Qatar University’s (QU) Al-Bairaq program, a non-traditional educational project where students at Qatari secondary schools work in teams with highly exquisite university-level scientists, is preparing for a new academic year with an array of exclusive and innovative plans and ideas. These new initiatives aim to enhance the programs goals to develop and motivate students' scientific thinking, gain scientific research skills, conduct scientific experiments, advance their critical thinking and improve their self-confidence. During the previous year, Al-Bairaq witnessed a number of significant achievements such as winning many international awards, which has pushed the program to excel further in order to serve the education field in Qatar.
During the first semester, the Al-Bairaq team will launch the “I am a Researcher” track, which is now impressively on its 17th cycle. The program has been keen to involve research professors from QU’s Center for Advanced Materials (CAM), which allows students to work with these specialists in different areas of research, in laboratories equipped with modern equipment and techniques. The team also concentrated its efforts on the launch of the “I am Discovering Materials” track for secondary schools, which is now on its 15th cycle. The program is preparing more effective workshops that encourage students to innovate and discover new interesting topics in the field of material science. These workshops also help prepare students to participate in the National Week of Scientific Research 2020.
The second semester will include the 5th cycle of the “I am Discovering Materials” for students in the preparatory stage and the 6th cycle for the primary stage. In addition, the second semester will launch the 6th cycle of the “Problem Solving” track targeting third and fourth graders.
Al Bairaq’s plan for this year also include preparations for participation in several international competitions such as the Reimagine Education Conference and Awards 2019 in London, following their win the previous year in the Cultivating Curiosity category among 1150 worldwide educational projects from 17 categories. Al-Bairaq is also planning to participate in the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE 2019) in Qatar, and has begun preparing for a series of interactive workshops that raise important scientific topics and offer advanced strategies, which seek to promote a high-level and distinguished thinking of the educational system and a better future for Qatar. Al-Bairaq will also represent Qatar in the ITEX 2020 competition in Malaysia, and has supervised the training of its participating students and providing them with the required skills to present the research projects in innovative and unconventional ways.
President of Al Bairaq Program and Head of Communication and Outreach at QU, Dr. Noora Jabor Al-Thani thanked the Al-Bairaq’s official sponsor the Ras Laffan Industrial City Community Outreach Programme (RLIC-COP) for their continuous support and belief in the effective role of Al-Bairaq. She said, “As the new academic year approaches, we have made all the necessary preparations to continue to achieve our goals in developing scientific research skills and enhancing the creative thinking of Qatari students in order to benefit the educational process and meet the requirements of the country towards development and achieve the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030.”