|
Dr Margaret Whalley the MiSAC Treasurer has, for many years, run competitions on the MiSAC model in E & SE Asia which have been much admired for increasing awareness of the importance of microbes and for their ability to inspire students to investigate topics related to, but not prescribed by, the school curriculum. Many are on microbiological issues of global importance. This inspired the International Association for the Future Stem Workforce (IAFSW) https://www.iafsw.org to approach MiSAC for collaboration in running a joint annual competition in the UK and in E & SE Asia, starting in 2024. Asian students will enter the same competition as their UK counterparts, Neglected Tropical Diseases and Climate Change, although there will be minor differences, described below. Their entries will be considered on a par with those in the UK, with winning students' names and entries being displayed on both MiSAC and IAFSW web sites.
The Asian branch competition will be run in selected schools of the IAFSW network in the Association of SE Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Plus Three partner countries, which consist of the 10 ASEAN member states plus China, Japan & S Korea. Advertising and information about the competition will be online, using the IAFSW web site https://www.ntds.iafsw.org. Although the stated information, support material and competition requirements will generally be the same as for the UK, the publicity will take a different form and there will be a single age range (Grades 7-9: 12-14 years). The competition will be held slightly later than that in the UK to accommodate Asian school times, prize money will be sponsored in Asia and submission and judging of entries will mostly be on-line.
The IAFSW has decided that, because this is a topic of global importance and NTDs greatly affect nations of E & SE Asia, it will produce additional resources consisting of training videos to enhance the educators' comprehension of NTDs and their global health implications. These will be similar to the ones produced for the 2023 SEAMEO Vaccines: fighting disease competition. As with the training videos on vaccination, these resources will subsequently be available for teaching the topic in schools throughout the region.
As a result of this collaborative initiative, IAFSW will feature MiSAC's logo as co-organiser of the competition in E & SE Asia and an international partner of IAFSW on the IAFSW website.
|
