ALKHOBAR, 10 March 2005 — For months the students of Bayan Garden School have been delving into the strange, wacky and totally wild world of the sciences in order to prepare for the school’s annual “Science Spectacular.” Their efforts culminated recently on separate days when their mothers and fathers came to explore the wonders of science as demonstrated by nearly 200 Bayan Garden students from preschool through fifth grade.
It was quite a show. A group of second grade girls turned a huge pile of sand into a desert and invited everyone to take a walk on the “wild (and prickly)” side to learn about the plants that thrive in a desert climate. Other students decided that they’d already seen too much sand just living in Saudi Arabia. So they went for a bit of climate change and created a beautiful, cool, green rain forest. The preschoolers though wanted something more. Not content to stay earth-bound, they made a planetarium to explore the stars.
Future biologists, chemists and physicists were out in force at the Science Spectacular. A group of fourth grade girls explained the intricacies of the skeletal system while some third grade boys launched a hot air balloon. Red and green blinking traffic lights designed by other students regulated the human traffic flow during the event. The young scientists put on skits to illustrate their projects and the trees and skeletons walking around definitely added to the intellectual ambiance of the event.
The Science Spectacular is hosted annually at the school to encourage creative thinking in the sciences. Students work in groups during school hours to develop projects and experiments that are inspired by the science concepts they have been learning during the school year. Individual students with an interest in science may also design their own projects at home to be exhibited in a separate area at the Science Spectacular.
“Over the past few years there has been a big push to introduce our students to science concepts in real world situations,” said Yasmeen Husain, director, Bayan Garden School. “The Science Spectacular allows us to take lessons learned in the classroom and develop them into creative projects that have a high ‘wow’ factor to fuel continuing and expanding student interest in science.”
As a sidelight of the Science Spectacular, the school gave parents a glimpse into its ongoing efforts to participate in the government mandated educational activities to fight terrorism.
“We felt that our students were too young to be viewing the violence associated with terrorism,” Husain explained. “Showing small children graphic displays of the horror wreaked by terrorists or even talking about such terrible actions would serve no good purpose. So instead we have been teaching the children about peace. In our 10-week program we will be showing them the heritage and culture of different nations around the world. We believe that understanding and appreciating the people of every nationality who live in our global village is the key to stopping terrorism.”
