Science and Information Technology based STEM Festival (STEM-Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) was organized today on Monday with the participation of girl students of Rampal Upazila of Bagerhat. Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Rampal Upazila Rahima Sultana Bushra and Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Morelganj Upazila S. M. Tarek Sultan visited the fest under the ‘STEM & ICT Skills for Girls of Coastal Areas [SISGCA]’ project. Around 150 students participated in the festival at Perikhali Model High School premises in Rampal, which included programming contest, science-based project exhibition, poster presentation of innovative ideas and robotics competition.
More than 1 hundred students of 7 schools of Rampal Upazila of Bagerhat participated in various categories of this STEM Fest organized by the initiative of Bangladesh Freedom Foundation under the project titled STEM & ICT Skills for Girls of Coastal Areas [SISGCA] with the aim of making girls students of coastal areas of Bangladesh interested in acquiring information technology based skills. The schools are – Perikhali Model High School, Barakatali Bahumukhi High School, Jhanjhania Secondary High School, Srifaltala Pilot High School, Rampal Pilot Girls’ High School, Dhakara Bahumukhi Model High School and Uddipan Badar Samsu Bidyaniketan of Mongla Upazila.
Since last year, the project has been organizing skill development training workshops for the students of Perikhali Model High School and Barakatali Bahumukhi High School of Rampal Upazila with the aim of creating an attitude of using technology and science to solve practical problems among the students and making them skilled for the technology workplace. In continuation of this, this STEM festival was organized to encourage students to work in technology and science. During the festival, the visiting guests visited about 31 science projects and about 10 poster presentations of young scientists of Bagerhat district. Students also participated in various activities throughout the day including programming contest, quiz competition, robotics competition. Earlier, school-based science Olympiad under Bangladesh Junior Science Olympiad and school based math Olympiad under Bangladesh Maths Olympiad were organized in two schools through the project.
About STEM Fest, Upazila Nirbahi Officer Rahima Sultana Bushra said, I believe that encouraging girls in remote areas like Rampal to study knowledge and develop their innovative abilities will make students more technologically and scientifically sound. Morelganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer S. M. Tarek Sultan said, today’s lively participation of students makes me happy to think that our coastal girls are also getting ready to participate equally in building Smart Bangladesh.
Students are presenting scientific projects or models on several projects including sustainable city, drone, flood alarm system, earthquake detector, fire detector. They also participated in scratch programming including building and driving line following robots in robotics.
In the closing ceremony on Monday afternoon, General Secretary of Mathematics Olympiad and General Secretary of Bangladesh Open-Source Network, Mr. Munir Hasan distributed prizes among the winning students in various categories. Dhaka University Institute of Information Technology (IIT) department associate professor Dr. BM Moinul Hossain, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology Mechatronics Engineer Department Head Professor Dr. Md. Helal An Nahian, Executive Director of Bangladesh Freedom Foundation Sajjadur Rahman Chowdhury were also present at the event and evaluated the work of the students. Headmasters of respective schools, school management committee members and other teachers were also present in this STEM festival. They enjoyed the enthusiastic participation of students by visiting various competitions.
It is to be noted that, in order to ensure the participation of girls in the technology and science-based activities of the Government of Bangladesh, especially for the backward and underprivileged girls, Bangladesh Freedom Foundation is conducting various activities including skill enhancement training on science, mathematics, programming and robotics for the 6th to 8th grade girl students of Tala Upazila of Rampal and Satkhira. Under the auspices of the international organization Malala Fund in cooperation with Bangladesh Open Source Network (BDOSN), the program is being implemented in three coastal upazilas of Khulna, Rupsa and Bagerhat of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Open Source Network is cooperating in the whole process.