Qatar University’s (QU) Al-Bairaq, a non-traditional educational project, in which students at Qatari secondary school work in teams with university-level scientists, has won the bronze award in the 2018 Reimagine Education conference, where 1,150 educational projects competed in 17 categories.
Al-Bairaq is the first Qatari programme to win the award for three consecutive years and the only Arab programme to win in the category “cultivating curiosity.”
Reimagine Education is an international conference and the competition aimed at recognising and rewarding the most successful institutions, programmes and projects in creating educational initiatives and innovations that promote student-learning outcomes and qualifying them for the job market.
The award is a partnership between Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most prestigious universities in the US, and QS Quacquarelli Symonds, which is known as a leader in universities ranking worldwide.
Al-Bairaq was invited by the organisers of the event to attend the conference in San Francisco, California, to give a detailed presentation about the programme on a global platform to a leading audience in education, as a final step towards evaluation.
Ruba Ali, a member of the Al-Bairaq team, gave the presentation about the programme, its objectives, methodology and innovative style in stimulating enthusiasm and curiosity of students to learn science and to disseminate the foundations and culture of scientific research among students in Qatar.
During the presentation, Al-Bairaq’s most recent teaching tools and innovative educational methods were explained to audiences. The most important of these is the STEAM curriculum, which offers an integrated curriculum of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. Al-Bairaq presented its inquiry-based learning method, which is a form of active learning that begins with asking questions, problems, or scenarios.
Fatima al-Maadeed, a former student in Al-Bairaq and a current student at QU, participated in the conference poster session to present her research project and share her experiences at the programme.
The programme was launched in 2010 by the Centre for Advanced Materials at QU, under the leadership of Dr Noora al-Thani, president of Al Bairaq and head of Communication and Outreach at the university.
