With just a balloon, recyclables, straws, and wooden skewers, can you build an air-powered car that can travel at least two meters?
This was a recent design challenge given to a group of students at a STEM day camp in Bangkok. After exploring physics principles through hands-on activities, the students were given these materials plus a hot glue gun, tape, paper, and pencil.
There is no doubt that the current generation of young people has a global perspective. Among them Generation Z who are finishing higher education and starting to enter the market place with its enthusiasm, idealism and new ideas to make a meaningful contribution in this global world.
One of our SEEDS educational consultants works in partnership with the Hasanuddin University in Makassar (Indonesia) where he comes alongside students and hopes to not only equip them in terms of expertise and knowledge but also in terms of getting ready for the global challenges of our days.
Helping the children have dreams is one of my prime motivations in preparing some fun and active English learning activities for them. One of the children’s unspoken dreams is to help uplift the economic status of their families. Getting an education is just one of many steps towards getting a better job and realizing their dreams. So, we encourage them to communicate well in English, and let them feel that learning is fun.
One of SEEDS’ goals is to partner with educational institutions to help develop students who will later become community leaders that work to uplift their surrounding communities. One of our SEEDS educators, Joshua Pong, was asked to speak at an educational conference held by the International Program of Science Education at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Bandung.
Most of life has returned back to normal in West Sumatra. Students are back on campus and are going to in-person lessons.
The library that our SEEDS worker has in her home has been popular. Children read books and do educational games that will increase their abilities in logical thinking and hand-eye coordination.
English Zone (EZ) re-opened after the pandemic on June 11, 2022. This fresh new start is also a celebration of the EZ’s move to a new location in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, and also the new EZ coordinator’s first big project.
SEEDS partner, Indonesian non-profit foundation Pendar Pagi, shares SEEDS’ commitment to help alleviate poverty in Southeast Asia through journeying with and equipping local people in the Riau province of Indonesia with applicable life skills. One opportunity that is currently being developed is to come alongside poorer families in one of the province’s regencies and developing their potential and capacity for raising fish and aquaponic vegetables.
Due to Covid-19 outbreaks in Thailand and up to 12 months of online learning, the football projects in south Thailand were not able to run for much of 2021 and early 2022. However, during the month of March 2022 (start of the summer holidays in Thailand) SEEDS workers were able to run a football camp for children and youth just outside of Hat Yai, in Songkhla province.
The community development charity team were so glad to be back face-to-face in our focus urban poor community earlier this year.
We ran our six-week parenting course in both kindergartens between February and March. The team had great conversations with mums about the realities of bedtime routines when living in one room with a lot of noise and activity continuing through to late at night, about the impossibility of controlling snack intake in an extended family context, and about the importance of family meetings when conflict arises.
Anyone who has visited Indonesia will know that the country is plagued by a garbage problem. It is thrown into rivers, blocking drains and causing flooding. Single use plastic is burnt in neighbourhoods, filling the air with acrid smoke. Thousands of tons of kitchen waste, rotten fruit from wet markets and coconut husks are thrown into garbage containers where they are rapidly filling up the city dump.