KidCadTech STEM Module Solution with Creativa

KidCadTech and Creativa, using Augmented Reality as an affordable educational kit in changing the method of learning STEM subjects by increasing hands-on engagement for children in schools and rural secluded areas in Malaysia.

According to the Science Outlook Report in 2017, the number of students taking Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses has fallen short, with only 40 percent pursuing STEM courses for their tertiary level education as opposed to the targeted 60 percent. The shortfall has been worrying since the ministry has been trying to encourage learning STEM subjects for students in primary and secondary school, yet somehow students refuse to continue learning subjects during their tertiary education.

Unfortunately, one of the factors contributing to the declining rate is due to STEM subjects being inaccessible. Even in a well-equipped school, the STEM subjects are taught by theory, hence students are forced to grasp the concept purely by what is being taught in the classroom and in books. It is no surprise that the engagement towards the subject is low, therefore making the students feel inadequate or not smart enough to understand or carry the subject. Not to mention, students who struggle with learning concepts in theory always end up feeling left out and even deciding to drop out of school. By the time the year ends, the students come to the conclusion of not like STEM as a subject and decide to further their tertiary education in the course such as Arts and History worse, some students decide that studying is a waste of time and pursue on finding a job.

The problem of STEM being an inaccessible subject is old news and teachers have been trying to find new ways to solve this, however, teachers are often left with limited choices. One of the solutions for increasing engagement in STEM subjects is by using teaching aid kits. However, another problem arises as those kits are expensive to be used in all the schools in Malaysia. It is not exactly a solution that every school may afford.

As consequence, the problem continues without an intervention solution despite the school already pinpointing the root of the problem. At one point, learning STEM subjects have been really tough and stressful for students that it gives the impression of only the bright, the intelligent and the elite are able to learn STEM. The rest who falls short in these subjects are subconsciously categorized as the slow and dull students who did not put enough effort in their studies. Even in their early stages of life, students are divided and categorized in this manner depending on whether or not they are able to carry the STEM subjects without seeing other factors that play in hand.

Malaysia is on its way to losing new and innovative minds in STEM due to this. Every year, we are now lacking available professional talents in the industries that are needed for the country’s development – especially in keeping up with global developments including the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0).

KitCadTech is a hands-on educational kit that functions as a teaching aid for STEM subjects. This kit is designed to be lightweight, compact, and portable – making it convenient for students to use. As of today, our focus is to supply the use of KidCadTech to local Malaysian schools that are interested in changing the way STEM subjects are being taught. Instead of the traditional method of teachers solely relying on textbooks, the KidCadTEch can be integrated into the classroom, offering a new learning experience for students. Our main goal is to give the opportunity for students to be more hands-on, giving them space to create new things and even try and error with hopes that it will increase the engagement of students with the STEM subject that is being taught in the classroom. It is expected that by altering the method of teaching the STEM subject in school, students will be more interested in the subject and will develop a deeper understanding of the mechanics instead of only blindly memorizing the theories as provided by books. In support of using KidCadTech, we designed an application, Creativa that uses augmented reality as a new approach to delivering information in a more interactive way. The use of KidCadTech and Creative together as teaching aid will enhance students' learning experiences, and lessen the pressure on teachers to teach the subjects. As a way to ensure that both the kit and application we designed are appropriate to accommodate students, we work with the Ministry of Education to make sure that our syllabi are up to date and align with the textbook as provided by the ministry.

As for now, our solution targets students between the age of 9 till 15 that are enrolled in any STEM subjects in school. Hence, we engage with schools that are curious and very involved in changing how they teach STEM subjects. Our first step is by approaching the school's administration and having a brief review and discussion of the student’s performance in STEM subjects with the teachers. As a way to understand the student’s perspective, we also take the time to talk with at least – students to validate the problem that they have been going through and if they would be interested in a new method of learning STEM subjects. Our mission is to ensure both KidCadTech and Creativa is able to increase the engagement between the students and the subjects taught hence forming a deeper understanding with the knack of wanting to innovate. By relying solely on books and the traditional classroom, students are underserved as they are forced to memorize the theory aspect for the sake of scoring well in the subject but never truly understanding how to apply the subject in real-life situations. This undeniably cuts short students' potential to create and innovate and forms an impression that STEM subjects are too tough and complicated to be understood, making them give up on continuing in STEM subjects during their tertiary education. This situation is worse for students who have trouble with memorizing STEM subjects yet started their school year with a passion for learning STEM subjects – these students end up failing their STEM subjects during their exams which permanently leaves a scar on their school records and automatically makes them under qualified to apply for STEM subjects during their tertiary education despite their burning desire of wanting to take the subject.

Our solution serves the purpose of changing the students' way of learning and simultaneously solidifying their passion for STEM subjects. The kit acts as a stepping stone in helping them build their passion for STEM into their career and adulthood. In the long run, this means changing their life for the better and making their dreams into a reality – despite their struggles of learning in school.

On a bigger scale, our solution also serves to change the gaps of knowledge between theorists and industrialists. It is a common pattern here in Malaysia that students are divided and categorized into different schools based on their ability to memorize a book or their ability to build using their hands. The effect of this is having two groups of professionals, the theorists who are experts in terms of knowledge through higher education, and industrialists who are experts by years of working experience. 

Our representative, Mr. Hafy Shah is one of the Social Innovator Ambassadors under Yayasan Innovasi Malaysia (Malaysia Innovation Foundation) which is an organization under the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI). This organization is dedicated to identifying specific social problems and offers to fund creative individuals who are able to come up with a solution to the problem. Mr. Hafy Shah is one of the recipients of their funding and was even given mentorship in terms of building his start-up with his innovative product which the KitCadTech and Creativa.

Over the course of six months, Mr. Hafy Shah has interviewed 40 potential users to validate the problem statement, the variables involved in terms of offering the best solution, and the specifications of his final product. Having to validate these assumptions, Mr. Hafy has progressed to commercialize the product to the public but with his core focus on approaching the schools in Malaysia. As of today, our team has already approached 30 schools with the intention of helping their students gain a better learning experience in their STEM subjects. We have already received feedback from at least 40 teachers and 100 students that have used KitCadTech and Creativa and this feedback has shown quite a positive response.

As for now, our solution targets students between the age of 9 till 15 that are enrolled in any STEM subjects in school. Hence, we engage with schools that are curious and very involved in changing how they teach STEM subjects. Our first step is by approaching the school's administration and having a brief review and discussion of the student’s performance in STEM subjects with the teachers. As a way to understand the student’s perspective, we also take the time to talk with at least – students to validate the problem that they have been going through and if they would be interested in a new method of learning STEM subjects. Our mission is to ensure both KidCadTech and Creativa are able to increase the engagement between the students and the subjects taught hence forming a deeper understanding with the knack of wanting to innovate. By relying solely on books and the traditional classroom, students are underserved as they are forced to memorize the theory aspect for the sake of scoring well in the subject but never truly understanding how to apply the subject in real-life situations. This undeniably cuts short students' potential to create and innovate and forms an impression that STEM subjects are too tough and complicated to be understood, making them give up on continuing in STEM subjects during their tertiary education. This situation is worse for students who have trouble with memorizing STEM subjects yet started their school year with a passion for learning STEM subjects – these students end up failing their STEM subjects during their exams which permanently leaves a scar on their school records and automatically makes them under qualified to apply for STEM subjects during their tertiary education despite their burning desire of wanting to take the subject.

Our solution serves the purpose of changing the students' way of learning and simultaneously solidifying their passion for STEM subjects. The kit acts as a stepping stone in helping them build their passion for STEM into their career and adulthood. In the long run, this means changing their life for the better and making their dreams into a reality – despite their struggles of learning in school.

On a bigger scale, our solution also serves to change the gaps of knowledge between theorists and industrialists. It is a common pattern here in Malaysia that students are divided and categorized into different schools based on their ability to memorize a book or their ability to build using their hands. The effect of this is having two groups of professionals, the theorists which are experts in terms of knowledge through higher education, and industrialists which are experts by years of working experience. 

The traditional method of learning in class is dependent on the materials provided by the teacher, learning theories from textbooks, and relies on how long the students are able to retain focus by listening to the subjects in class. To support the lack of understanding of the subject in school, students then take tuition or night classes which are yet just another form of the traditional learning method.

The use of KitCadTech and Creativa offers hands on approach with the help of Augmented Reality (AR) as a way to increase engagement between the students and the subject. As for now, our team has designed the teaching aid and application to cater to the STEM subjects for children at school. Implementing this approach and technology will be able to change students’ learning methods and hopefully increase both students' understanding and test scores on the subject. Once students become more familiar with this method of learning, it would be possible to implement the use of more teaching aids and AR as a way to teach every subject in school, hence changing the way students learn in the long run.

An important factor of our innovation also stems from it being affordable and easily accessible, with the cost of one kit being ---. Our team aims to target a large size of our target population hence the price of our innovation should be affordable for children from different backgrounds and financial statuses. 

On a surface level, our main goal is to offer a new approach to learning STEM subjects in school in hopes of increasing the engagement of students towards the subject. The increase in engagement and comprehension of the subject will impact the students to perform better in their exams, it will help to solidify the student's passion in STEM subjects and will increase their chances of being qualified to pursue their studies in STEM during their tertiary level education. This will give a significant impact on Malaysia as it will help to produce more professionals in the industry of Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Social Scientists.

In the long run, providing this approach will also impact on how students learn their subjects in school. Our team is keen on introducing this concept of learning not only on a small scale to students but we are working with the Ministry of Education to find ways how to introduce this concept to every school in Malaysia. Not only that, we are planning to target rural and secluded communities that do not have the same access to education. Hence, even though individuals in these communities are not aiming to be professionals in the industry, they will be equipped with the knowledge of building and innovating for the benefit of their own community. The rural and secluded communities will be given a chance to be more independent and self-sufficient to build their own equipment in order to sustain their own community.

In the upcoming one year, we plan to work with different schools and we plan to achieve them by working closely with the Ministry of Education.

KidCadTech functions as a teaching aid that offers students to be more hands-on during in class. The concept of hands-on learning is to allow students to experiment with trial and error, to learn from their mistakes and to understand the potential gaps between theory and practice.

Synchronizing with the KidCadTech, Creativa is an application which uses Augmented Reality (AR) to show interactive videos and graphics for students to learn, similarly following the textbook syllabus as provided by the Ministry of Education.

As of today, we have successfully approached 30 schools and have served 300 total students and 100 teachers. In the upcoming year, we aim to look for 100 schools and target 200,000 amount of students and 40,000 teachers. We are also planning to locate and reach out to rural communities with a population of 1,000,000 people.

One of the main barriers that exist in implementing the use of KitCadTech and Creativa in schools is the readiness of teachers to use the new technology according to their curricula. This barrier is more prominent among teachers that are seniors in age, as they have trouble using technology on a daily basis – even when trying to set up their online classes. Hence, even though the teaching aid and application are both user-friendly, certain teachers still have a harder time utilizing the technology for the benefit of their students.

Another concern that may be a barrier in the future is the financial aid that is required for us to stay evolved with the new and upcoming technology. Both our product and our service are aligned and directly correlated with the syllabus structured in the textbooks according to the Ministry of Education. Over time, it is expected that there will be changes as technology is constantly evolving. These changes will affect the overall syllabus and content of the textbooks, which will cause us to change our teaching aid according to any updated version of the syllabus or textbooks. In order to face this challenge, our team must be equipped with financial aid in order to prepare for the changes that will happen in the future.

             Lastly, another barrier that needs to be taken into account is the political state of Malaysia. The cabinet is expected to change every five years, hence during those times – different ideologies are pushed based on the individuals chosen for the cabinet. It must be noted, that these ideologies are uncertain and may or may not be in favor of supporting STEM subjects and the technology provided to help students in schools. 

currently with are working with Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia which is an organization that gives innovator funding to develop a product that will solve a community problem. 

As for now, we are able to start the production of the teaching aid (KidCadTech) and the development of our App (Creativa) with the use of grant funding. Overall, we have accumulated around RM250, 000 (58336.28 USD) for the purpose of commercializing both the teaching aid and the App. As a way for us to stay sustainable, we are selling the teaching aids with a 50% profit margin and offering a low-rate monthly subscription for our App. We are also closely working with the Ministry of Education, as we plan to have a contract on being the supplier of teaching aids for many schools here in Malaysia.