OREANDA-NEWS. June 06, 2013. One of Saudi Aramco’s investments in human capital wrapped up this week in al-Hasa with the fifth stop on the iDiscover educational initiative.

Conducted as an iThra Youth initiative from the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the iDiscover program is part of Saudi Aramco’s drive to help power the Saudi youth with educational possibilities.

During the 2012 Space and Aeronautics conference in Riyadh, Saudi Aramco president and CEO Khalid Al-Faleh announced the launch of the unique educational program, iDiscover.

Focusing on science and math, iDiscover aims to provide engaging, hands-on, student-centered experiences that will redirect the stereotypical thinking of teenagers about math and science as rigid and dull subjects into popular, interesting, enjoyable, and valuable fields of knowledge that can build the future of Saudi Arabia.

Consisting of three phases, the first phase, called iDiscover –Master Trainers, involved 32 selected teachers from around the Kingdom going through intensive math and science training in two well-recognized institutions in the United Sates: Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, and Math Zoom Academy in Irvine, California.

These trained Master-trainers then conducted the second (iDiscover- Teachers) and third (iDiscover- Students) phases in five different cities, Hayil, Jiddah, Yanbu', Jazan, and al-Hasa, training and enriching a total of 1,000 teachers and 2,000 students from both genders.

In each city, the two week experience started with iDiscover-Teachers, five-day training sessions during which a total of 200 local female and male assistant teachers were intensively trained by the Master-trainers.

At the end of this phase, a selection process was conducted to select the top 20 teachers to assist the master trainers in conducting the second week of the program (iDiscover- Students).

iDiscover-Students, engaged 400 students in science, math and enrichment workshops that were designed to build well-rounded students through enhancing their knowledge in math and science as well as to build their character, communication, leadership and social skills.
 
As the final city on the five-stop tour, the teachers and students in al-Hasa received the program with enthusiasm and excitement. “I am passionate about iDiscover because its main goal is to build human capital,” Nourah Al-Jashi, iDiscover Math master-trainer said.

The program concluded with a grand closing ceremony in al-Hasa during which Dr. Khalid Al-Sabti, Deputy Minister of Education delivered a speech highlighting the value of the productive partnership between the Ministry of Education and Saudi Aramco.

Mohammad Y. Al-Qahtani, vice president for Saudi Aramco Affairs, announced in his speech the fulfillment of the iDiscover goal of enriching 1,000 teachers and 2,000 students in five cities around the Kingdom.

“iDiscover program was inspiring to all of us,” Al-Qahtani declared, “The iDiscover experience transformed the fearful and reluctance perceptions’ of hundreds of our young people about math and science into a bond of love and interaction. Above all, the experience deepened our belief that if we persist in providing our youth with opportunities that reach their ambitions, the results will exceed our expectations.”
 
The iThra Youth initiative is perusing a mission to enrich two million Saudi young people by 2020, through creating and implementing educational programs that will inspire and transform young people throughout the kingdom.