Mission to Mars initiative for charity schools ends
dubai — The iMatter ‘Mission to Mars’ educational CSR programme for charity schools in the UAE has come to a close.
The nine-week pilot programme of the educational initiative engaged 80 Grade 8 students in hands-on experiments, live demonstrations, design challenges and a competition.
The aim was to provide students at less-resourced schools the opportunity to engage in a world-class Stem education.”
Tariq Al Ghussein, CEO of Taqeef
The final project required participants to produce a presentation about a selected science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subject. Each team developed a ‘big idea’ with Stem at its core, which had to be presented through a visual display and live demonstrations, project samples and small-scale models that would engage viewers effectively.
Leen, a participating female student, said: “In the iMatter programme, we used a lot of things we didn’t use before. It was the first time for me using tools to create a robot.”
Tariq Al Ghussein, CEO of Taqeef, said: “The aim of the initiative was to provide students at less-resourced schools the opportunity to engage in a world-class Stem education programme. iMatter Mission to Mars brought together a host of interactive digital educational learning tools, combining sustainability with science and engineering and we are very pleased with the end result.”
Dr Kamal Farhat, principal of National Charity Schools, said: “The programme challenged students’ thinking and ignited their creative spirit with friendly competitions. It also encouraged the students to think innovatively and practically to fulfil the objectives of the National Agenda of the UAE, the goals of which we all aspire to achieve by 2021.”
reporters@khaleejtimes.com