Making science fun to attract the students
The 17-year-old has no regrets. And she has her teachers to thank for it.
'My Physics teacher often conducts simple yet relatable experiments that connect to our everyday lives, while my Biology teacher is like a 'walking biological dictionary', always ready with answers, even beyond the textbook,' said the SMK Assunta student.
Teoh and her fellow students say the government needs to step up efforts if it wants to attract more students to learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Teoh said she finds students are often discouraged by the stereotype that the science stream is the hardest path in school.
'But that's far from the truth. To combat this, I think the government could organise free educational science fairs or even workshops that could emphasise how exciting and relevant science is, helping to break those stereotypes,' she said.
She added that platforms such as TikTok or Instagram can be used to promote science using trends, relatable content, or even interesting short video clips.
'When students see science being presented in a fun, relatable and engaging way, they might be more enthusiastic.
'My curiosity and determination to prove others wrong outweighed my fears.
'Also, I've always been fascinated by how things work, and I grew up watching medical dramas with my family, which later sparked my interest in forensics,' she said.
Fellow Biology student Lim Xi Ying, 16, also said the government plays an important role in nurturing the passion for STEM among students.
'The government should invest in modern lab equipment and tools to make learning science more engaging, especially for schools in rural areas.
'Scholarships or financial incentives for science students should also be provided to reduce economic barriers and prevent a situation where students avoid taking up science due to higher costs,' she said.
She added that teachers who are supportive and passionate are equally important, adding that her science teachers make lessons engaging and easier to understand by relating concepts to daily life applications.
Both Teoh and Lim are participants of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star's Newspaper-in-Education (NiE) team.
Meanwhile, Nurul Aisyah Munawarah Asan Mohamed, 17, said the government can attract more students to the science stream by promoting the wide range of career opportunities that come with it.
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The Star
26-07-2025
- The Star
Keep a safe distance to let langurs thrive, says expert
Vanishing wildlife: The dusky leaf monkey, also known as the spectacled langur or the spectacled leaf monkey, is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. — CHAN BOON KAI/The Star GEORGE TOWN: Although they are now becoming a common sight on rooftops and in gardens, the majestic dusky langurs (Trachypithecus obscurus) are at risk of going extinct if nothing is done to protect their natural habitat. Langur Project Penang (LPP) founder Dr Yap Jo Leen said the primates are now classified as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. She said although dusky langurs have been spotted in and around the forested and residential fringes of northern Penang Island, this does not indicate a growing population. 'With urbanisation, there are more sightings of dusky langurs and other wildlife in housing areas. 'But this only means they have ventured out of their natural habitats and may no longer be living in the forests. 'We need to raise awareness that they are an endangered species. 'It is important to conserve and protect them before our great-grandchildren lose the chance to see them,' she told The Star. Also known as the spectacled langur, the primates can be found across Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand where they inhabit tropical forests. Yap said the LPP has been working on conservation through science communication to protect dusky langurs and other wildlife. She stressed that it is best not to feed or interact with the primates. 'To safeguard the dusky langurs is to keep a safe distance and respect them. 'If you see them along hiking trails, just use a pair of binoculars or your phone to zoom in and observe them. Avoid any direct contact. 'Unfortunately, some people tend to feed them, which is a big no-no. 'They are not domestic animals. 'The best thing to do is let them find their own food and return to the forest afterwards. 'Urban dusky langurs that live around residential areas rely on plants in neighbourhood gardens or green spaces,' she said. Yap added that leftover food from feeding dusky langurs can draw in other animals, including crows and pigeons. 'It causes waste management issues, which then attract pests. 'This can lead to disease transmission – a negative cycle overall,' she said. LPP, a primate conservation enterprise, is a community science-based outreach and conservation project in Malaysia. The enterprise was behind the installations of two road canopy 'bridges' in Teluk Bahang (Ah Lai's crossing in 2019) and Tanjung Bungah (Numi's crossing in 2024), where treetop animals like the dusky langurs can safely cross busy roads. Yap said the bridges were part of a conservation strategy aimed at reducing human-monkey interaction and preventing monkey roadkill. 'The main purpose is to help them move away from residential areas, as the roads are too risky for them to cross. 'The crossing in Teluk Bahang, for example, is used by many species, including monkeys, reptiles and even birds that perch on it. 'We are installing another bridge in Batu Ferringhi, hopefully by the end of this year or early next year. 'This upcoming bridge will also serve as a tool for ethical and sustainable tourism, environmental education and conservation storytelling,' she said. In 2020, Yap was recognised as one of the 10 winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award, an annual award that celebrates the efforts of Malaysia's unsung heroes. Climate change, hotter weather and temperature fluctuations are other concerns for dusky langurs. 'Based on our research, we have observed changes in their foraging behaviour. 'During hot spells, it becomes harder for them to find water. In urban areas, they have adapted by seeking water from rooftops - such as small pools or drainage points. 'This shows their resilience and ability to adapt to changing environments. 'Dusky langurs work hard every day to meet their dietary and hydration needs. 'Sometimes, they must move beyond their usual range to search for more food, which makes them vulnerable, especially in fragmented habitats like residential areas,' she said.
The Star
24-07-2025
- The Star
Meta unveils wristband for controlling computers with hand gestures
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'You don't have to actually move,' Thomas Reardon, the Meta vice president of research who leads the project, said in an interview. 'You just have to intend the move.' Meta's wristband is part of a sweeping effort to develop technologies that let wearers control their personal devices without touching them. The aim is to provide simpler, quicker and less awkward ways of interacting with everything from laptops to smartphones – and maybe even to develop new digital devices that replace what we all use today. Most of these technologies are years away from widespread use. They typically involve tiny devices surgically implanted in the body, which is a complicated and risky endeavor. These implants are tested solely with disabled people who cannot move their arms and hands, and need new ways of using computers or smartphones. Neuralink, a Silicon Valley startup founded by Elon Musk, aims to implant chips under the skull, beside the brain. Synchron, run by an Australian neurologist, hopes to implant devices inside blood vessels in the neck. These efforts, like those of many other startups, aim to read brain activity directly – an enormously complex process that must be tailored to the individual. Meta is taking a simpler approach. Its technology does not require surgery. Anyone can strap on the device and start using it. Using artificial intelligence techniques, Reardon and his team have identified common electrical signals that appear when a person moves a finger, wrist or thumb. 'This idea – this kind of technology – is not new, it is decades old,' said Dario Farina, a professor of bioengineering at Imperial College, London, who has tested the technology but was not involved in the research. 'The breakthrough here is that Meta has used artificial intelligence to analyse very large amounts of data, from thousands of individuals, and make this technology robust. It now performs at a level it has never reached before.' Meta's wristband uses a technique called electromyography, or EMG, to gather electrical signals from muscles in the forearm. These signals are produced by neurons in the spinal cord – called alpha motor neurons – that connect to individual muscle fibers. Because these neurons connect directly to the muscle fibers, the electrical signals are particularly strong – so strong that they can be read from outside the skin. The signal also moves much faster than the muscles. If a device like Meta's wristband can read the signals, it can type much faster than your fingers. 'We can see the electrical signal before you finger even moves,' Reardon said. EMG has long provided a way for amputees to control prosthetic hands. But technologies that use the technique as a computer interface are only beginning to mature. In 2012, three Canadian entrepreneurs founded a company called Thalmic Labs, which built an armband called Myo that sent simple computer commands using hand gestures. With the swipe of a hand, for instance, you could switch to a new slide in a PowerPoint presentation. But the company discontinued the product several years later. Reardon started similar research after founding a company called Ctrl Labs with two other neuroscientists he had met in a Ph.D. program at Columbia University. In 2019, the startup was acquired by Meta, where it now operates within a research operation called Reality Labs. Although Reardon and his colleagues have been privately demonstrating their technology for years, they are only now beginning to publicly share their work because it is now mature enough for the marketplace. The key development is the use of AI techniques to analyse the EMG signals. After collecting these signals from 10,000 people who agreed to test the prototype, Reardon used a machine learning system called a neural network – the same breed of AI that drives ChatGPT – to identify common patterns in this data. Now, it can look for these same patterns even when a different person is using the device. 'Out of the box, it can work with a new user it has never seen data for,' said Patrick Kaifosh, director of research science at Reality Labs and one of the neuroscientists that founded Ctrl Labs. According to Reardon, who is also known as the founding father of the Internet Explorer web browser at Microsoft, Meta plans to fold the technology into products over the next few years. Last fall, the company demonstrated how its wristband could be used to control an experimental version of its smart glasses, which can take photos, record videos, play music and verbally describe the world around you. Like technologies from Neuralink and Synchron, Meta's wristband could also provide new options for disabled people. 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The Star
23-07-2025
- The Star
Children with SCID are born defenceless against infections
As a parent, you'd probably never guess that if your child repeatedly gets an infection, it could be due to a genetic disorder. Even medical practitioners may not be aware of this. Primary immunodeficiencies – now often referred to as inborn errors of immunity (IEI) – are a group of more than 500 rare, inherited conditions where a part of the immune system is missing or severely impaired. These genetic flaws can affect anyone regardless of age, gender or race, leading to an increased susceptibility to infections, autoimmune diseases or other immune problems. The infections may show up in the skin, sinuses, throat, ears, lungs, brain, spinal cord, or in the urinary or intestinal tracts. IEI patients often have repeated infections, infections that won't clear up, or unusually severe infections. They can also present with tumours, severe allergies, multiple enlarged lymph nodes or an enlarged liver. Researchers are discovering more and more IEI, with the most common one being antibody deficiency. Antibodies are proteins that protect you when unwanted substances such as bacteria, viruses and toxins enter your body. 'Some people may have mild IEI, but do not display any symptoms. 'Perhaps those with recurrent episodes of upper respiratory tract infection [URTI] could have it, but they don't know because they have never done a blood test to check if there is a problem with the function of antibodies,' says Hospital Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (HSAAS) consultant paediatrician and clinical immunologist and allergist Associate Professor Dr Intan Hakimah Ismail. An emergency situation Prof Intan says babies with SCID seldom live past a year old without a bone marrow transplant due to the frequent infections they get. — Photos: GLENN GUAN/The Star Out of all the IEI, severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is the most critical one. This condition impacts the T cells, as well as the B cells and natural killer cells – all immune cells that originate from the bone marrow and are crucial for fighting off infections. Infants with SCID appear healthy at birth, but are highly vulnerable to severe and potentially fatal infections. Usually, the prognosis is poor, as babies don't live past a year unless they get a bone marrow transplant. Says Assoc Prof Intan: 'We consider SCID as a paediatric emergency, so we have to go all out to get them a transplant as quickly as possible. 'With other IEI, there is time to discuss a transplant, but here, there is no time – they will die. 'The majority of SCID babies will have an infection within the first few weeks of life. 'This can include URTI, pneumonia, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, fungal infection, oral thrush, pus at the BCG vaccination site, etc.' If the baby has had only one episode of infection, it may be hard for the paediatrician to make the right diagnosis. Only after repeated infections may the doctor suspect something amiss and order further blood tests to check. Possible to cure While breastfeeding is generally beneficial for infants, it can pose risks for babies with SCID due to the potential transmission of cytomegalovirus through breast milk. Treatment for SCID includes intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) replacement therapy, enzyme replacement therapy and gene therapy, but the latter two are not available in Malaysia. ALSO READ: New gene therapy shows promise against 'bubble boy' disease At HSAAS, once a SCID child is diagnosed or referred from other hospitals, they are started on IVIG immediately, along with antibiotics, antifungals and anti-tuberculosis drugs to prevent infection. 'If they have recurrent viral infections, we also start them on antiviral medications – all these are temporary solutions while waiting for a bone marrow transplant for a cure. 'The ideal donors are usually the siblings [without SCID] as they are likely to have a 100% genetic match. 'If not, the parents come next or someone unrelated with a 100% genetic match. 'Thankfully, we can now get the donor's stem cells from the peripheral blood instead of the bone marrow directly, which is a less invasive procedure. 'The child has to be infection-free as much as possible before the transplant, but in some situations, this is not possible, so if the infection is minimal, the transplant can proceed,' explains Assoc Prof Intan. In most instances, only one transplant is required for a cure. Inaccurate numbers Currently, like most rare diseases, there is no national registry for IEI or SCID. Jaasritha is not out of the woods yet and still needs IVIG treatment monthly, but Manonmani is happy that her baby's smile has returned. The prevalence of SCID worldwide is estimated to be one in 50,000 to 100,000 live births. Based on that statistic, Malaysia should have 60-100 cases annually. However, this number might be an underestimate, as some cases may be missed due to death before diagnosis. 'In UPM [Universiti Putra Malaysia], I have my own data in our centre and we are only picking up three to four cases a year. 'Although we are the leading IEI referral centre in the country, not all cases are referred to us. 'Our data from 2012 shows we have more than 1,000 IEI cases, but for SCID alone, it's 44, so we're definitely missing out on the actual numbers,' says Assoc Prof Intan. That's why she is fighting hard to get newborns screened for SCID, She says: 'We had two cases where the first child was born and died within three or four months. 'It was the same story with the second child, and only when the couple had their third child, we diagnosed the infant with SCID. 'The treating doctor didn't think of SCID as a possibility, or maybe he wasn't aware of the disease. 'Sometimes, the child may be too sick to travel to HSAAS, so we ask the hospitals to send us their blood sample first, as we have labs here that can deliver the results within 24 hours.' ALSO READ: Doctors essential in driving access for rare disease treatment 'Blessed child' When Jaasritha Sai was born in 2023, she weighed 2.1kg – a low birth weight – but she was otherwise healthy. A beautiful, smiley baby, she gained weight quickly, but at three months old, started developing flu symptoms and skin issues. 'We thought her rashes were due to the diapers and we changed the brand, but it didn't help. 'And despite her phlegm, she could drink the whole bottle of milk at one go. 'But suddenly, at six months, Jaasritha would become breathless after drinking two ounces, vomit and purge. 'She became considerably weak and we took her to the hospital's emergency department where she was warded after being diagnosed with pneumonia,' recalls her mother Manonmani Suparamany, 42. Upon discharge, the diarrhoea didn't stop and Jaasritha's weight dropped drastically. Manonmani sensed something was wrong and consulted multiple specialists from various hospitals before she was referred to Assoc Prof Intan, who confirmed a SCID diagnosis. That was in November 2023 when Jaasritha was nine months old. The single mother from Klang, Selangor, says: 'I didn't even know there was such a condition where both parents carry the mutated gene – my world came crumbling down. 'She was immediately started on treatment and had to stay in an isolated room for nine months. 'Everyone who came in had to wear PPE [personal protective equipment] and mask up because she caught a major infection three times.' Manonmani's employer agreed to let her go on unpaid leave to look after her sick child. It was tough being confined to a room for so long and when there was no one watching, the anxiety-ridden Manonmani would cry buckets. As Jaasritha has no siblings, her mother was the next best bone marrow donor. (Her father is not involved with the family.) Alas, Manonmani was only a 50% match – not ideal – and was rejected by Hospital Kuala Lumpur, where Jaasritha was on the wait list for a transplant. Because time was crucial to save Jaasritha's life, Assoc Prof Intan pooled her resources and found an opportunity at the Apollo Cancer Specialty Hospital in Chennai, India. They accepted Manonmani as a donor, but the transplant cost was high at RM200,000. She says: 'Still, it was cheaper than the RM1mil quoted in one local private hospital. 'Since I was utilising my employer's insurance, it did not cover overseas medical expenses, so with the help of the non-profit Malaysian Patients Organisation for Primary Immunodeficiencies (Mypopi), we crowdfunded to raise RM300,000 in a week. 'But the final cost came up to RM415,000 as Jaasritha had to do the transplant thrice due to some complications. 'She didn't do well after the first transplant and lost her smile along the way. "She refused to say any words – that frightened me as I didn't know how I would handle losing her.' It was also a painful process for Manonmani, as she had to be in bed for five hours without moving while her stem cells were being extracted. Finally, Jaasritha was given the green light to fly home after five months. 'In total, we spent 14 months in hospital. 'She's still not out of the woods yet and needs IVIG every month at HSAAS until her antibodies stabilise. 'Since her transplant, she has not caught any infections except Covid-19, but she managed to fight it off, which is a good sign. 'I'm still traumatised and don't like to expose her too much, although I take her to the park when it's not crowded,' says Manonmani. More importantly, Jaasritha's smile has returned and she can now walk, climb stairs and baby talk again at 28 months. Assoc Prof Intan concludes: 'Jaasritha is a blessed child and a fighter indeed.'
