Neng Ani, Widya Wulandari, and Winda Nur Azizah, students from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Cibiru Campus majoring in Elementary School Teacher Education, won a gold medal in the Universitas Riau International Academic Writing Competition (UNRI-IAWC) 2023 on Saturday, November 25th, 2023. The primary purpose of the UNRI-IAWC 2023 is to encourage and showcase exceptional university-level writing. Participants in the contest submitted a short-form article on a topic in Art and Humanities (Education and Culture), Social Studies (Politics, Economics, and Law), Health and Science, Technology and Engineering, and the last one, Multidisciplinary (STEAM), along with a 2-minute video about the article. A number of contestants were selected as finalists based on the submitted article and video. Fifty finalists from various countries were invited to the Defense Day to present their research and do question and answer sessions with the judges on Saturday, November 25th, 2023.
The team wroten an article under the title “Behind The Beauty of Fireworks: Using Eco-friendly Fireworks as an Alternative”. The research was written based on the facts that fireworks could give negative impacts for humans, the environment, as well as animals and plants. The team also gave explanations in the article or in the presentation about solutions that could come up from this issue, including use of lasers, drones, virtual fireworks, and implementing fireworks policy, such as creating designated areas.
After a 7-minute presentation, the team got 8 minutes for a question-and-answer session. Mr. Rahmat Kemal and Mr. Cha-Kree, the judges, gave some suggestions for the research.
The first suggestion is to change the title, especially the “behind the beauty of fireworks” phrase. He said that it was interesting, but it should be more focused on the negative impacts of using fireworks regarding the details that being written in the article is also focus more on the impacts.
Secondly, they gave suggestions about changing the “alternative” word in the title to “high-tech.” It is because the solutions that are given in the article are also related to technology.
Thirdly, there are few things that should be added to the article based on what is provided on the PowerPoint. It should be conformable between the methods that are written in the article and on PowerPoint. The last comment is about the citations that needed to be fixed.
After giving some comments, Mr. Cha-Kree from Thailand gave one question. The question is about which one—between animals and plants, the environment, and humans—had the biggest impact from fireworks. And then the team answered that all of the aspects had the same dangerous impacts from fireworks. It is because all of the aspects are integrated and interconnected.
“It was the first time that I could compete internationally. I had so much fun and learned a lot. I hope that I can continue my journey to speak up about something that I care about. Thank you to my team members and also our coach, Mr. Rendi Restiana Sukardi, for your support and help. And also for Mr. Dede Trie Kurniawan for the idea. We made it!” said Neng Ani.
“We are sure that being students at the varsity level is the biggest chance for us to try every opportunity, to get wider horizons, and to stay open to current issues that have happened. Joining this international writing competition is one of the ways. We believe through this competition we have an opportunity to speak up and stay connected with other young generations around the world,” added Widya about her impressions of the competition.