As part of its efforts to inspire students to learn, Pusat Kemahiran Rentas Cepat, a premier enrichment centre located at Jalan Ellis, Kuching recently organised a half day trip to STIDC Timber Museum. Its signature programme is FasTrack Kids which gives children the opportunity to work at their own pace while using their own powers of observation, communication and investigation. Kids as young as four years old, had their first taste of experiential learning. The objective of this excursion was to enrich the children’s innate personal drive to learn therefore expanding their horizons.
To start with, the weather wasn’t conducive but the rain didn’t dampen the kids’ enthusiasm. Their first lesson was to get themselves organised into groups and braved the rain which they did with panache. It was a great thrill getting on the school bus. For many, it was a novel experience as it was their first time. On reaching the museum, they were whisked to the auditorium where they had a short presentation on the corporate profile of STIDC. The kids couldn’t contain their excitement as they bantered with each other and had a lively exchange of ideas. The museum has superb informative galleries which depict all the various stages and products of the forest industry.
To stimulate learning, a number of learning activities were staged as the kids were taken on a tour of the museum. The first one was the matching game which sparked off frenzy amongst the kids to match a printout to the actual picture in the shortest possible time. All of them managed to successfully complete this activity. It was then followed by drawing whereby the kids had to draw their observations, what they liked about the museum and write a few sentences to describe it. From the drawings, the younger kids’ favourite was the forest diorama whereas the older kids had their own preferences.
The trip ended on a high note when the kids were given souvenirs of the museum by STIDC. And when they were asked whether they enjoyed the trip, the answer was a resounding yes! They didn’t realise that they had put in a whole morning of learning. This is what FasTrack kids is all about; ‘learning, cleverly disguised as fun.’
For parents who are interested to enroll their kids in this programme, trial classes are available and enquires can be made to 082-243975.
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PKRC visited STIDC Timber Museum