The champions from SMK Tinggi Melaka. – Photos courtesy of Petronas
First runner up prize went to SMK Paka, Terengganu.
SMK Lutong, Miri grabbed the second runner up spot.
KUALA LUMPUR: At the end of a long day and nail-biting night, the Petronas All About Youth (AAY) 2017 became a showdown between two mobile apps – one to help students study history, and the other to help the community get in touch with the local authorities and service providers.
The all-boys team from SMK Tinggi Melaka developed ‘HISTOMAP’ – an app to help students study history, making mindmaps of topics and making it available on mobile.
The all-girls team from SMK Paka, Terengganu, developed ACU PAKA – an app that made it easy for the community to find help or services in their constituency of Paka. They even released the blueprint to other constituencies in the state to allow people there to replicate their footsteps.
When SMK Tinggi Melaka was named the winner, the reaction was as you would expect from a room with 250 people, most of them sixteen-year olds who had been riding high on adrenaline for the past few days.
Once the confetti settled, SMK Tinggi Melaka spokesperson Muhammad Anis Firdausi Hazmi told reporters that they are proud to represent Melaka in this competition.
“We’re very proud to win!” he said, before being interrupted by cheering from his team mates.
Anis explained that his team broke down 42 chapters of secondary school-level History (Form 1 to 5) into 370 mind maps, that were set down in PDF format and added into their app.
“The challenges is to complete this in eight weeks, considering we were also studying for exams. We really only had three weeks to prepare and promote it.”
The typing team digitised the mindmaps created by the students and verified by their teachers, while the promotional team worked to get the word out and the app into the phones of fellow students all over the country.
The team had a lot riding on them as it was the first time their school made it into the grand final. Now that they have secured the championship trophy, they plan on pushing forward with the app to continue helping fellow Sejarah students.
“We will collaborate with the Education Ministry so that this app doesn’t end here. All students in Malaysia can use this to help them in studying history,” said Anis.
Nur Aisya Abd Razak from SMK Paka, Terengganu, credited her entire team for their hard work that ultimately secured them as first runner-up.
“Our app has contact information for government agencies, small businesses and service providers. It’s easy for the community to find information because it is specific for this community. We also produced a blueprint so other communities can do the same.”
Chloe Yeo of SMK Lutong revealed that the most they expected from AAY 2017 was to gain some experience from working on a sandfly remedy, ultimately producing the repellent ‘Repello’ and ‘Sewangian’, a concentrate that can be used in a room diffuser.
Both are made from natural ingredients, inspired by the Orang Ulu community.
“We didn’t even expect to win state level,” she told reporters, adding that sandfly bites are a serious problem for their school and some people are allergic to it.
However, when asked what plans they had for their prize money, Yeo expressed hope that it will go into fixing the drainage system in their school.
“It’s often flooded during heavy rain. We always have to wear slippers to school.”
The other two finalists were SMK Sindumin from Sabah and SMK Lokman Hakim from Johor.
The Sabahans transformed an abandoned building into a local mini library, while the Johorians came up with an affordable venue and facility to promote archery to their local communities.
The prizes were handed over to the winning schools by Education Deputy Director-General Dr Zainal Aalam Hassan, together with Petronas Corporate Strategy Senior Vice President Ir Firouz Asnan, during the gala dinner and prize presentation on Thursday night at Impiana KLCC Hotel.
Zainal said that the AAY programme is something he is very proud of.
“With its goal to empower the Malaysian youth to play their part in creating a harmonious community and promote social cohesion, it is very much in line with Ministry of Education’s efforts to equip the future generation with the right skills to face the challenges of the future.”
He added that one of the highlights of the education blueprint is the aspiration of the Ministry to create an eco-system where students are exposed to build shared experiences and aspirations that form the foundation of unity.
“Here today, I am pleased to see that we are in an event that promotes just that, at the same time encourages one to think creatively as well as innovatively, for the benefit of the society at large.”
In his own speech, Firouz said that next year, Petronas will gather all 4,600 AAY participants and enrol them as AAY Alumni members where the corporation will commit to continue nurturing their talents further and give them the exposure they truly deserve.
The final judging was done on Friday morning by a panel of judges from Petronas, Education Ministry, TalentCorp Malaysia, and Teach for Malaysia.
Projects were accessed based on creativity, presentation clarity, originality, impact and sustainability.
Petronas AAY, now in its fourth year, is a key Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programme which aims to nurture and empower well-rounded Malaysian youths to reach out and make a difference in their community in areas of social development, community wellbeing and environment.