Geography Study Club (GSC) of Faculty of Geography conducted scientific writing competition, debate competition, and national level high school speech competition in Geography Students Creativities Week (Gesture). The current event raises the theme “Indonesian Youth to Act Smart in Dealing with Disasters" held from 29-30 October 2011 at the Faculty of Geography. The event is held in cooperation between the Club, Faculty of Geography, Ministry of Education and Culture, BNPB (National Agency for Disaster Management), and UGM’s Disaster Response Unit (DERU).
Committee Chairman for the event, Chaidir Arsyan Adlan, said there were at least 140 participants coming from various high school students in Indonesia. The committee successfully selected 10 finalists for Scientific Writing Contest (LKTI) derived from Aceh, Banjarmasin, Bengkulu, Yogyakarta, Central Java and East Java. "About 49 documents were sent to the committee and selected into 10 finalists to be invited for presentation," said Chaidir.
For the category of debate competition, it is attended by 22 teams from high schools across the Archipelago, one of which is from Denpasar, Lampung, and Bandung. As for the speech contest, it is followed by 31 participants.
Chaidir explained the competition is intended for young people who care about the environment, especially disasters that often happened in their respective regions. The high school students are doing disaster-related research. "We want to know their understanding of the disaster, they should no longer consider a disaster as a catastrophe, but one that can provide benefits," he said.
He pointed out some of the scientific writing works of students who perform various studies on Bangka Belitung high school students who use one type of pumice stone to treat wastewater into clean water. While students of SMAN 1 Bantul were utilizing a technology to stimulate fast-growing trees. "All participants of the LKTI have already done all the research result," he said.
The winners of the Gesture compete for a trophy from Ministry of National Education and Culture, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Governor of Yogyakarta and the UGM Rectorate and coaching money. In addition to the competition, participants also attended public lectures, presenting representatives of the National Disaster Management Agency, Sugeng Martopo, and chairman of the DERU, Slamet Widiyanto, M.Sc.