Space Camp 2025

Unit Penyelidikan Ilmu Falak dan Sains Atmosfera (UPIFSA), School of Physics was invited by the School of Aerospace Engineering to conduct Space Camp 2025 at the USM Engineering Campus on 18th January 2025. This program is one of a series of STEM Community Center Programs funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through the MERIDIAN INTERNATIONAL CENTER led by Dr. Siti Harwani Md Yusoff. The STEM-based program was intended to focus on space science education through hands-on activities. As many as 110 students in standard 3 until form 3 had the opportunity to participate in multiple interactive activities and attend a brief introductory lecture on the Solar System and space weather. The students also learnt to handle the telescope to observe the Sun, and joined the mobile planetarium show. In groups of 10-11 students, the participants also managed to operate the Stellarium mobile app to locate objects in the night sky, identify constellations through the use of a star chart, and learn about the layers of the Sun. Besides this, there were several exhibitions held including a tabletop telescope, model rockets, Solar System 3D model, a mechanical orrery, and a poster on space weather. A quiz session was also conducted where the top five students from each group who managed to find the specified constellations in the fastest time were selected as winners. This activity was led by School of Physics lecturers, Dr. Idahwati Sarudin and Dr. Nur Azwin Ismail alongside supporting staff members En. Jasnisuhardi Abdul Manab and En. Abdul Nassier Abdul Rahim. Ten students from School of Physics were also involved in this program. Overall, the camp was very well received, and the hands-on activities were successful in providing the school children with a deeper knowledge of space science.