Faculty of Geography students have made achievements in Innovation Debate Competition, organised by Institut Teknologi Kalimantan, Balikpapan, East Kalimantan (Fig 1). One teams from Faculty of Geography, UGM became the winner and earned Best Speaker award. Lukman Hakim from Department of Science Information Geographic and Aditya Pradana from Department of Environmental Geography went through to the finals in the competition that ran from 5-7 March 2017 after getting through elimination phase. “The competition was joined by 16 teams from various universities in Indonesia that had passed elimination in the form of essay selection which raised the theme Technology on Alert in Indonesia,” said Aditya who became Best Speaker of debate competition.
Fig 1. Innovation Debate Competition
The competition adopted British Parliementary (BP) system on themes related to technology implementation issues. The UGM team had the Pro position on nuclear power plant management by foreign company in the elimination phase. In the finals, the UGM team as Opening Government defeated three other teams from IPB, ITK, and UNMUL in the debate on social media having the potential to cause a world war motion. Aditya added the biggest challenge in the competition was the British Parliamentary system and debate motion that quite difficult because it requires an understanding of technology implementation policy. But the UGM team finally managed to convince the juries through their argument. They were able to present matter and manner evaluation well so they won the event (Fig 2).
Fig 2. Faculty of Geography won the event
“The competition between contestants was strong because each team had prepared their argument well,” he said. Despite the challenge, he said enjoyed it and saw it as opportunity to train his skills on critically thinking and communication. He hoped the achievement they had this time would develop them more for future challenges. “Through this debate we train our skills to deliver argument wisely based on logical consideration in front of the public, we also gain new networks and experiences. Hopefuly, it’s getting better in the future,” said Aditya.