Driving on the Road to Building Science Interest with STEM Bus

STEM Bus, a project organized by STEM Cambodia Organization.  Photo: Supplied/ Todd Brown

A journey of STEM lovers in bringing the real world of science to every student in every province.

It was the last day evening in March at Phnom Penh’s iconic National Olympic Stadium where Cambodia Science & Engineering Festival (CSEF) was being held in large scale for the third consecutive year.

Most of the exhibitors already started uninstalling their booths. However, there was still one, attached with a colorful bus displayed nearby, still crowded by people.

The booth belongs to STEM Bus Cambodia, which is a project running by STEM Cambodia Organization in partnership with the British Embassy, and Education Ministry.

“We would like to strengthen the quality of human resource in Cambodia either in science or social science field. However, we have prioritized science more in education due to the high demand in job market,” said the Minister of Education, Hang Chuon Naron, at the CSEF 2017.

The STEM Bus concept was put together by STEM Cambodia after the success of organizing the annual Cambodia Science & Engineering Festival.

Allen Dodgson Tan, Founder & Managing
Director of STEM Cambodia.
Photo: Supplied

“You know! We started this [festival] three years ago. There was almost none (people aware of STEM). We held the first one at Royal University of Phnom Penh,” said Allen Tan, Founder & Managing Director of STEM Cambodia, who was sitting next to the STEM bus after his closing remark at the festival.

“I had fourth year university student from a school with the engineering program come to me and say they never heard what is STEM and they had no idea that science, technology, engineering, and math were related,” Allen continued as he flashed back.

“Now, I think it would be hard for you to find the student, at least in Phnom Penh, who don’t have some idea about these things”.

Even though many young people in the capital already obtained the strong knowledge about STEM, more works still need to be done in order to spread the STEM awareness and science interest more extensively to students outside the city.

“So we made the STEM Bus to go out there, visit schools, spread the excitement, and the messages of STEM to the rural at provinces,” said Allen.

Six people are working as a team in the STEM Bus project. One of them is the coordinator from the Ministry of Education. Another is the team leader, and the rest are members. Each is assigned with a particular work in setting up booths for presenting game as well as experiment in each field of STEM to students.

Wearing a blue T-Shirt with the written words in Khmer “Rth Yon STEM” at the front side, Long Reaksmeychhorpon, the team leader of STEM Bus crews, was standing at a corner of the booth, explaining a student how to make Hologram. 

“I get involved with STEM Organization since 2015...it is always my dream to inspire people, especially teenagers to be interested in science field,” Chhorpon said with a smile on her face.

The main purpose of STEM Bus project, according to Chhorpon, is to encourage the science and other fields of STEM interest, especially those in provinces and partially in Phnom Penh.

Long Reaksmeychhorpon and other three members of STEM Bus project.
Photo: AOMPUL/Som Panha

“We could not bring the whole STEM class to students in just one day. All we can do is to build their interest in those four fields of STEM, and awareness that STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics,” said Chhorpon adding that students may also consider choosing STEM majors as a choice for their university studies.

“We ask them to get involved with us, play with the color, play with the rainbow, and we try to add physic concept, chemistry concept gradually by playing... so kids get excited because it is hands-on experience.”

The STEM Bus was destined to stop by 56 high schools at 11 provinces and partially in Phnom Penh during its first three-month pilot program. 

Those provinces include Kompot, Kep, Sihanouk Ville, Takeo, Kampong Speu, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kandal, Kampong Cham, Ratanakiri, and Battambang.

Sim Dany, a 16-year-old student from Kompong Spue high school, said she and her friends completely had no idea what STEM is before the STEM Bus came to their school.

“When the STEM Bus arrived at our school, we were so wondered that we went to ask our teacher about what the STEM Bus team were doing.”

Dany continued that she and her friends were amazed by experiments conducted by the team such as the one with banana DNA and another with density of different colorful solutions.
“Those were so practical. We only saw them in the book. It was so different to see the real one. We had so much fun and were well-informed about science and information about STEM event on that day”.

The STEM Bus is supposed to stop at each province for one full day. It was difficult for the team to move from one school to another, which was not because of their equipment or the way they were traveling, but was because of students.

“At the end of the day, when everything finished, some would come to our booth and ask ‘When will you be back? Where can we find you?’ Those were quite difficult questions since we also hardly know when we would definitely return,” Reaksmeychhorpon said.

Long Reaksmeychhorpon, team leader of STEM Bus crews, showing students how hologram works.
Photo: AOMPUL/Som Panha

Hologram.  Photo: AOMPUL/Som Panha

According to Allen Tan, it is likely for the STEM Bus to take at least two and a half year to reach every students in every provinces, and to restart the journey again since there are approximately 463 upper-secondary schools in Cambodia.

The book titled STEM Career of the Future, which describes each STEM careers in both English and Khmer regarding the salary, and places, which offer training in those subjects, was also distributed to students every single time the STEM Bus stopped by their school.
With STEM Bus, Allen believed every young Cambodian could be a change maker in STEM fields for their country.

“My vision is that Cambodia with its young people now can be a regional leader in tech. I know that seems unbelievable to a lot of Cambodians. My first task is to convince them as possible... Look! Most SAMSUNG phones are made in Vietnam, Those could be made here in Cambodia just as easily! Those could be great jobs here!” said Allen, sharing his own perspective in the next 10 years.

by Som Panha