Opening the festival was a seminar, bringing together leaders at the Ministry, Department, School Board, scientists, businesses promoting digital transformation in education, STEM experts, teachers and students of the schools in Thanh Xuan and Cau Giay districts, representing the STEM Education Ecosystem and people who are fully dedicated to building an educational community with a strong drive for innovation. While giving the opening speech for the IT & STEM Festival, Mrs. Tran Thuy Duong - Principal of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted shared, “Faced with the opportunities and challenges of STEM Education, school teachers are always concerned about how to stimulate, spread passion, provide research opportunities, and create a playground for students to apply information technology to solve life’s problems.”

Mrs. Tran Thuy Duong giving the opening speech 

During the seminar, Mr Nguyen Manh Hung - Minister of Information and Communication and Vice Chairman of the National Committee on Digital Transformation emphasized the importance of applying information technology into learning and teaching, while also encouraging students to learn enthusiastically through practice, be more proactive and creative on the journey to conquer knowledge, and building dreams and ambitions for themselves and the community.

Mr Nguyen Manh Hung - Minister of Information and Communications giving his speech at the seminar

In addition, Mr Do Hoang Son - Co-founder of the STEM Alliance and professor Dao Thi Hong Quyen - A professor who received the Power of Radiance 2023 award from UNICEF, shared a lesson about the five principles for STEM Education, as well as creative and effective  STEM teaching methods. The lectures from the two experts were drawn from a long and consistent process of practicing by the community of STEM teachers and themselves. The lesson shared had been positively received by the council as a guideline in promoting digital transformation and implementing STEM education in schools. Other than that, the seminar also had the presence of representatives from universities, as well as Google and Samsung.

Mr Do Hoang Son and Mrs. Dao Thi Hong Quyen

The delegates and professors at the seminar on the morning of November 25th

This year’s festival had 24 exhibition booths from the schools in the districts, alongside 9 business partners. The diverse products on display had brought viewers a miniature portrait of the applications of IT in education and training. The exhibition booths introduced to officials and teachers advanced IT products, designed to support the teaching and management of schools. At the exhibition area, two major clubs of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted: GreenAms 6520 Robotics Team and Society of Open Science had brought a unique display of products as well as interesting science experiments.

GreenAms 6520 Robotics Team 

Society of Open Science 

Exhibition booth from Yen Hoa High School

Within the framework of the IT Festival, nearly 40 officials, professors, and employees participated in competitions. The competition rounds for digital lectures and educational products for all levels of education attracted the attention of visitors at the Festival. The IT - STEM Festival: Foundation for Smart Education had two focuses, which were IT - Digital Transformation and STEM Education - Learning through practice to solve real-life problems. The competitions' activities are modern, diverse and exciting in order to facilitate groundbreaking experiences, as well as practical and creative solutions. 

The officials and delegates participating in the exhibition

The IT Festival of the Thanh Xuan - Cau Giay cluster for school year 2023 - 2024 was successful in both scale and quality. Units and individuals participating in the Festival introduced many typical IT solutions that have been successfully applied in management and teaching, along with that are digital lectures, classics E-learning lectures, precious learning materials, teaching software, and websites that schools and teachers put a lot of effort into creating. The activities of the festival are rich and diverse with a series of conferences and seminars on IT applications, and competitions for IT skills and IT products, etc. The festival had attracted active and responsible participation of the entire district cluster's staff and teachers.

The exhibition booths from the schools in the districts

Experiencing business partner Kidscode’s exhibition booth

Besides the usual activities of the IT & STEM Festival like displaying scientific products and robots of students and business partners, scientific experiential activities, lecture competitions, engineering competitions, etc.. the students and teachers of the Thanh Xuan - Cau Giay cluster also enjoyed high-tech experiences on digital platforms, watched science films and appreciated paintings with the theme “Ecosystem Restoration”. This is a unique new feature, as it recognizes the role of art in education and is also a suggestion for teachers to apply technology and art to promote and innovate educational activities.

Students showing interest towards robot models

This year’s IT Festival focused on quality, which was clearly shown in the results of the Digital Lecture and Information Technology Skills Competition. The competition had the participation of more than 30 outstanding students from schools in the district cluster. The festival also had many officials, teachers, and employees participating in competitions on information technology products including: E-learning digital lectures, application software, learning materials, websites and IT solutions. The IT Festival showed the importance of IT in improving the effectiveness of educational activities and promoting open education. IT helps teachers and learners regularly update diverse knowledge, creating flexible learning space and time. During the festival, the Organizers awarded 1 First Place Prize, 2 Second Place Prizes and 2 Third Place Prizes to groups displaying products and introducing IT application activities; 1 First Place Prize and 2 Second Place Prizes for teachers participating in the IT and STEM product contest; 2 First Prizes, 2 Second Place Prizes and 11 Third Place Prizes for the Digital Lecture - STEM competition; 2 First Place Prizes, 2 Second Place Prizes, 2 Third Place Prizes went to teachers in the IT skills contest, along with 2 First Place Prizes, 2 Second Place Prizes, 4 Third Place Prizes in the teachers' IT skills contest.

The Organizers awarding prizes for the Information Technology Skills Contest for teachers from high schools in the Thanh Xuan - Cau Giay district

The teachers at the Closing Ceremony of the IT & STEM Festival

The highlight of the festival was the clear presence of a STEM Education Ecosystem with a variety of components and a variety of activities from the simplest level to the most difficult and most interesting level of technology applications. information and implementation of STEM education. Here, components of this ecosystem come together to connect, share, learn and push big dreams. The wish of a 2045 vision by teachers of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, supported by Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, and determinedly affirmed by Principal Tran Thuy Duong, states that it is necessary to build a laboratory for STEM in order to to learn through practice and product development. A creative, practical and clearly career-oriented learning environment will promote the spirit of entrepreneurship for the new generation—that is not only the goal of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted but also of the Capital’s education industry.

Author: Nguyen Diep Chi - Literature (‘23 ‘26)

Photographer: Nguyen Tran Khanh Chi - Chemistry (‘23 - ‘26)

Interpreter: Han Ya Xian - Cambridge (‘23 - ‘26)