Metro

Friday April 3, 2009

Kolej Yayasan Saad comes out tops in first leg of contest

By ALYCIA LIM


NERVES were strung tight last Sunday for over 350 Malaccan secondary school students who took part in the first leg of the nationwide RHB-The Star Mighty Minds challenge.

From frantic whispered consultations and minor disagreements among team members, whoops of jubilance over correct answers and groans of dismay over mistakes, right through to hugging and singing to bolster confidence, there was drama-aplenty during the full-day affair.

The teams began streaming into Mahkota Parade, Bandar Hilir, from as early as 9am in crisply-ironed school uniforms that included blazers and ties for many.

Armed with sharp minds, zeal and enthusiasm, the students threw themselves whole-heartedly into the first challenge, which required the teams of three to answer 20 multiple-choice quiz questions based on maths, science and general knowledge using interactive keypads.

The top 30 teams to emerge with the highest scores from this objective quiz then moved on to the second round. Here, teams were required to apply their mathematics and science principles in a challenging hands-on task.

The challenge, divided into two categories — Lower Secondary and Upper Secondary — lasted a gruelling nine hours. To ensure energy levels and focus did not flag, students devised different tactics to enable them to give their best when in the limelight.

For some students, it was group prayers at the mall’s surau, while others (read girls!) decided to go shopping to calm their nerves.

Focused: Students working together to complete their model vehicle in time.

But for the Kolej Yayasan Saad students who emerged champions in both the categories, sipping cups of whipped-cream-topped Mocha Frap-puccino at a designer coffee bar and going online to do additional research (and playing Solitaire!) while waiting for their turn were part of their winning strategy.

Host Sivashankar Krishnapillai said while keying in answers using interactive keypads was new to many of the students, they found it very interesting and had a lot of fun.

The few general knowledge posers thrown in baffled many but proved not a hurdle for those who were well-read.

The question, “Which of the following countries is landlocked?”, raised quite a few eyebrows among participants and spectators alike, especially those who weren’t well-versed in geography. They tossed between Cambodia and Laos.

And when the answer for “Which animal has the longest gestation period” was flashed on the screen, teams who keyed in the “blue whale” instead of the “African elephant” punched their palms and groaned in disappointment, while others cheered and gave each other high-fives for getting the answer right.

Muhammad Nabil Salim from SM Sains Muzaffar Shah said his team keyed in “Ngah Ibrahim” to the question “Who was born first - Tunku Abdul Rahman, Ngah Ibrahim, Tun Abdul Razak or Tun Dr Ismail?”

“When we realised our mistake, we tried re-entering our answer but, of course, it was too late!”

RHB Malacca area manager Amir Abdul Aziz said: “A competition like this is a great initiative because it allows students to explore their creative and innovative side.”

He added that the hands-on challenge fits in well with RHB’s values, since “innovation” was one of the core values of the company.

“The students did well because within such a short period of time, they were able to come up with models that worked well.”

While none of the teams made it through with perfect scores for the first challenge, SMK Tinggi St David got the highest score with only one mistake in the Lower Secondary category, while the Upper Secondary top scorer was the team from SMJK Yok Bin, also with one question missed.

Hearty start: Students receiving their McDonalds breakfast at the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds Malacca Challenge.

The RHB-The Star Mighty Minds challenge, however, required much more than booksmarts. The second challenge, the hands-on task, required application of science principles and demanded creativity, sequential thinking, nimble fingers, presentation skills and most of all, teamwork.

Chief judge A. Alagesan, who had set the hands-on challenges, said all the teams did quite well, and it was a close call when it came to selecting the three winning teams.

He advised students to be mindful of the time frame, as many teams could have done a better job working on the functionality of the model instead of labouring long and hard over the aesthetics.

Cases in point were the many highly-creatively designed cars which could not move for the Lower Secondary category and “pretty” lamps that lacked stability or couldn’t light up for the Upper Secondary teams.

“I think students whose models did not work knew what they were doing, but they did not have the time to accomplish their goal,” Alagesan said.

“The hands-on challenge encourages students to think differently and find solutions to problems. It is important to think out of the box, an ability many students lack,” he said.

“I feel that the Government should bring this aspect into the school syllabus, even from the primary school level.”

While the judges were busy testing out the individual projects, spectators and supporters anxiously waited for the results.

Nor Fatin Izzatie, 17, who came to support her peers from MRSM Tun Ghafar Baba, along with nine other schoolmates, was confident that her school would make it to the top three, even before the announcement.

“I was very sure my schoolmates would win because they were brilliant!” she said.

Believing in teamwork, Nor Fatin said even though only six of her friends could take part in the actual event, she and her friends had helped the teams prepare by doing research and providing them with additional information and support.

She hoped the competition would be held again because it was very educational, and so that “other students could have the same exciting experience!”

SM Sains Muzaffar Shah upper secondary teacher Wan Hailah Wan Yahya said: “I believe that a competition like this helps students, especially those who love to compete, as the competitive element would spur their learning interest.”

Apart from participating in competitions like the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds, her school will also be taking part in Mag Inc, the Star-NIE contest.

At the end of the day, Kolej Yayasan Saad students bagged the top prizes for both categories, each team taking home a RM3,000 cash prize.

While MRSM Tun Ghafar Baba students claimed the second and third prizes of RM2,000 and RM1,000 respectively in the Upper Secondary category, SM Sains Muzaffar Syah and SMJK Yok Bin won for the Lower Secondary category respectively.

The top three winning schools were rewarded with a desktop computer, a digital camera and a printer respectively.

Still trying to catch his breath from the excitement of winning, MRSM Tun Ghafar Baba student Sazzale Ahmad said: “I am so happy we won because we studied like crazy!”

He said coming from a boarding school, both teams were very united and they planned to combine their prize money to fund their homeroom, as well as give something to their adviser to show appreciation for her work.

The champs: Kolej Yayasan Saad students receiving their prize from RHB Malacca area manager Amir Abdul Aziz. On the left is RHB group corporate communications head Akmal Baqi Mohamed Ariff.

“We are a close-knit bunch and we live like a family so we want to share our joy with the others in our home-room.”

SM Sains Muzaffar Syah students Zul Farahin Zulkifli and Muhammad Nabil Salim said they called their parents as soon as they received their prizes.

Muhammad Nabil Salim said: “My parents were very happy because none of us had expected to win.”

Zul Farahin added: “This was a very good experience for me, especially the hands-on round, because I had never constructed a model out of materials such as cardboard, balloons and plasticine before.”

SMJK Yok Bin teacher Yeow Siew Choo said she was pleasantly surprised because she did not expect her Mandarin-speaking students to win.

“All we did before the competition was advise our students to read the newspapers, and find out as much as possible about what to expect.

“As it was our first time in a competition like this, we had no experience to fall back on.”

The Kolej Yayasan Saad girls were still on an adrenalin high when interviewed.

Nadia Elena Nor Azlan said: “We were very happy to have won because we did a lot of research and studying before the competition.”

For the hands-on challenge, she said they delegated duties in constructing the adjustable lamp so as not to waste time.

To calm their nerves when time was running short, the girls sang their school song together on the competition floor.

When asked what kept them so determined, Sara Ruzanna Yatim Salim, on behalf of her team, said: “We stuck to the quote by Oprah Winfrey ‘To not do your best is to sin’.”

Both teams from Kolej Yayasan Saad will take on other state champions in the two categories in the National Challenge, to be held in the Klang Valley in August.

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