An Inspiring Goal
In April of this year, Cath, a high school junior at CATS Academy Boston, who is the president of her school’s STEAM club (instructed by Mrs. Eileen McMahon), reached out to tell us about an inspiring summer project that she and a group of her peers was involved in planning.
When describing her objective, Cath explained,
“When I practice Chibitronics, I find it extremely interesting because I can practice electronics and craft at the same time! This gave me a lot of inspiration, and finally, I decided to hold Chibitronics workshops in Vietnam this summer.
The mission of the workshops is to bring more accessible opportunities to inspire children to love science and art with a technology that has never been seen before in Vietnam.”
Cath, Student at CATS Academy Boston
Several months later, Cath followed up to let us know that she and her team had transformed their dream into a reality. The following testimony documents how a group of ambitious high school students embarked upon a remarkable journey into the heart of Vietnam!
Guest Post: Bringing Chibitronics to Vietnam
by Yang Huei Ting (Krystal)
We came up with an idea to introduce a unique technology called Chibitronics for children to easily make circuits. Chibitronics is a special technology that we felt excited about in our school’s STEAM club – CATS Academy Boston, something that never existed in Vietnam. Bearing that in our mind, Chuyen Xe Mua He was formed, with Krystal, Cath, Quyen, Bao, and Kevin as its first members. We traveled to four destinations close to our living place and organized workshops there.
On May 31st, Chuyen Xe Mua He started its first stop in Elli Volunteer Class in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City. It was 9 AM sharp, and we all met up at the class and started our workshop. Despite being our first workshop, our worries were surprisingly all swept away by such warm greetings from the teachers and all the children in the class itself.
During the workshop, we divided the class into six groups and each group would try to compete for the winning prize by giving the best to complete a Chibitronics card. Each of our members was distributed to assist each group if needed in order to complete their tasks.
The first workshop ended with everyone excitedly sharing their new technology with each other.
On June 15th, Chuyen Xe Mua He arrived at its second stop at Cai Be, Tien Giang. Starting off early in the morning, sitting in our van for approximately an hour and a half, we finally reached My Duc Tay Middle School. We were greeted by a group of passionate teachers and were led to the teacher’s room, where we started to prepare for our workshop and were then led to meet the students.
The students were so friendly that we immediately befriended them. During our pre-workshop, the students and our team had multiple conversations regarding the technology;it seemed like they were thrilled towards the idea of Chibitronics. An instruction video was shown to the students and they excellently achieved the task with the help of our team members. It was really full-filled seeing their heart-warming smiles at the end of the workshop while preciously holding their newly-made light-up cards.
Our third stop was the Long Thanh Pagoda, District 12, Ho Chi Minh City on June 15th. It went on smoothly as things were a lot easier since we already experienced the process twice before. We were greeted by the monks and the Buddhists. This time, the kids were younger. Despite that, with their curious minds, they still were able to understand the tasks and completed them splendidly.
With their innovative minds, kids still attempted to complete the task perfectly.
As much as we all enjoyed it, our journey came to an end with our last stop in Bo De Phuong Duy School, in Thu Thua, Long An on August 3rd. On this last special stop, the workshop was joined by participants from 7th grade to 11th grade. We never imagined that Chibitronics could be enjoyed by such a large group of participants: 64 students!
The workshop ended successfully with everyone having a product of their own.
Starting off with only five members, our initial purpose was to bring Chibitronics, a new innovative technology, to Vietnam. We had the mission of bringing science into arts and arts into science and organized four workshops in different places, believing that Chuyen Xe Mua He will achieve its purpose one day. We are all proud and delighted as we have contributed our best.
Finally, we wish the best for all the teachers in the Elli Volunteer Class, My Duc Tay Middle School, the Long Thanh Pagoda, and Bo De Phuong Duy School.
We want to deliver our greatest thanks to Chibitronics and the donators for sponsoring this program, to all our members, Cath, Krystal, Quyen, Bao, and Kevin, and to all our volunteers for working endlessly for the workshops and the common dream.
We all look forward to seeing you again!