STEMBucket Indonesia

Building resilience of early-primary formal school students through playful & frugal STEM activities

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Case Study - Indonesia

Introduction

STEM Bucket Activities is a form of implementation of the Indonesian ACES Model to develop children’s Social Resilience focused on the formal education community by designing, developing, and implementing frugal materials and playful activities as a curriculum transformation effort that has never been practiced in the Indonesian school curriculum.

Each STEM Bucket activity is practiced outdoors and is developed from theoretical concepts learned by pupils in grades 4, 5, and 6 of Primary School aligned with the thematic curriculum of Indonesian education. STEMBucket activities that have been successfully developed by the ACES Indonesia team include the activity of Little Professor: How to Purify Cloudy Water?, How to Communicate with Tin Can Telephones?, How did the Eclipse Happen?, How to Make a Potato Battery? and How to Make Instant Ice?.

All tools and materials from STEMBucket activities that are practiced use frugal and recycled materials that are readily available around children such as cloudy water, gravel, sand, husks, charcoal, moringa seeds, used cans, used plastic bottles, used nails and wire, and other reusable and recycled tools and materials.

Target Audience

In Indonesia, the ACES Project’s target audiences are specifically children at the Early-Primary school education level. Early School pupils have an age range of 4-6-year-old and the Indonesian education system calls them “Kindergarten” students. Primary School students include students who attend “Primary School” and are in grades 4, 5, and 6 with an age range of 8-10 years. A total of 300 primary school students in 2 public primary schools namely Sekolah Dasar Negeri 1 Klantingsari and Sekolah Dasar Negeri Kloposepuluh in Sidoarjo district located in the Eastern Province of Java have been involved in this activity. Supported by 2 principal authorities and 20 teacher trainees from the Government program, Kampus Mengajar as well as 40 primary school teachers

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SDN Klantingsari I

Sidoarjo Regency, East Java,
Indonesia

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SDN Kloposepuluh 2

Sidoarjo Regency, East Java,
Indonesia

Aims & Objectives

STEM Bucket Activities refer to an outdoor practice activity to learn the basic concepts of science (S), technology (T), engineering (E), and math (M) simply by utilizing inexpensive tools and materials that are readily available in the children’s environment through activity settings and a pleasant environment. STEM Bucket Water Purification is an example of a STEM activity to purify cloudy water using available natural materials such as charcoal powder, rice husks, sand, gravel, alum powder, coconut fiber, and the tools used are plastic bottles found by students around them.

STEM Bucket Activities aim to develop social resilience for Indonesian children in dealing with difficult situations for them during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Through cheap and fun activities, it is expected that they will be able to accept and adapt when difficult times occur and be able to get out of these difficult times and transform into individuals who are more resilient.

In addition to developing children’s social resilient abilities, STEM Bucket Activities are expected to be able to provide children with an understanding of the essence or value of these activities and their contribution in supporting the creation of quality education (SDG.4), the presence of gender equality (SDG.5), the importance of maintaining clean water and air (SDG.6), and also to instill the values of the noble character of the Indonesian nation such as teaching religious values by maintaining cleanliness and the value of instilling the value of cooperation in solving problems. This is so because they are currently the alpha generation living in the 21st century, and therefore they are also taught how to adapt in the 21st century such as developing critical thinking skills, problem-solving, and contextual learning.

The message to be conveyed by the STEM Bucket Activities is that Indonesian children are able to experience the long process of producing clean water so that they are expected to form energy-saving habits from an early age.