Saturday July 31, 2010

Hard work earns happy results

TRAINING under the watchful eyes of their seniors for several weeks helped the SMJK Keat Hwa lower secondary team clinch this year’s RHB-The Star Mighty Minds Challenge 2010 in Kedah.

The seniors in the school’s upper secondary team were the state champions and the national first runners-up last year.

Present team members Yeo Mi Xia, Chew Khai Yi and Tai Wei Wen, all in Form Three, trained with the seniors in preparation for the challenge.

“We studied last year’s questions and searched the Internet for more information as we did not know what kind of questions would come up during the challenge this year,” said Yeo.

Yeo admitted that the most challenging part was the hands-on challenge since they had limited time to prepare the model.

In the Kedah stage, 15 lower secondary teams had to construct a model of a blender with a rotating blade operated by motor complete with a control switch.

“We were afraid that our model would not function properly but in the end, it turned out fine,” said Chew.

This year’s Kedah upper secondary team winner SMJK Keat Hwa II said they were surprised to be named the winner as the team was formed only a couple of weeks before the challenge.

Team members Choy Wang Lynn, Ooi Ting Qian and Ng Yu-Yang, all 17, however believed that their cool and collective attitudes had helped them to face all the challenges.

“All of us worked together by allocating certain subjects that each of us must tackle so that we could help each other during the challenge,” said Choy.

She said the team did more research on general knowledge through the Internet as part of the their preparation for the final that would be held in Klang Valley in October.

The other winners in the lower secondary category were SMK Agama Yan (2nd place), SMK Sultan Badlishah (3rd place), SMK Pendang (4th place) and SMJK Keat Hwa II (5th place).

In the upper secondary category, the second place was won by SM Sains Sultan Mohd Jiwa, SMJK Sin Min (3rd place), SMK Bakar Arang (4th place) and SMJK Keat Hwa (5th place).

The winning teams in both categories took home RM3,000, RM2,000, RM1,000, RM500 and RM300 respectively while the schools of the first, second and third placed winners received RM2,000, RM1,000 and RM750 respectively.

The competition is jointly organised by Star Publications (M) Bhd and RHB Banking Group, while the food and beverage sponsor is McDonald’s Malaysia.

RHB Bank Berhad Kedah/Perlis Area manager Hasmah Jusoh, RHB Bank Kedah/Perlis business support manager Roha Fauzi and Star Publications (M) Bhd Northern Circulation Manager Oun Sui Leng gave away the prizes to the Kedah winners.

The challenge is divided into two categories: lower secondary (Forms One to Three) and upper secondary (Forms Four and Five). The next stage of the challenge will be held in Penang (Aug 1) and Selangor (Aug 7 and 8). The national finals will be held in Klang Valley in October.

But hey, congrats, Mi Xia. If anyone deserved first place at all, it was definitely you and your team.