Po Leung Kuk “The Future of Deprived Youth through iSTEM Education” Scheme assists over 7,000 attendances of children and youth in access to innovation technology Broadening their horizons and equip them for the future

(11 September 2020, Hong Kong) The rapid advancement of technology changes people’s living styles and opens up more possibilities. However, children and youths from grassroots families have less access to STEM knowledge because of financial reasons. With the generous donation from Global Grant of The Rotary Foundation, Rotary Club of the Peak, The Rotary Club of Taipei Yang-Te, Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island West, Rotary Club of Hong Kong Northwest and Rotary Club of City Northwest Hong Kong, Po Leung Kuk rolled out “The Future of Deprived Youth through iSTEM Education” Scheme in May 2019 and set up iSTEM Zones in Cho Kwai Chee Energetic Youth Club, Chow Shiu Chor Memorial Youth Development Centre and Tin Ka Ping Harmony Land for Families, providing STEM education to children and youth in the districts. Up till now, the scheme has offered STEM learning opportunities to over 7,000 attendances.

Student participated in the scheme revealed that they have learned a lot of new things during the process: The 10-year-old Kristy Chan has lots of interest in    robotics, but lacked of access to relevant information in school or at home. After she joined the “VEX Robot Course” under the scheme, she could study the robot mechanism, scientific knowledge and theories, and successfully created her own robot! Marco Lam, 16-year-old, aroused strong interest in programming from his experience of the Coding Programming Machine in iSTEM Zone. He developed his own video game and later became a mentor in the Coding Programming Workshop organized by the Centre, sharing his knowledge with the neighborhood. Marco was happy to the process of give and take and personal growth.  

12 service users of Po Leung Kuk Tin Ka Ping Harmony Land for Families even set up a “Robotics Engineering Team” after joining the scheme. They signed up for the “Asian Robotics League VEX IQ 2020 Hong Kong Championship” in January of this year and won the Energy Award.

The scheme also conducted the “STEM Starter Competition” and has recruited student contestants from 27 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Ms. Daisy C F HO, Chairman of Po Leung Kuk, praised all entries are creative and inspiring. She was especially impressed that many of them designed from a “compassion” perspective with the initiatives for the betterment of the elderly and disabled persons’ living, or protecting environment. The Kuk has taken a video of the award-winning students, sharing their experience and pleasure during the production process. The video will be uploaded on Po Leung Kuk’s social media platform shortly.

Result of the competition is announced today (awardee list on next page), award-winning students will receive prizes sponsored by the Rotary Club of the Peak. In addition, Po Leung Kuk is inviting scholars and teachers to share their rich experience in STEM education in a short video “STEM Education in the 21^st Century”, which will be used as reference for teachers of primary and secondary schools, so as to create a synergy effect in promoting STEM education in Hong Kong.

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 “STEM Starter Competition” Awardee list