TAWAU, 17 January 2025 – UiTM Sabah Branch Tawau Campus successfully hosted its first STEM Exploration Day, aiming to ignite students’ passion for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and introduce them to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in learning. The student development program featured a STEM Explorace, engaging approximately 200 students from the October 2024–February 2025 semester in engaging, fun-filled learning activities.
Held on the UiTM Tawau Campus in Balung during the third week of November 2024, the STEM Explorace, themed “Ignite Curiosity, Spark Discovery,” centered around four key areas: Science, Mathematics, English language, and AI. Participants worked in teams of 10, racing between four stations designed to challenge them in each key area.
In the Science station, “Tele Thinkers,” teams solved science-related problems and expressed their answers through drawing in a game of telephone. At the “Math Quest” station, students applied their knowledge of Quadratic Equations and Algebra to solve real-world problems, using clues from teammates to find the correct answer while blindfolded. The “Chain Reaction” English language station challenged participants to match scientific concepts with their definitions using terms from Physics, Biology, and Chemistry, while only peeking through a small hole.
At the “AI Zone,” students deployed ChatGPT to paraphrase news headlines on renewable energy, summarize a lengthy text on drone usage, and correct errors in a text about language learning apps, promoting responsible and ethical use of AI for problem-solving.
The STEM Explorace, which ran from 8:00 a.m. to noon, is seen as a first step in encouraging UiTM Tawau Campus students to pursue STEM education at the university level. Organising Chair Dr. Choo Siow Chin expressed gratitude to lecturers and students for their teamwork in making the event a success. The program aimed to raise awareness about the importance of STEM and the responsible use of AI.