VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Two Indonesian students from Ambon, Maluku made achievements in the international arena in the 2020 International Conference of Young Social Scientists (ICYSS). Both of them are Angelica Hitijahubessy and Fiodory Leuwol. These students, who are currently pursuing junior high school education at the GenIUS School, won 2nd place in the field of psychology, with a research entitled "Mikaniki's Effect in Improving Cognitive Pattern Recognition".

Chairperson of the GenIUS School Committee, Edwin Matatula said in Ambon, Tuesday (Nov 17) that Mikaniki is a digital game prototype developed by Azalia Herma, S.Si and Dr. F.X. Ivan, Ph.D. Mikaniki focuses on using patterns and numbers as symbols, and has an interesting storyline. In this study, Mikaniki was used to improve cognitive abilities in pattern recognition. 

According to Edwin, based on research, this game is able to improve the cognitive ability of pattern recognition of elementary school students from eastern Indonesia by 37.4 percent. However, this research will continue to be studied further. It was explained that this research emerged after the two students played the Mikaniki game. Then, they were interested in introducing it to others. In this study, they examined the effects of Mikaniki's game on elementary students from eastern Indonesia.

Edwin Mataluta further said that this proud achievement was inseparable from the Ambon City Government's policies in the education sector. The International Conference of Young Social Scientists (ICYSS) is a competition for youth scientific work in the fields of psychology, history, geography, sociology, and economics, which is designated for the best high school students around the world.

The 2020 International Conference of Young Social Scientists is the third time it has been held since 2018. This year, it was held in Serbia. Students who become participants are representatives of the country or cannot be sent individually. In 2019, with the same research, Angelica and Fiodory won the first place in the 2019 Youth Papua Research Competition and became participants in the 2019 National Youth Research Competition. Then, this achievement led them to an international event held in Serbia. They competed with participants from eight other countries, namely Guam, Macau, Malaysia, Slovenia, Turkey, Republic of Moldova, and Mexico.