The real superhumans

Last night, I spent 2 hours in front of the television watching Discovery Channel's amazing stories about real people with extraordinary super powers.

If you like to watch the show Heroes, this documentary might attracts you. Imagine, if you have always struggle in Mathematics and suddenly wakes up one day discovering that you have this extraordinary super power to solve complex mathematical formulas inside your head. That is exactly happening to Rudiger Gamm - The Human Calculator.

Wim Hof - The Iceman, another superhuman, discovered that he has the ability to control his body temperature. This man successfully completing a half-marathon run in his bare feet and wearing on shorts at the Arctic Circle in Finland.

In another case, Esref Armagan - The Blind Painter, is a gifted visual artist who can paint and draw in three dimensions. He drawing has been compared to Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi who is the first artist to master the three point perspective. For your information, Esref has been blind since birth.

I find Elisabeth Sulser - The Synaesthete has the most impressive superpower which I can't imagine it myself. She is able to combine all the senses so that she can taste music! Imagine, F sharp is violet colour, a minor sixth is creamy and a perfect fourth tastes like mown grass.

The documentary also feature some of the geneticists, biologists and futurist which talked about very controversial topics including stem cell biology and genetic engineering. Pay attention to Bruce Lahn, a geneticist on his idea of an 'organ farm', which to me sounds a bit scary.

job opportunity: editors for English, Science & Maths

Currently Penerbit Mega Setia Emas (PMSE) is looking for fresh or experienced English, Science and Mathematics editors on a full time basis. For your information, PMSE is an established educational publishing company that publishes many workbooks as well as textbooks.

If you are:

• willing to put in extra effort and doesn't mind working long hours (I mean really long hours especially when rushing for projects)
• an organized person who is able to meet reasonable deadline,
• willing to work in Kota Damansara,
• a person with excellent command in English and Bahasa Melayu with passion in writing, editing and education,
• doesn't mind working closely with authors, typesetters and graphic designers,
• creative and original,

then you are most probably the right candidate for this job.

Training will be provided. For your information, PMSE is the very few publishing companies in Malaysia that provides good remuneration and staff benefits besides bonus and company trip for their staff.

If you are interested in this job, kindly send a well-written cover letter and curriculum vitae to julie@setiaemas.com or hcfoo7@gmail.com. Only complete resume (state your education, qualification, job experience if any and position as well as subject that you are interested in) with contact numbers will be entertained and shortlisted for first interview.

Tips: If you receive a call for interview, kindly be prepared because it's a norm for publishers to ask you to sit for a short test to assess your grammatical skills and knowledge in the subject that you apply for.

If you have any enquiry, kindly email to me at hcfoo7@gmail.com. I hope I will be able to help you in winning this job!

want to be a freelance Science & Maths writer?

Anyone interested to start a freelance job in writing Science and Maths workbooks? If you are:

• looking for a writing job, working comfortably from your home and with attractive pay,
• an organized person who is able to meet reasonable deadline,
• in the educational industry (teacher, tutor, editor, writer, etc),
• well versed with the National syllabus particularly the Science and Maths subjects,
• able to present your manuscript neatly using the Microsoft Word;
• creative and original,
• doesn't mind working closely with the editors and accept their criticism,

then probably you should give it a shot. It is okay if you have not published any books before as training will be provided by the editors at Cerdik Publications. For your information, Cerdik is one of the strong players in the competitive educational publishing business. They are the sole publisher who has the rights and permission to publish past years examination papers.

For more information, you can send an email to me at hcfoo7@gmail.com or call +603 5637 9046 or +603 5637 9044 and look for Lai Yeen (Science and Maths editor @ Cerdik Publications).

freelance writing job - Science and Maths workbooks

Anyone interested to start a freelance job in writing Science and Maths workbooks? If you are:

• looking for a writing job, working comfortably from your home and with attractive pay,
• an organized person who is able to meet reasonable deadline,
• in the educational industry (teacher, tutor, editor, writer, etc),
• well versed with the National syllabus particularly the Science and Maths subjects,
• able to present your manuscript neatly using the Microsoft Word;
• creative and original,
• doesn't mind working closely with the editors and accept their criticism,

then probably you should give it a shot. It is okay if you have not published any books before as training will be provided by the editors at Cerdik Publications. For your information, Cerdik is one of the strong players in the competitive educational publishing business. They are the sole publisher who has the rights and permission to publish past years examination papers.

For more information, you can send an email to me at hcfoo7@gmail.com or call +603 5637 9046 or +603 5637 9044 and look for Lai Yeen (Science and Maths editor @ Cerdik Publications).

using songs to teach science

While searching for teaching materials, I came across a website full of science-themed songs. There are songs about electricity, magnet, what's inside our earth, colours of the rainbow, etc.

What I think is primary science teachers can download the music, listen and jot down the lyrics and then share them with students when teaching related topics. It will be fun!

Mathematics Year 5 workbook - can you detect the errors?

In my previous post Buying Workbooks For Your Kids, I've mentioned about a publisher who published poor quality Mathematics workbook.

I was at a bookshop in Petaling Jaya few weeks ago. As I was browsing through some new workbooks, I came across a new series of books published under an unfamiliar name.

Since we are in our 5th year of using Maths and Science in English, I chose their Mathematics Year 5 workbook under the series Infomik UPSR (is there such word as Infomik?). I was completely shocked! I knew the new Year 5 syllabus well because I've just completed writing two new Maths workbooks.

Click on these pictures (including the front cover) and see if you can spot the errors. These are just three pages (yes, there are more mistakes and I'm not talking about typo errors alone). I don't mind if these are just some minor typo errors but incorrect sentences with grammatical errors that pupils might not be able to understand is simply unacceptable.

The most surprising thing is, according to the bookshop owner, this publisher's books got into school list. I hope it's not their Maths workbooks.

At the beginning, I was reluctant to comment about this book, well, since I have to fork out about RM9 (very pricey!) to get hold of this book. But for the sake of the pupils, I couldn't tutup sebelah mata (close one eye).

emphasize on reading skill and keep teaching Maths and Science in English

In these four years, we have seen so much effort being contributed by teachers to adapt to the current policy of teaching Maths and Science in English. Officers from the Education Ministry travelled the whole country to train and provide support to these Maths and Science teachers to ensure the effectiveness of the policy. Publishers, too, worked diligently with the Ministry who spends millions of ringgit to publish new textbooks to compliment with the new syllabus.

All parties including decision makers and parents each played their roles to realize the policy because we all believe students must have strong command in English language to acquire knowledge.

Hence, the idea of reversing the policy to tackle current concern of disparities in achievement between urban and rural schools is not a positive suggestion. Instead, we should evaluate the programme development and find effective ways to raise the level of English language proficiency among students and teachers.

By expanding the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) or importing teachers from overseas are good strategies to enhance learning. However, improving students reading skill in English is far more practical in achieving our main objective.

Many students particularly in the rural area are struggling to learn Maths and Science without having mastered reading, the most basic and essential skill. Hence, they will encounter great difficulty in understanding mathematical and scientific concepts conducted in English language, which are using real life problems.

For example, in teaching Maths, a teacher or the textbook presents many problems that must be read, instead of just equations. The same use of language is present in the Science subject when students are reading from the textbook, making hypotheses or draw conclusions. Hence, reading deficit will eventually lead to lose of interest in learning and inability to express their answers verbally and in written form.

Reading skill is highly emphasized even in the most developed countries. Hence, our Education Ministry should conduct research to assess students reading skill to determine if this is the main reason students not able to cope with Maths and Science in English.

If the result of this research is positive, the Ministry must provide professional development in reading instruction for teachers, implement reading curricula and adopt diagnostic reading assessments for students particularly in the primary level to determine where they need assistance. The Education Ministry must also re-evaluate and reinforce the current 3M (Membaca, Menulis, Mengira) programmes to improve students' literacy levels with priority to the rural area.

To improve students' proficiency in English language requires huge effort and time. As they said, Rome is not built in one day. If we are determine to take remedial action against the lack of the language proficiency among students, we must start focusing on emphasizing the development of reading skills in parallel with the policy of teaching Maths and Science in English.

latest workbook: science form 4

My latest workbook co-written with another two authors is finally in the market. It is published under Marshall Cavendish (or better known as Federal Publications).

Practise 'n' Excel Science Form 4 is based on the latest KBSM syllabus in English language.

Pros: SPM-type questions, reasonable price, reliable publisher, good looking cover (different from the typical workbooks you normally see in the bookshops).

Cons: Quality of the paper used, the key points are too wordy (preferably add in more pictures or diagrams).

science and math in English: the real challenge

When I read the news about students suing the government over its policy to teach Science and Mathematics in English, I was really excited because there will be a recent court case to be discussed in my educational law class.

At the same time, I felt disgusted because the four students were being manipulated just for the sake of the adults' (the people behind the scene which includes their fathers) political agenda. One of the student is only a Year Four student! For me, the father of this kid has already violated his responsibility as a father and denied his son's rights for better education (I bet many students don't know their rights yet).

I do agree that we must uphold the national language. At the same time we must also emphasize on the importance of English language. In fact, I believe students in kebangsaan schools should study both Science and Mathematics in two languages, Malay and English. However, I know this is not going to happen due to a lot of reasons like higher cost, lack of teachers and time constraint.

declining standard of Bahasa Malaysia or improvement in English?

In the recent PMR results, we are already witnessing the decreased of passes in Bahasa Melayu. Compared to 2004, the percentage of passing rate dropped 0.9% to 92.3% in 2005. As for English subject, the percentage increased by 3.7% to 73.8% this year.

However, the statistics is not convincing enough to prove the declining standard of Bahasa Malaysia or improvement in English language. This is because 73% of students still answered Mathematics exam questions in Bahasa Malaysia while 67% did so for Science. It is not a surprise because this batch of students has strong foundation in Bahasa Malaysia.

On the other hand, I foresee that the quality of Bahasa Malaysia among the primary students, especially non-native speakers, will continue to decline in the near future. This batch of students has no exposure to Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia in both primary and secondary levels. Hence, this is a disadvantage to them especially when it comes to understanding and writing science-related topics.

Like any other languages, students need continuous exposure and practices to improve their skills in Bahasa Malaysia, too. Therefore, parents need to encourage their children to read more, constantly monitor their progresses and seek help if their children are weak in the subject.

Related post: non-Malay students must take bahasa Melayu seriously

if you have a kid or sibling in Year 4...

I have three copies of Science Year 4 revision books to be given away.

The title of the book is called New Vision Science Year 4 (published by SNP Panpac or better known as Eastview) and it is based on the latest syllabus.

The book comes with a free CD-ROM. I wrote the book but the CD-ROM is not my idea. In this book, there are easy to understand notes and the questions are pretty much UPSR-oriented.

I only have three copies to be given away. You don't have to pay a single sen (shipping is free as well). Just send me your name and address to my e-mail address.

8 reasons why teachers are not overburdened

Recently the Ministry of Education and National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) claimed that teachers from four states (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Malacca) are overburdened in their job particularly with the addition of new subjects and extra duties related to co-curricular and curricular activities. Here are the reasons why I don't think so.

1. Science and Mathematics are not new subjects. Teachers are paid extra incentives under the program ETeMS (English for Teaching Mathematics and Science).

2. Co-curricular activities are compulsory. Stop complaining or quit being a teacher.

3. Teachers spend extra hours after school to give tuition under the tuition voucher scheme (Skim Baucer Tuisyen) which financially benefited them.

4. Teachers spending 74 hours per week? That's 12.33 hours per day for 6 days? You mean they are working in school from 7.30 a.m. -8.00 p.m. on Saturday as well?

5. Teachers are spending 38 days feasting instead of training.

6. Teachers filled in 108 types of forms. For example, annual leave form, emergency leave form, cuti bersalin form, etc.

7. Teachers complain so that the ministry will sympathize and agree to shortened the time spent in school. This will allow them to have extra hours for tuition business.

8. The complaining teachers are teachers who do not have passion in teaching. (Don't they watch Boston Public?. Mr Harper and his teachers works from day to night and they never complain.)

Maths and Science in English

I'm not sure if our government finally realised the importance of Mandarin and Tamil or is this their agenda to achieve their 'dream school' the Vision School. There are no doubts that the Chinese and Indian students always have the advantage in terms of language skills. Ask an interviewer, he would prefer a candidate with advantage in speaking Mandarin over another candidate who doesn't speak any extra languages besides Malay and English.

Since the implementation of Science and Mathematics with English as its medium, we are moving towards another drastic change. Mandarin and Tamil will no longer be the alien subjects. The good news is there will be no minimum number of students to open a class. As usual the initial problem would be the lack of qualified teachers.

Whatever the problems are, let's hope this will be a long term implementation. Remember we have history in abandoning a lot of educational programmes when challenges occurs. I'm glad that the government take such step despite disgreement from certain parties. It's a good move to build a society whereby we can learn from each other. And this is the true meaning of education.