSF awards recognise the excellent achievements of scientists, researchers and secondary school educators, and were presented at a ceremony last month. Prof Ewe and Prof Tan received RM30,000 each.

A total of 16 young researchers were given the Science and Technology Research Grants for their research projects while the Science Education Award went to 14 secondary school teachers/educators.

Prof Ewe (fourth from left) and Prof Tan (sixth from left) pose with their RM30,000 mock cheques at the awards ceremony with Dr Sharifah Zarah (fifth from left) and Dr Omar (seventh from left).

 

Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry deputy secretary-general (Policy) Datuk Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad represented deputy minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof at the event.

Reading Fadillah’s speech text, she said: “In this ever-evolving, complex and competitive global economy, science, technology and innovation as well as human capital are important and add value to our agricultural and industrial sectors.

“It also enhances our nation’s economic growth, and is in line with the ministry’s vision,” she said.
Also present was MTSF chairman Tan Sri Dr Omar Abdul Rahman.

Lessons from Marx to market

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 Perhaps his views on capitalism could be considered to right what's wrong

WHAT ARE WE TO DO By TAN SRI LIN SEE-YAN

TODAY we still face not just about the worst recession since the 1930s, but a challenge to the rich West's economic order. The poverty of orthodox economics is now exposed. It showed up capitalism as fundamentally flawed. Karl Marx had contentiously labelled capitalism as inherently unstable. Sure, some of Marx's predictions had failed: no dictatorship of the proletariat; nor has the state withered away. Even among Americans, just 50% surveyed was positive on capitalism; 40% not. Young people are markedly more disillusioned.

So, recent vogue for Marx should not surprise now that the euro stands on the precipice of collapse; and Jeffrey Sach's The Price of Civilisation pointed to US poverty levels not seen since 1929. Indeed, the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano recently praised Marx's diagnosis of income inequality. Brazil elected a former Marxist guerrilla, Dihma Rousseff, as President in 2010. Marx may still be misguided, but his written pieces can be shockingly perceptive.

Marx and global disorder

Examine the daily European headlines: there is the spectre of a possible Greek default, an impending explosive bank-made disaster, the imminent collapse of the euro all reflecting a bewildering mixture of denial, misdiagnosis and bickering undermining European policy response.

As Mohamed El-Erian (CEO of Pimco, the world's largest bond dealer) observed: “Rather than proceeding in an orderly manner, today's global changes are being driven by disorderly forces ...” We see a crisis that has shaken the foundations of the prevailing international economic order.

It is remarkable that in Das Kapital Marx diagnosed capitalism's instability at a time when his contemporaries and predecessors (Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill) were mostly enthralled by its ability to serve human wants. George Magnus (UBS Investment Bank) wrote: “today's global economy bears some uncanny resemblances” to what Marx foresaw.

Marx had predicted that enterprises would need fewer workers as productivity rose, creating an “industrial reserve army” of unemployed whose very presence exerts downward pressure on wages.

Reality comes home readily with US unemployment still at 8.5% (13.3 million jobless). Nearly 5.6 million Americans have been out of work for at least six months; 3.9 million of them for a year or more. Last September, US Census Bureau data showed that median income (adjusted for inflation) in the US fell from 1973 to 2010 for full-time male workers aged 15 and above. True, the condition of blue-collar US workers is still a far cry from the subsistence wage and “accumulation of misery” that Marx figured. Again, French economist Jean-Baptiste Say had postulated that markets will always match supply and demand hence, gluts don't arise.

Against this conventional wisdom, Marx argued that over-production is endemic to capitalism simply because the proletariat isn't paid enough to buy up the supply capitalists produce. Recent experience showed that the only way middle-America managed to maintain consumption in the last 10 years was to over-borrow. When the housing market collapsed, consumers were left with crippling debt they can't service. The resulting default is still being played out.

Marx also predicted capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. Unbridled capitalism tends towards wild excesses. The 2007/08 Wall Street crisis had demonstrated how reckless deregulation (for example, in allowing banking leverage to rise unabatedly) proved disastrous for the financial system, attracting extensive moral hazard in massive bailouts.

“The Republican Party is en route to destroy capitalism,” radical geographer Prof David Harvey says, “and they may do a better job of it than the working class could.”

Now once again, we see unbridled capitalism threatening to undermine itself. European banks financially weak but politically powerful, are putting on the pressure to rescue their balance sheets. We see the same in the United States as home-owners struggle to stay afloat while renegotiating their mortgages. Similarly, creditor nations (e.g. Germany and China) are trying to shift the pain of rebalancing onto debtor nations, even though squeezing them threatens to be counter-productive and eventually, cause economic disaster.

Even so, prolonged economic weakness is contributing to rethinking on the value of capitalism. Countries scraping for scarce demand are now resorting to currency wars. America's senate has turned protectionist. Within Europe, the crisis turmoil is encouraging ugly nationalists, some racist. Their extremism is mild against the wrecking horrors of Nazism. Even so, it's unacceptable.



Unbalanced times ahead

The outlook for 2012 is dismal (my column 2011: Annus Horribilis dated Dec 31, 2011): recession in Europe, anaemic growth at best in the United States and a significant slowdown in emerging nations. We also know the world is far from decoupled. Export economies in Asia (South Korea, Taiwan and China) and commodity exporters (Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil) are already feeling the pain.

What's going to happen in Europe is critical. The eurozone is already in recession. Germany's economy contracted in 4Q 2011 at a time the region is looking to its biggest economy to give the zone a lift. Add to this, continuing credit crunch, sovereign debt problems, lack of competitiveness and intensifying fiscal austerity we have a serious downturn ahead.

Downside risks in the United States can be as serious fiscal drag, ongoing financial unwinding among households in the face of stagnant incomes, weak job creation, losses on wealth, rising inequality and political gridlock. In Japan, weak governance will show-up soon enough. Rising inequality is impacting domestic demand big time! This is also fuelling popular protests around the world, bringing with it social and political instability adding further risks to economic performance. Turmoil in the Middle-east gathers geopolitical risks of its own making persistent high oil prices will constrain growth. On present course, conditions will get worse before they get any better.

Policymakers are running out of options. Monetary policy is already less effective and ineffective where problems stem from insolvency (as in Europe) rather than liquidity. Fiscal policy is now well constrained. Whatever central bankers do, they cannot resolve problems best fixed by politicians such as the United States' incoherent deficit politics or Europe's fractured institutions and crucially, its lack of political will to act firmly.

Eventually, papering over solvency problems and reform issues will give way to more painful and disorderly restructurings, including exit from the euro. History teaches that financial crises are followed by years of weakness and stress. But some of the pain is self-inflected. Clarity on eurozone's future needs strong political leadership. There is really no excuse for the United States' fiscal paralysis as politicians bicker and dawdle. Indeed, even deeper austerity is quite unnecessary; it brings a vicious circle of decline, squeezing demand and raising unemployment, thereby hurting revenues, sustaining large deficits and draining away confidence.

Lessons from Japan

Japan has been experiencing the West's current woes for 20 years. Will Europe and United States suffer a similar “Japanese” future? There are important lessons.

First, get out of denial: admit past mistakes and take-on new challenges for the future. Japan had refused to admit its economic model has since failed. Similarly, Europeans are not ready to give up their welfare safety net even though already buried in huge debt. The United States, in preserving “free markets”, wouldn't build badly needed infrastructure because of aversion to state intervention. Let's face it: new realities need new ideas.

Second, recognise problems are really structural. Japanese politicians continue to rely on orthodox pump priming in the face of excessive regulations (which stymied competition) and belief its high savings will finance it. All it did was to pile up more debt up to 200% of GDP. The United States and Europe are now in a similar boat. Continuing Fed stimuli missed tackling underlying problems need smarter approaches to resolve the mortgage quagmire, and to extensively re-train misfit unemployed. Euro-zone needs reforms for a more integrated Europe to spur growth. Instead, governments bury their heads in the sand of Tobin taxes (a small financial transactions tax to discourage speculation) and other such diversions.

Third, embrace globalisation which Japan has yet to seriously acknowledge, while the rest of Asia had become more integrated. The United States is still “fighting” globalisation harbours an anti-trade mentality in the face of deficit politics. Similarly, Europe indulges too intensely in intra-regional trade; needs to build a competitive multilateral non-European network.

Finally, firm political leadership is critical. Psychologist and Nobel laureate Danial Kahneman pointed to behavioural economics showing people are “influenced by all sorts of superficial things in decision making” and so they procrastinate. Japan personifies procrastination. Likewise, political gridlock gripping United States and Europe led to more “kicking the can down the road,” instead of seriously changing national policy. Japan's history teaches political will as vital in instigating change without it, the West will likely turn “Japanese.” Ignore it and history may well repeat itself.

Middle class on the rise

The growing irrelevance and mistrust of politicians and governments are the result of massive economic slowdown and wasteful public spending. Emerging markets in contrast, have kept growth consistently going while keeping fiscal affairs well under control.

The political woes in China and India and even Malaysia (and possibly in Brazil and Indonesia) reflect, in my view, the early stirrings of political demands by the growing emerging middle class.

The World Bank estimated the middle class (people earning between US$60 and US$400 a month) trebled to 1.5 billion between 1990 and 2005 in developing Asia, and by one-third to 362 million in Latin America. Estimates by Asian and African Development Banks showed similar trends in Africa, Latin America and China in 2008.

As Marx said: “Historically, the bourgeoisie played a most revolutionary part” in Europe. As I see it, in emerging markets, that same but softer revolution is now on hand. Middle-class values are distinctive.

Surveys showed the middle classes consistently are concerned with free speech and fair elections; with opportunities and corruption. Success of Hazare's campaign against graft in India, and of street protests in Dalian and Xiamen in China over environmental abuses and the crash by high speed trains are some cases in point. Unlike unrest in Middle-east, middle class activism in India, China, Brazil and Chile is not aimed at bringing governments down. Rather, an attempt to reform government, not to replace it so far, at least, aimed against unaccountable, untransparent and undemocratic politics.

What to do?

Recession made plain the need for smarter government and highlighted weaknesses in designing policy to address issues on fairness and burden sharing. There are lots to learn and much to put right. I see an extraordinarily uncomfortable year ahead, with a wide range of possible outcomes, many unpleasant.

The euro-zone casts the darkest shadow. The US outlook is darkened by political uncertainty. The West is now being challenged to deliver not just growth (while necessary, is insufficient given high unemployment, and income and wealth inequalities) but “inclusive growth” for greater social justice. There is a deep sense that capitalism has become unfair. Calls for a fairer system will not go away. As Marx would insist, they will spread and grow louder.

Ironically, unlike emerging economies, the West is not equipped to deal with structural and secular changes after all, their recent history has been predominantly cyclical. Grasping the ways in which Marx was right marks the first step towards making things acceptable. The longer they fail to adjust, the higher the risks. So expect more volatility, unusual strains and even odd outcomes. But looking at the cup as half-full, the global paradigm shifts when they do come, will also present opportunities, not just risks. That can help ease the agony. But it won't make up for politicians' mistakes. Welcome to 2012!

Former banker, Dr Lin is a Harvard educated economist and a British Chartered Scientist who now spends time writing, teaching & promoting the public interest. Feedback is most welcome; email: starbizweek@thestar.com.my

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English language in Malaysia in dire straits!

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Image by Roslan Tangah (aka Rasso) via Flickr

English is in dire straits

IT can no longer be denied that the state of the English language in our country is in dire straits. One does not have to look far to see how inferior we as a society have become when it comes to mastering this global language.

I am a first-year student in a reputable private university in Cyberjaya and I am appalled at some of the English used in announcements on its online portal as well as in the notices and circulars pasted on campus.

Grammatical mistakes are not uncommon and not a few of them are a direct translation from languages such as Bahasa Malaysia.

Even members of the student council are not spared from this problem as a good number of their announcements and occasional public speeches in English betray their command of the language.

I am not in a good position to judge my varsity mates in terms of proficiency in that language but the Average Joe will have no difficulty learning just how low their command of English is by having a two-minute chat with them.


Even in the Government, the standard of the English language has dropped drastically.

The recent “poking-eye” debacle in the Defence Ministry website as well as howlers in other government websites are a matter of serious concern and are no laughing matter.

As these websites are an online representation of our country, can we afford to make ourselves a laughing stock on the world stage?

While the government in countries such as China, South Korea and Japan have consistently tried to improve their society’s command of English, the same cannot be said of Malaysia.

In fact, based on the latest decision by the Education Ministry to abolish PPSMI (the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English), it appears that we are taking a giant leap backwards.

Are we going to be more competitive in this globalised world in doing so?

I am definitely sure the answer is “No”.

It is my hope that the powers-that-be understand the seriousness of this situation and will take the necessary steps to arrest this “linguistic-recession” before it comes to a point where we are no longer able to fully participate and, worse, become “paralysed”, in this globalised world due to our lack of proficiency in English.

JSZ, Klang to The Star Friday January 13, 2012

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“Clothes that poke eye”, Melayu English; Lost in translation!

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‘Poke eye’ Melayu English in many public institutions inexcusable!