Research event has surprise ending

Research event has surprise ending

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Youth Research Competition was brought to a surprising end on
Saturday as research papers on social sciences dominated the
awards.

Arnold Akobiarek of State High School 1 Jayapura in Papua was
named the winning participant with his study on a local dialect.
In second place came Legi Indahwati of State Junior High School 2
Banyuputih in East Java with her study on the use of pesticides,
while in third place was Tino Irmansyah of State High School 1
Purwonegoro in Central Java for her paper on a novel.

In fourth place was Putu Prema Savita Shanti from State Junior
High School 1 Semarapura, Bali, with her study on history, while
in fifth was Andi Dliyaur Rochman of State High School 1 Ponorogo
in East Java, thanks to his work on math.

The top three won scholarships to study at Gadjah Mada
University in Yogyakarta, plus cash prizes amounting to Rp 7.5
million (US$815), Rp 6 million and Rp 4.5 million respectively.
The fourth and fifth-placed finalists received Rp 3 million and
Rp 2 million respectively.

"For the first time since the initial competition in 1977, the
jurors unanimously agreed on awarding the top place to a
participant who comes from a field other than the natural
sciences. We declared Arnold the winner as his research was
considered creative and original," said Mien Ahmad Rifai, who
headed the 12-strong jury.

He said the jury had taken into account the students' solid
knowledge of their subjects and the theories they applied, both
in the social and natural sciences.

Mien added the jury had not selected as one of the winners a
student who presented a robot he said he had designed to the
judges as his theoretical basis was weak. Later the jury found
that the student had been assisted by his uncle.

Arnold, 19, presented a study on how the local language of
Nafri tribe in Abepura, Papua, affected the performance of
elementary school students there.

"In the Nafri language, the sentence 'I am going to go to a
village' is said as 'To the village I'm going to go'. My study
proves that the incorrect use of the structure of the Indonesian
language results in the students' poor performance at school," he
said.

Earlier this year, another student from the province of Papua,
Septinus George Saa, won a prestigious international physics
competition in Warsaw.

Mien said the jurors praised the creative premise of the
study, saying they had never considered there to be a correlation
between poor mastery of Bahasa and poor performance in school.

"All of us were amazed by Arnold's idea and creativity, and
how detailed his research was," he said.

The jury assessed the participants based on their originality,
creativity, innovativeness, harmony between theory and
application, the level of detail in the research, the way
students answered questions, and the utility of the research.

Legi finished second for her study on simple ways to avoid the
use of insecticides. Meanwhile, the third-placed contestant,
Tino, presented a study on the novel The endless road by the late
Mochtar Lubis.

All the top five students were told to study hard as if
selected, they would represent the country in international
science competitions to be held in Perth, Australia, and Beijing,
China.

The competition's organizing committee received 1,021 research
papers this year, almost three times more than the number of
papers submitted by the participants last year.