The 2014 Intel International Science Fair Egypt first place team included Ms. Marwa Abd El- Raouf, Ms. Demiana Aiad and Ms. Mairar Mosaad from the STEM High School for Girls, Ma’adi. The students presented their research findings on “Water Desalination Using Nano Technologies.”
The Intel International Science Fair Egypt announced the finalists in Cairo today at the close of their 3-day annual competition here. The first place team of Ms. Marwa Abd El-Raouf, Ms. Demiana Aiad and Ms. Mairar Mosaad from the STEM High School for Girls, Ma’adi presented their research findings on “Water Desalination Using Nano Technologies.” They will be traveling to the ISEF finals in Los Angeles, CA this May to present their work.
Director of Scientific Research Programs and Innovation at Intel, Sally Metwally told Youm7 media in Egypt “The idea behind the fair is competition and research to find a new idea or prove a new theory based on the research. “
Out of 152 projects presented for the competition at Misr el-Khair Institute a total of seven semifinalists were recognized. Of those, five of the winning teams came from the recently launched STEM schools in Egypt according to Mr. Ahmad Towfiq, an engineering teacher and Technology Specialist at STEM High School for Boys 6th October. The Egyptian STEM schools are modeled after platform STEM schools in the United States including MC2STEM High School in Cleveland, OH. TIES (The Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM) has been providing STEM curricular technical support since the launch of these schools in 2010.
The winning research project was born out of the Grand Challenge Capstone course, which TIES helped create.
“The Grand Challenge Capstone proposition uses real world problems as a tool to inspire creative thinking, collaboration and problem solving skills among students.” The Egyptian STEM schools’ Capstone used the very real world problem of access to ample clean drinking water to inspire their project which lead to their research on desalination of water.
~ Jan Morrison, CEO of TIES