The Ministry of Education and Higher Education offered Qatar University’s (QU) Al-Bairaq program the opportunity to join the QSTEAM 2020 Competition’s Organization and Arbitration Committee, where it contributed, compiled and offered educational training workshops for the competition students.
This is a natural extension of Al-Bairaq’s permanent role in developing the scientific skills of students in Qatar and encouraging students to innovate and join scientific research, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.
As part of its role in the committee, the team from Al-Bairaq trained students to conduct the competition projects following the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) approach and apply problem-solving steps. The QU program also helped to enhance teamwork, critical thinking, creative thinking and presentation skills. The workshops provided the students with the fundamentals of the engineering design process and the way to implement the projects using scientific laboratories and modern devices at QU.
140 students from 35 different primary and preparatory schools attended the presentation. Al-Bairaq will continue to supervise the students during the competition period and provide them with all the support and equipment needed to ensure the creation of high-quality projects. Al-Bairaq was also chosen to be part of the arbitration and evaluation of the competition's projects, of which it has extensive experience in, following its previous participation in national and international competitions.
President of Al Bairaq Program and Head of Communication and Outreach at QU, Dr. Noora Jabor Al-Thani commented saying the participation of the Al-Bairaq Program in organizing the QSTEAM competition comes from the “belief in our effective role in developing the educational process that directly affects the new generation who serve and build their country.” She added that Al-Bairaq would always welcome all those looking for scientific excellence and creative thinking, and will continue to support and encourage the students of Qatar towards more progress and improvement.
Executive Director of the QSTEAM 2020 Competition and Mathematics Standards Specialist at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Mr. Hatem Al Dhawi, commented saying, “In preparation for the QSTEAM competition, several procedures were set, the most important of which is training the students on how to implement STEAM projects. The Al-Bairaq team at Qatar University has prepared and presented a training workshop on how to implement STEAM projects for the participating students. All attendees praised the excellent organization and greatly valued the presented material, which included many activities, through which they were able to implement the STEAM projects. The students also learned about the equipment and tools available at Qatar University, which they could benefit from during the implementation of their projects.”