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This series of events provide students with hands-on experiences that will help build the 21st century skills required by future leaders in Egypt.
Cairo, Egypt - H.E. Dr. Tarek Shawki, Minister of Education, launched Discovery Education’s STEM Camp, a week-long series of events designed to provide students aged 10-16 the opportunity to participate in high-quality, practical activities that inspire their interest in STEM learning and careers.
Dr. Tarek Shawki delivered an opening speech emphasizing the importance of expanding the learning process to include more fun tools beyond the textbook, to shift away from the process being stressful and exam-oriented. “The Ministry and Discovery Education have been working closely on projects like the Egyptian Knowledge Bank to provide students with a source of general knowledge. Our upcoming plans include to launch fun, educational competitions, TV programs, to develop school textbooks, and to create more programs that focus on making learning pleasant for students. Expanding learning tools beyond the use of textbooks will give students the room to grow and to build skills like critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. It is also very important to us and to President Abdelfattah El Sisi to bring out students’ talents in art, singing, science, and math. We are currently working on all of these plans for students because there is a lot more to the learning process.”
Students are challenged to solve real-world problems through exciting hands-on activities that will require them to apply the essential skills - communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Robin Headlee, Vice President International for Discovery Education commented, “We are honoured to continue to support the transformation of education in Egypt to create a society that learns, thinks, and innovates, through hosting this series of STEM Camp days. Designed to spark an interest in STEM and the future careers open to students, STEM Camp supplements the work Discovery Education is already doing to help transform classroom learning by immersing them in the scientific process, building 21st century skills and inspiring them to be tomorrow’s innovators - scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.”
STEM Camp will take place for five days from Sunday 20th August until Thursday 24th August, in Downtown Cairo. Over 300 students will participate in the event by completing engaging hands-on activities created to help students develop skills that will enable them to address real-life STEM challenges. Andrew Tidswell, Head of International Professional Development, commented “This week, we will do a number of hands-on activities that will help build 21st century skills for the leaders of the future. For example, we are challenging students to build a bridge from spaghetti. By engaging in this exercise, students are developing their creative solutions to engineering challenges. They test materials, try ideas, solve problems and collaborate to achieve a successful outcome”.
Mr. Tidswell adds, “For another exercise, by asking students to build a prototype for a device out of household materials, we are helping them recognise the ways their creative ideas can find innovative solutions to problems. By collaborating with this task, they realise that 21st Century careers need diverse teams working together to share their skills and ideas.”
Students are encouraged to share their experience on Discovery Education Network (DEN) Student Community page on Facebook which can be found at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/den.students/
About Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB)
The Egyptian Knowledge Bank [EKB] was launched in January 2016. It is regarded as one of the largest free digital educational libraries in the world, hosting content from prominent publishing houses from across the globe. The EKB offers Egyptians huge and diversified sources for knowledge and culture free of charge.
About Discovery Education
Powered by the #1 non-fiction Media Company in the world, Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-based digital content for primary, preparatory and secondary learning, transforming teaching and learning with award-winning digital textbooks, multimedia content, professional development, and the largest professional learning community of its kind. With a footprint in 53 countries, across all continents, Discovery Education’s mission is to transform teaching and learning through innovative partnerships with schools, administrations, government ministries and other like-minded organizations. Discovery Education has proven experience working with partners at all levels across the education spectrum to create custom solutions that have markedly improved student achievement through engaging content, collaborative professional development, formative assessment and connection to a robust community of educational professionals. Discovery Education currently serves over 50 million students and 4.5 million educators worldwide.
About Discovery Education Network (DEN) Student Community
The DEN Student Community is an online place for students to connect with their peers across Egypt to learn about the latest STEM digital resources, get study tips and tricks, ask questions and get support from other students who are interested in STEM and learn about STEM Careers that are available to them.
© Press Release 2017
