Cultivating Students’ Potentials with I-STEAM Expo and Assembly

Tuesday March 1st 2022

School is a place where students cultivate their potentials and interests. At school students can learn and get themselves equipped with various knowledge, skills and attitudes. Talking about this cultivation, there is a plenty of ways to do it. We, Al Azhar 55 Islamic Primary School, have two. We call them I-STEAM Expo and Assembly, which will take place by the end of this academic year.
I-STEAM stands for Islamic Science Technology Engineering Art and Math. Therefore, I-STEAM is oriented toward integrating these various disciplines into our learning activities. The integration can involve a minimum of but not limited to two disciplines. Thus, I-STEAM aims to get students meet the 21st century skills and attributes including: religious, principled, critical, creative, innovative, communicative, collaborative, technology-literate, reflective, risk-taking, confident and responsible.
In the I-STEAM Expo, each student will get a project involving at least two disciplines. Students will work individually or in a group to work on a project. The project can be based on topics that have been studied in class or taken from various sources. Each project must have benefits and be able to solve problems of everyday life. The project can be in the forms of an experiment, demonstration, machine creation, or abstract topic visualization. This activity is very meaningful for instilling students’ critical thinking. Meanwhile, Assembly is an arena for students’ self-actualization.

Each student is a unique individual whose uniqueness needs appreciation. According to some research, students have different roles both in a large and small groups. Through this Assembly, students can show off their hobbies, interests, skills and talents in front of all school members.
Appreciating what students have or are good at aims to remove the barrier between those who are confident and those whose confidence needs improvement. Hence, this I-STEAM Expo and Assembly are very positive to motivate students both academically and non-academically, to cast their soft and hard skills.

Testimony

Prof. Dra. Hj. Suwarsih Madya, M.A., Ph.D.

Amidst the globalized situation which poses challenges of which one is a possible threat to identity, yet provides ample opportunities to excel for those who possess the prerequisites, we need to equip our children as the continuing generation with necessary competencies—affective, cognitive, psychomotor and interactive. In other words, we need to help them grow and develop into total persons and this can be achieved through the whole-child development approach which ensures the development of all potentials. In addition to this is the need for developing some competence which enables the children to communicate globally. All of this will ensure that the children will develop their citizenships both at the national and global levels. How can this ideal development be realized?

If you want to find out about how efforts are made to develop children’s whole potentials, you can come to SD Islam Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta. Here you can see how the four-year old school has grown fast due to the stakeholders’ trust to send their children to study here. With only 54 children in the first year, this school now has 185 students. These students are educated to respect and preserve the social-cultural environment by learning the local language (Javanese, including the script) and arts (dance). Simultaneously, they certainly learn the national language (Bahasa Indonesia) and national content, which is unquestionable since it is compulsory, and English, which has now become a global lingua franca; thus, a prerequisite for successful global communication. More importantly, children in this school also learn to practise their religion consistently. So, in this school children’s identity is rooted in the local culture, with nationalism and global awareness being inherently developed together with reliogiosity.

Does the whole-child development approach at SD Islam Al Azhar still give room for children to excel? In my belief, when all their potentials are developed, children will have a greater chance to excel and I can see the truth in my belief in this primary school. In the last two years, the students have made great achievements in various competitions held at the local and national levels–gold medals in English, math and science competitions (national), silver and bronze medals in IT competitions (national), silver and bronze medals at colouring and swimming competitions (local) to mention some.

In conclusion, SD Islam Al Azhar has given evidence of the right efforts of true education to develop both intelligence and character.

Prof. DR. Budi S. Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.

Testimoni Sebagai Orang tua menyekolahkan anak Di Al-Azhar 55

Sudah menjadi kewajiban bagi orang tua untuk memberikan pendidikan yang terbaik bagi putra putrinya. Tantangan untuk mendidik anak di Era Global dan Digital pun semakin besar, kita tidak bisa lagi membendung segala perubahan yang begitu cepat terjadi, dan harus mempersiapkan anak-anak supaya bisa survive dan sholeh/sholehah tentunya. Saat ini dunia bagaikan kampung, dimana tidak ada batas-batas untuk melakukan transaksi kehidupan, untuk itu anak harus bisa berkomunikasi dengan bahasa universal sebagai modal utama. Disamping itu, pendidikah Ahlak dan Aqidah harus diberikan secara dini sebagai dasar anak dalam menghadapi gejolak gelombang kehidupan. Atas pertimbangan tersebutlah, kami selaku orang tua memilih untuk menyekolahkan putra kami tercinta Hikari di Sekolah Islam, yang menggunakan dua bahasa pengantar, yaitu Al-Azhar 55.

Prof. DR. Budi S.Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.