Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi University (ADU) concluded the first edition of its Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) competition in conjunction with the UAE’s innovation month as part of its aim to build a nurtured learning environment for students.
Almost 500 kids participated in the tournament, which included 42 participating schools from the public and private sectors. The top three winners received trophies and cash awards worth up to $8712 (AED 32,000).
The competition, which primarily targets high school students, aims to enable self-identified social innovators from a variety of academic fields to create companies and offer solutions outside the realm of conventional business development processes.
Science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) questions from the actual world were asked of the contestants. ADU hopes to motivate young people to continue studying and innovating while encouraging them to pursue professions in STEAM subjects through this event.
Professor Ghassan Aouad, Chancellor of Abu Dhabi University (ADU), stated that, “The STEAM educational approach is one of the strongest factors shaping the academic landscape today. It’s thrilling to learn that high-school students have an appetite to engage with innovative learning activities outside of the typical classroom, and this is what ADU’s STEAM competition is for.”
“In line with the university’s efforts to promote youth development and educational opportunities, in this edition of the competition we’ve upgraded the challenge to include arts as a key component to solutions designed by students. Through similar activations, we seek to present prospect students with an early dive-in into the higher educational world and best prepare them for the next step in their academic journey. We congratulate the winners for the innovative mechanisms presented in their solutions and all participants for investing time and effort which will produce ample returns,” Professor further added.
Four schools, divided into groups of three, advanced to the final round, where the teams competed on the last day to construct a bridge using an application. Al Jahili Public School, which won first place, was given a diploma and a cash prize of $4083 (AED 15,000) for their exceptional performance. Al Dar Private School came in third and received $1905 (AED 7,000) in prize money, followed by Al Ain Juniors School in second place, which received $2722 (AED 10,000).