Novel educational initiative ignites young minds in Yanbu

An emerging trend in teaching methodologies in math and science has placed greater emphasis on engaging the minds of students in hands-on edutainment camps that focus on experimenting, investigation and peer-learning approaches.
This trend is being applied in an unprecedented educational initiative, iDiscover, by Saudi Aramco’s King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture that aims to guide students and teachers toward such learning in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
iDiscover is an intensive two-week math and science camp implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Education. The iDiscover team plans on visiting five different cities in the Kingdom including Hail, Jeddah, Yanbu, Jazan and Al-Ahsa.
In each city, four camps in science and math for males and females will provide the participants with an enriching educational experience.
The program will target 2,000 male and female ninth graders, offering them concentrated math and science workshops, as well as a variety of art, leadership and thinking strategy courses. In addition, the team will train math and science teachers on the latest educational technologies and approaches in this field.
Yanbu incubated iDiscover for two weeks, during which 200 local teachers and 400 students embarked upon the learning experience.
A hand-dexterity game consisting of a battery, wires, a light bulb and a metal hanger used as an electricity transmitter in a simple electric circuit is one of the final projects of a group of students in the iDiscover energy category, which was showcased on the last day of the project in Yanbu.
Enrichment classes in iDiscover complement the educational experience by equipping students with character-building and leaderships skills. In addition, the main role of the art and photography courses is to awaken hidden talents and display students’ skills.