NUR LIANA BTE MOHAMAD RIZAL
Our Department
STEM Inc is a smaller unit in Science Centre Singapore that aims to ignite students' passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). They are strongly supported by the Ministry of Education as they continue enriching secondary school students' learning with STEM ALP. It also offers learning experiences such as the Industrial Partnership Programme (IPP) that can expose the students to real-world STEM industries and careers. For our attachment specifically, we were given the chance to work with the Media & Communications team. Through our experience with this particular department, we were able to learn more about STEM Learning and how the team reaches out to the public to intrigue more people into learning more about their programmes and technology in general.
deliverables
Our main task was to create 2 articles for the website, I Saw The Science, which is being managed by our mentor, Mr Thomas Danny Jeyaseelan. We were given the freedom to choose any topic that we found interesting, as long as it is science related. Upon receiving the instructions and requirements needed for the articles, we decided to write about the science behind a few geological sites in Asia and the future of food.
ISawTheScience Articles
The first article that we wrote is titled 'Sites That Will Rock Your World' and is focused on the science behind 4 geological sites in Asia and how they were formed. We chose to work on this topic as we share an interest in geography and travelling. We figured it would be refreshing yet still relatable although it is not really something that one would think of when talking about science. As such, we researched on some popular geographical sites in Asia and how they were formed. Our first draft also included Philippines' Puerto Princesa but due to our total word count being too long, we had to cut it out. After multiple drafts and feedback from our mentor, it was finally ready for publishing.
Mount Kelimutu
Fairy Chimneys
Rainbow Mountains
Sigiriya Rock
Our second article, 'The Future Of Food!', talks about sustainable food alternatives that are up and coming, mainly GMO, hydroponics and 3D food printing. As food security becomes a more concerning problem, we felt that it was interesting to find out more about the alternative food sources that are available, especially 3D food printing since it has yet to go mainstream. For our first draft, our main focus was on GMO and its more sustainable alternatives. However, based on our mentor's comments, we decided to change our focus into something more general and not so much on GMO since it is not exactly a new concept that would intrigue readers into clicking onto our article. It has to be both informative but also interesting and relatable to attract more people into reading our articles.
Social media posts
Other than the 2 articles that we were asked to write, we were also tasked to create social media posts on the side, for STEM Inc's Instagram and Facebook page. We were given guidelines created by the previous interns for reference but decided to add on to it to create our own content instead. For Instagram specifically, we had 2 main categories of posts, one of which is called 'Did You Know?'. Posts under this category had concise information on light-hearted news such as the usage of lasers in real life and not just in movies. The other category of Instagram posts revolves around a poll that would be posted,as an Instagram story, a day before the actual post. These polls would allow the public to vote on their opinion on trivial questions such as 'The initial idea of AI was only introduced in recent years. True/False'. In addition to the Instagram posts, we also crafted a few drafts to be used as future reference.
Instagram Posts
Lightsabers! Fictional energy swords which emit plasma beams, used famously by many in the Star Wars universe. 🪐
Although a lightsaber does defy laws of physics, scientists have taken inspiration from the use of lasers for application in various fields. 🩺
One of the closest things scientists have now designed are high-energy plasma-based accelerators!
These accelerators project HD plasma laser beams, similar to those that would beam out of a saber. This could potentially be used for imaging bio molecular movement such as the unfolding of proteins and material testing. 🔬
Instead of being used simply as weapons seen in the movies, laser technology has been made to further develop the field of science and tech! 💉
As the audience for Facebook differs from Instagram, we had to adjust the way we wrote our posts for Facebook. Since the both of us were unfamiliar of the content being uploaded on the platform and the way it is being written, we spent quite some time researching for content as found it to be harder than researching content for Instagram posts. One example of our finalised post would be the use of drones to replant trees, as a way to tackle deforestation. Initially, we wanted to talk about the native species of butterflies that were going extinct due to deforestation and how drones can be used to replant trees. However, we were advised that it may be controversial for a government organisation to cover such a topic, even though the extinction of the butterflies was only mentioned briefly. After getting feedback and advise from our mentor, we changed the focus to the recent Australian bushfires. After a few posts, we have learnt how to craft our content to attract the Facebook users.
Facebook Post
On a fast burn. Deforestation like none other. 😟🔥
Over 10 million hectares of forest lost. One billion animals killed.
29 people dead. 2,000 homes lost.
All this from the Sep 2019 bushfires which continue raging even today in Australia. Is the battle for conservation over?
Let’s hope not. In Australia, companies like Dendra Systems have already been seeding a plan for large-scale ecosystem restoration. They use satellite images and drone collected data to determine the exact location for rehabilitation in ‘disturbed lands’. 🤔
Specialised drones are filled with seedpods and flown to these positions for aerial seeding. Once in the ground, the seedpods will start to grow when watered. The drones will continue to map the land even after rain to assess germination. 🌱
It’s still too early to conclude if drone seeding supplants traditional planting techniques. But it’s a step in the right direction – seeding a plan into action. 🤓👍
What steps will you take to save our trees, combat climate change or conserve wildlife? 🌳🐨🐵
Content/skills learnt
1. I have learnt to be more proactive in asking for feedback. Our mentor is always busy and does not have a lot of time to check on us. Therefore, we had to be proactive in asking him to review our work so that we can have the final product within the deadline.
2. Through this experience, we learned to be more adaptable. We cannot always get it right on the first time. Sometimes, there might be huge changes that we have to make to our drafts and even though we might spend a lot of time creating it, we would still have to make the changes, for it to be suitable enough for publication.
3. I have also learnt and understood more about website maintenance and digital archiving. It was something new to us as we had no experience on digital housekeeping beforehand. Although it can be quite time consuming, it was an interesting learning experience.
2 interesting aspects
1. What is thought to be an easy task of creating a social media post can actually be quite tedious as we have certain guidelines and requirements to follow such as only being able to use copyright free images and finding a topic that is not controversial. There are also different formats of writing the articles based on which platform it is being posted on and hence, we would have to adjust accordingly.
2. I also found it interesting that the Media & Communication team reaches out to different organisations as means for publicity. Through our time here, we have also been given the chance to comment on videos made by Mothership and were asked to choose which ones were suitable, given the conditions.
1 takeaway for life
Through this experience, I have learnt that communication is a very important part of working together. Everyone is busy and on the move most of the time. We would have to to update the people that we worked with constantly so that they are able to adjust their schedule accordingly. I feel that this not only applies to working adults but also to students. To get the job done efficiently, a group would have to work together and communicate with one another to avoid wasting time and effort.
As a whole, I feel that I've really benefited from this experience. It has been an enriching and interesting time working with everyone there.