The 8th final competition and award ceremony were held in June in Taipei.The Sony Creative Science Award(SCSA) has entered its 8th year in Taiwan which is the science educational competition open for elementary school children. The competition focuses on creative toy-making and is developed for students from 3rd - 6th grade to inspire their interests and curiosity in science and creative thinking.
The Top 20 teams presented their works to the judging panel at the final competition.The 8th competition theme was “Sparkle Your Imagination” which encouraged children to incorporate scientific principles of “Force & Motion” creatively in developing their own toys. Apart from the competition, students and teachers who passed the first round also had the opportunity to attend workshops on Science, Creative-thinking and Digital Imaging. With the diverse program, contestants learned more about the competition’s designated science principles through an enjoyable hands-on experience. And moreover, children could develop their skills of capturing great shots with Sony cameras while igniting their curiosity in the Digital Imaging workshop.
This year, in addition to the participation of professional educators in fields of science and STEAM, representatives from sister companies, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and So-net Taiwan, were also invited to join the judging panel , and share their insightful comments to the works submitted by the young toymakers.
The 8th exhibition was well received by participants and saw great attendance!In order to present the creativities sparkled from the participating children and further promote the competition, a touring exhibition was held in two cities (Taipei & Kaohsiung) this August. The exhibition was designed as an amusement park including many elements related to “Force & Motion” such as cogs, seesaws, and slides. The top 20 toys were available for touch-and-try at the exhibition which were very popular and received favorable feedback among visitors.
Visitors enjoyed the hands-on experiences of the Top 20 toys at the exhibition.To further enhance the level of fun and engagement for visitors, a challenge area was set up to explore science skills and knowledge with interactive games such as, “MESH blocks” and “ 3D sensing cube” which was developed by one of the SCSA’s partners, National Applied Research Lab. So-net Taiwan also introduced the specially developed version of their Chatbot service featuring interactive science quizzes for children.
The 3D sensing cube (Left) & the MESH tags (Right) offered interesting experiences for visitors.
So-net Taiwan introduced its Chatbot service with a special version featuring science quizzes on-site.
MESH & Science workshops were conducted on-site for children of 9-12 years old to inspire their interests and curiosity in science.The 8-day exhibition saw a record-breaking attendance of over 20,000 visitors enjoying the fantastic ideas and works presented by the 8th SCSA contestants!
Looking ahead, Sony Taiwan will continue the efforts in fostering curiosity and exploration toward science in children through the SCSA program and contribute more to the local community.
This October, SCSA was specially invited by the Taiwanese government to join the national science campaign. This four-day railway tour around Taiwan with on-train scientific activities for elementary school students was jointly organized by Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Transportation and Communication each year to offer students with more interesting ways of science learning . The train stopped in different cities, allowing around 5,000 students to board and enjoy various hands-on experiences in this special science journey.
An exclusive ‘Sony’ car welcomed children to participate in science activities on the go!
Sony, together with local senior high schools and other technology companies presented different interactive classes on each car. For Sony, we introduced a simple experiment utilizing Xperia phones and everyday materials such as celluloid and tapes, to educate the children on the science principle as well as the magic of “light”.
The 1st Taiwan Science Festival was jointly organized by the five major museums in Taiwan for two weeks in November. The festival offered a wide variety of activities such as art-science drama, forums and workshops to captivate children and the general public, to learn about science in more enjoyable ways.
SCSA joined the Science Fairs held at two major museums in Taipei and Kaohsiung, setting up booths which showcased and celebrated the excellent science toys which the children had created in the 8th SCSA competition. Visitors of all ages were inspired by the children’s creativity shown in their winning toys.
Sony employees introduced SCSA to visitors and conducted MESH workshop at the Science Festival.
Through these opportunities, SCSA program was introduced to more children, parents and teachers who also showed their enthusiasm in participating in future SCSA competitions.
