PETRONAS StreetSmart – Lessons for Life - is one of PETRONAS' contributions to the nation in the form of road safety education for the public. It promotes road safety awareness and inculcates responsible road safety habits among Malaysians. The exhibition features interactive programs and activities that provides information on road safety and delivered in an interactive and interesting manner.
This exhibition is currently operated by Petrosains Sdn Bhd, the organization that manages Petrosains, The Discovery Centre. This Discovery Centre is located on Level 4, Suria KLCC.
It was first set up in 2001. Over the past 18 years, the PETRONAS StreetSmart exhibition has successfully reached over 1.9 million Malaysians in almost every state in Malaysia. Beyond coming to visit the exhibition, the impact of the exhibition includes the consistent practice by the PETRONAS StreetSmart facilitators to visit surrounding schools and communities in surrounding remote locations to run workshops and activities.
The PETRONAS StreetSmart opened its new enhanced exhibition to the public on 16 November, 2011. The new exhibition is designed and built to world-class standards and consists of new interactive exhibits and hands-on programs that convey the science and technology behind road safety in an educational and immersive way. They have incorporated leading-edge research in road safety with input from the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) and Jabatan Keselamatan Jalan Raya (JKJR).
The objective of introducing these interactive exhibits and activities into the road safety program is to provide an effective exhibition which is conveniently mobile, so that awareness can be inculcated among the young especially, using a creative learning approach. Hence, visitors are able to understand and apply the information, especially the science concepts behind road safety provided, so that they are aware of the safety implications when on the road.
The exhibition will appeal to and reach a wide variety of audience segments such as parents, teachers, youth and adults while focusing on Primary and Secondary students. We believe that we should nurture good habits on the road from young so that they grow up to be responsible road users in the future.
In total, we have approximately 15 exhibits which are highly interactive.
The PETRONAS StreetSmart exhibition will be open to public everyday from 1 August 2019 to 31 December 2019 from 10am to 10pm at Ground Floor, Central I City Mall, Shah Alam. However, before the PETRONAS StreetSmart exhibition opens, there will be a roadshow happening from 2 July to 28 July 2019 from 10am to 10pm daily at Level 1, Central I City Mall, Shah Alam. The roadshow is a teaser to promote and spread awareness of the upcoming exhibition.
During the PETRONAS StreetSmart roadshow, we offer hands-on activities, a road safety simulation Virtual Reality and exhibits such as Skull Protector, Safer Car and Mini Batak Pro.
It had a successful run in all venues, and we have reached over 1.9 million visitors in total, comprising of students, families with children as well as school groups who came to visit. We were delighted by the enthusiastic response by the visitors as many mentioned that they benefited tremendously from the interactive methods employed at the exhibition and how fun it was to learn about a subject matter through this approach. Their support and endorsement of this exhibition is important to us.
We believe that the nation’s strongest asset is its people. So it is important that we inculcate a belief in lifelong learning and instill an interest in road safety awareness at a young age. And we feel that the PETRONAS StreetSmart exhibition embodies this through its exciting, interactive and stimulating environment that helps advance understanding and appreciation for road safety for everyone.
Since its launch PETRONAS StreetSmart has reached more than 1.9 million visitors by end of 2018. We believe that it is not possible to put a monetary value to the benefit and impact that has come out of this. The exhibition is not just a static display of exhibits but incorporates high-end technologies. In addition to that, we also have a team of facilitators on hand to conduct hands on activities and programs to ensure that all visitors gain maximum benefit from their visit.
As an interactive science discovery centre, Petrosains is always looking at ways and means of creatively stimulating the public’s interest in science and technology and we feel that this exhibition will open avenues for us to work as a centre for education beyond the classroom environment.
There are so many ways that we can employ in our mission to make learning interesting and appealing. There’s hope for Science Education when you are willing to explore creative approaches to teaching and learning science. In this case, it’s the Science behind Road Safety which involves many concepts and principles in Physics, which plays a big role in saving lives on the road. It’s not only about reading from text books or listening to teachers’ instructions anymore. The approach appeals to the many learning styles of students and research has shown that it is effective in helping people learn and appreciate the learning process.
We hope that with this exhibition, we are able to develop and raise the standards of road safety awareness. Malaysia's future lies in the potential of its people and road safety is indeed a serious national issue that needs to be addressed, as it does impact the economy when there is an increase in road accidents and such. So it is imperative that we create an environment that is able to bring about behavioral changes among society, especially in valuing their lives and that of others when on the road.
This exhibition is indeed unique and one of a kind initiative in Malaysia in terms of the take-away educational value and inculcation of responsible road habits provided by both the infrastructure of the exhibition and the activities or programs run by the facilitators. Besides programs with school children, other examples of programs that we have organized which involved collaboration with other parties are the one-day hands-on workshop session organized with JKJR and Rapid KL for Rapid KL bus drivers. The drivers were exposed to the Science behind road safety and implications of irresponsible and reckless behaviors on the road. A similar program was also organized with MIROS but for taxi drivers. The drivers took time away from their working day to attend the one-day workshop which among others made them realize how important was safety devices such as safety belts.
Petrosains, has always advocated the discovery of science and technology through creative approaches. Besides our centre located in KLCC, we also have outreach activities nationwide, as we strive to spark the interest in science among Malaysians, from all walks of life.
We are especially proud of our outreach programs as they extend our reach to communities beyond our centre in Kuala Lumpur. We have an increasing range of programs, in which PETRONAS StreetSmart is part of. We have also established collaborative relationships with several institutions and have embarked on several outreach and social activities to serve the rural communities.
In addition, we are also proud of our ongoing efforts to change the mindsets of the critical influencers to our children; we conduct teachers’ workshops where we help teachers get different ideas of how to make science more fun, interesting and relevant for their students.
We have for many years, also provided support towards Secondary Schools’ Road Safety Clubs by assisting them in their activities and producing and printing the Club Book “Buku Kelab Keselamatan Jalan Raya PETRONAS StreetSmart”