The 4th edition of the
National Science, Technology and Innovation (NSTI) Festival 2020, which was organized
by the Ministry of Education in Dubai Festival Arena between February 4 and 8, has
recently concluded. The festival featured various activities over 5 days,
during which the Emirate School students were able to dazzle the festival’s
visitors with their innovative scientific research outputs and projects. This
year’s festival was truly a cognitive and innovative demonstration that we are
proud of. It prompts us to do more serious work to enable our students to meet
the requirements of their times and keep pace with the rapid scientific and
technological developments.
The festival included several
main sections, the most important of which was the Science Fair, which provided
a platform for public education students to display the scientific research
results of their 100 innovative projects. These projects are due to participate
in the Emirates Young Scientist Competition out of 2,472 projects done by 5,791
students from 427 government and private schools that enrolled in the
competition and went through several stages of competitive evaluation by
specialized professors from the country's elite universities. The projects
participating in the competition are divided into four main fields; namely,
technology, biological sciences & environment, chemistry, physics &
mathematics and social and behavioral sciences.
The festival also included
the Junior Innovators Challenge, a competition dedicated to Emirati
kindergarten and first to fourth grade students from all UAE schools. The
competition is aimed at inspiring young students and tomorrow’s youth,
motivating and encouraging them to be creative and innovate, promoting their
spirit of excellence in all fields of science and technology. It is also aimed
at refining their personalities by engaging them in various challenges that
were commensurate with their age groups. Through these challenges, new creative
students are identified in the UAE for showing not only excellent creativity
and innovation skills but also problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork,
communication and knowledge sharing skills.
In addition, the festival
included a student retreat concerned with exploring and supporting emerging
entrepreneurs of Emirati students who are still studying at UAE government and
private schools. The retreat is also concerned with developing the entrepreneurial
capabilities and financial skills of these emerging entrepreneurs by giving
them the opportunity to practice their emerging entrepreneurial experience and
prepare an Emirati student capable of overcoming the challenges faced in the
world of entrepreneurship. A team of experts provided the students
participating in the student retreat with a package of specialized advisory
services in the field of developing small projects. They also offered the
necessary support to the students, discussed their ideas and assisted them in
turning these ideas into viable business projects. As many as 47 male and
female students participated in the Student Retreat out of 289 registered
students who came up with ideas for pioneering projects that were evaluated and
the best was selected according to predetermined criteria.
The festival also included an
Innovation Lab, which featured several dedicated workshops presented to the
students by a group of leading government and private establishments in the
UAE. Besides, the festival included a family festival, which provided an ideal
platform to bolster community involvement and familiarize the public with the
importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in a wonderful
entertaining and interactive family atmosphere.
Bringing inspiring models of
famous innovators and decision-makers closer to the minds of our students and
their contact with them added a special glow to the festival. The festival
included a world-class conference, which attracted a group of prominent
speakers and through which ideas were exchanged and learned expertise and
experiences were shared. The conference reviewed inspirational stories to
motivate students by a group of UAE ministers and dignitaries as well as
international entrepreneurs and speakers who contributed to honing students’
interests and preparing students for a promising future, they being the future
leaders who would shoulder the responsibility for sustaining the UAE’s
development and prosperity.
The Ministry of Education’s entire
activities are derived from the UAE National Agenda and UAE Centennial 2071.
These are the guidelines for which the Ministry of Education has drawn up action
plans and programs that ultimately meet and integrate with the UAE’s efforts
and our wise leadership’s aspirations towards building a competitive knowledge-based
economy for the UAE.
Innovation means continuous
work and positive thinking to facilitate and improve the lives of societies by
producing ideas that contribute to finding solutions to whatever challenges
that any society may face. Our role in the Ministry of Education is to fuel
that positive thinking and passion for knowledge among our students and take
them to the highest level of development by creating a stimulating home and school
environment as necessary to achieve this goal. Our role integrates with and is
closely identical with parent’s role and guidelines because innovation is an
approach and a feature that we strive to be inherent in the students of the
Emirati School.
By H.E. Dr. Amna Al Dahak Al
Shamsi,
Assistant Undersecretary for
Care and Activities Sector, Ministry of Education
Anonymous Commented on 02/03/2020
Really enjoyed reading your post! We try to inspire students at my school (Al Hosn Scientific School) to be innovative across the STEM subjects and think about creative solutions to novel problems! If possible I'd love to contribute to this blog and add my own comments on how well STEM is being implemented across the UAE. Please email me at: adeyinka.banjo@moe.gov.ae Thank you!
Anonymous Commented on 01/03/2020
إن الإيجابية عنوان دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة وقبولها للأخر بتفكيره وأراء الأخرين عنوان الثقافة المنفتحة والأفق الخلاق الذي طالما تمتع به من شرب من ماء الإمارات وتظلل في أشجار نخيلها هذا عنوان الاستمرارية والتفكير المبدع الذي تنتهجه الإمارات في خططها لتكون مقروءة على أرض الواقع وملموسة في سلوكيات يومية نعيشها ونتمتع بها في مجتمعات التعلم التي نرى فيها صور التكامل الحق الواقعي المنطلق وفق المقومات الوطنية والتراثية العريقة التي تعد نبراسا للجميع
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