UM organises first STEAM summer camp to promote creativity among primary school students
澳大首辦STEAM夏令營啓發小學生創意思維

The University of Macau’s (UM) Macao Base for Primary & Secondary STEM Education recently organised a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) Summer Camp, which attracted about 40 students from ten primary schools in Macao. The first science summer camp designed for primary school students, the event aimed to help participants acquire STEM knowledge and soft skills, such as critical and creative thinking skills, collaboration skills, and problem-solving skills. It was jointly organised by the Faculty of Education (FED) and the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) at UM, with support from the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT).

During the camp, students learned a variety of STEM-related concepts in the process of building an emergency boat. For instance, at the end of the camp, students were able to describe the concepts of pressure and density in a liquid and articulate and calculate the buoyancy force. They used Scratch to simulate the concepts of forces related to buoyancy, and used MS Excel to calculate the result of the forces. They built boats based on the concepts of energy conversion and engineering design learned during the camp. They also learned the concept of vectors addition based on the parallelogram law and applied it using Excel. Apart from learning STEM-related concepts, students also had the opportunity to develop communication, collaboration, creative, and critical thinking skills through group discussions and building boats with the materials provided. The summer camp was jointly coordinated by Prof Emily Oon Pey Tee, Prof Miranda Mak Chi Kuan and Prof Alice Lei Si Man from the FED as well as Prof Tam Kam Weng and Mr Miguel Gomes da Costa Junior from the FST.

Established in June 2018, the Macao Base for Primary & Secondary STEM Education aims to promote science popularisation and STEM education in collaboration with the FDCT, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, the Chinese Educators’ Association of Macau, Macau Catholic Schools Association, Macao Science Center, and Macao Post and Telecommunications Bureau. With UM’s Centre for Science and Engineering Promotion as the core component, the base launches STEM programmes to support science popularisation in Macao and to provide continuous training for teachers and students from local primary and secondary schools.

由澳大“澳門中小學生科技實踐基地”舉辦的“小學生STEAM 研習夏令營”（STEAM意為Science—科學、Technology—科技、Engineering—工程、Art—藝術、Mathematics—數學），吸引近40名來自10間不同學校的小學生參與。是次夏令營是首次以小學生為對象的科普夏令營，旨在培養學生的STEM和軟技能，包括具批判性的創造性思維、團隊合作精神、解決問題能力，以及參與推進創新思路和知識。

夏令營活動豐富，學生通過建造颱風救災用的船隻掌握STEM的概念：在“科學”（S）方面，學生能具體描述液體中壓力和密度的概念，並能清晰說明和計算浮力；在“技術”（T）方面，學生應用Scratch來模擬與浮力相關的力的概念，並運用MS Excel來計算方向和推動力；在“工程”（E）方面，學生應用能量轉換和工程設計的概念來製作船隻；在“數學”（M）方面，學生在平行四邊形法則的基礎上，引用了向量加法概念，在Excel中同時進行。活動還結合軟技能的培養，銳意提高學生的溝通和協作能力，培養創造能力和批判性思維。夏令營由教育學院教授溫佩娣、教授麥紫均及教授李思敏負責，而科技學院教授譚錦榮及高級導師Miguel Costa負責科學及工程範疇的工作。是次夏令營由澳門科學技術發展基金資助，並由澳大教育學院和科技學院合辦，

澳大“澳門中小學生科技實踐基地”於2018年成立，基地以澳大科技學院的科學暨工程科普推廣中心為核心，推出一系列STEM教育計劃，支持社區科學推廣活動，為中學師生提供可持續培訓。基地共建單位有澳門科學技術發展基金、澳門教育暨青年局、澳門中華教育會、澳門天主教學校聯會、澳門科學館及澳門郵電局；學術合作單位包括澳大科技學院、健康科學學院、教育學院、應用物理及材料工程研究所及中華醫藥研究院。