A team of young coders from the Belait Arabic School (Sekolah Arab Belait) emerged as winners of the Tech Kids Camp 2019 with their basic programming project, 'SuperSAB Save the Earth'.
Tech Kids Camp is a collaboration between the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) and the Science, Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre, Ministry of Education. This year is the 5th time that AITI has organised Tech Kids Camp since it was first held in 2012.
The program is mainly targeted at students between 9 to 12 years old and aims to generate passion in ICT at an early age, as well as to provide a platform for innovation by allowing students to experience ICT in a practical and fun way. This year's camp was attended by 93 students and 31 teachers from 23 public, private and religious Islamic schools nationwide.
The students attended a 6-day workshop which began on 8 March 2019, facilitated by Edu Champ Academy, which introduced them to the basics of 'Scratch' - a programming language which allows users to create their own interactive stories, video games and animations using code.
At the end of the workshop, an ICT competition was held where the students were tasked with developing an ICT project in the form of an educational game. The teams then had to pitch their projects to the judging panel, where they were judged on their overall presentation skills, creativity, entertainment value of their education game as well as the extent to which the teams addressed this year's theme of 'Green Environment'.
Coming in 2nd place was a team from St. Andrew's School with a project called 'The Plastic Consequences', while Seri Mulia Sarjana International School coming in 3rd place with their project, 'Trip to Kampong Ayer'. The team from Ma'had Islam Brunei was also named Best Presenter, while the facilitator from Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Primary School was awarded with Best Mentor.
On hand to present prizes to the winners was the Chief Executive of AITI, Yang Mulia Pengiran Haji Mohd Zain bin Pengiran Haji Abdul Razak. The event took place at the Sengkurong Sixth Form Centre.
This year's winning team will go on to represent Brunei Darussalam at the ASEAN Cyberkids Camp 2019.
With IR4.0, and in the Smart Nation of the future, there will be a rich array of tech products and services, requiring different skill sets. Therefore AITI is designing this programme which plays an important role in educating young people with valuable and relevant ICT skills, such as coding, in order to equip them for IR4.0 and the Smart Nation of the future.
Tech Kids Camp 2019 participants in a group photo.
The school children joined the fun ice-breaking activities.
The school children worked hard to complete their Scratch project under the supervision of their teachers.
The school children joined the fun ice-breaking activities
The school children worked hard to complete their Scratch project under the supervision of their teachers
