Sharjah Student Tops 60+ Schools, Wins Outstanding STEM Student Trophy

Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Ameer Hamza

During the 4th annual Global Annual STEM Best Practice Summit and Awards 2023, Naomi Maetel, a student from GEMS Cambridge International Private School Sharjah (GCS), won the prestigious Outstanding STEM Student Secondary category – Special Jury Award.

Kitspire, in collaboration with Autodesk and the American University of Dubai, organized the event. The initiative aimed to create and empower an atmosphere for the promotion of excellence, innovation, and best practices in STEM education.

The selection process for the STEM Awards was aimed at finding outstanding STEM students, outstanding STEM teachers and outstanding STEM clubs in schools, a total of 60 schools from 9 countries in the Middle East and India participated this year . The panel of judges consisted of STEM experts, members of leading universities and education ministries and consultants. The STEM Best Practice Awards were contested in 3 phases.

The first phase kicked off when school heads/principal of schools nominated their best STEM teachers and students for the awards based on innovation, impact on teaching/ learning, and achievements/ professional development. In the second phase all the shortlisted participants met the judging panel, delivered their presentations while introducing themselves along with their achievements, which was followed by a Q&A session.

During the third phase the selected winners were awarded at the STEM Best Practice Summit and Awards held at the Dubai Knowledge Park Conference Centre on 10 May 2023.

Being the Innovation Champion at GCS, Naomi has been leading on Innovative projects at her school based on the Design Thinking principle. She participated with her team in the First Lego league competition where they presented their project Floation, a hybrid renewable energy system combining tidal, wind, and solar power, an innovative global transportation solution that has bagged ‘The Innovative Project’ Award regionally and nationally.

Commenting on the iconic milestone, Albie Huyser, Principal and CEO at GCS, expressed her gratitude for being recognized for nurturing innovative minds.

“We are honoured  to be awarded this prestigious award, demonstrating our strong commitment to encouraging and nurturing young and innovative minds to be responsible future leaders. These award-winning projects further demonstrate and underscore our unwavering support for sustainability and the importance of a clean environment,” said Huyser.

Sheillie Chaudhary, Head of Innovation and the UAE National Agenda at GCS, was also present at the event, said, “We are proud to be recognized for coming up with high-impact ideas to existing environmental challenges and most importantly, these ideas come from our students at a very young age. We have demonstrated why it is important to have an inclusive process by also involving our learners in the conversation about formulating sustainable solutions. Our students have shown keen interest in being part of the solution by taking the lead role in contributing their ideas and time.”

STEM Best Practice Summits and Awards are unique independent Summit series designed to provide a platform for STEM Educators, school leadership teams, and corporates to discuss and share best practices in STEM education.