In cooperation with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and with the support of wireless operator MobileCom, a member of Jordan Telecom Group, the first local competitions of Intel ISEF (International and Engineering Fair) concluded on Monday, March 5, 2007.
The fairs, which started on Monday, February 26, 2007 and lasted for three separate days, covered the north, middle and south regions of the Kingdom in three fairs that witnessed the participation of 400 candidates that were selected to demonstrate their projects in front of a specialized arbitration committee out of thousands of applicants.
The MOE had declared January 30, 2007 the last date to send the applications to the schools’ directorates located around the Kingdom. At that time, a specialized committee in each directorate forwarded the quality applications to the MOE who further evaluated the applications through a specialized arbitration committee formed by the Ministry itself. This step led to the selection of the 400 students who received training and orientation to participate effectively in the local fairs. Now, the qualified students out of this phase will later participate in one affiliated fair in mid of March for all regions after which the most qualified students will be nominated to participate in the final fair which will be held in Albuquerque city in New Mexico, USA in May 2007.
“We support these scientific fairs that highlight our students’ talents and motivate them to show their creativity. Since it was first introduced, Intel ISEF gained the wide acclamation of teachers, students and parents who consistently expressed how they benefited from this program and how it developed talents, making them more determined to achieving their goals,” MoE’s spokesperson Mr. Mohammad Al-Zoubi said.
According to the Ministry, the projects were evaluated inline with Intel ISEF’s international criteria by an arbitration committee that included a number of university professors selected from different Jordanian universities holding academic degrees relevant to the prize’s different categories.
“We feel proud to be associated with this initiative which has given fruitful results. The huge number of students who have rushed to take part is certainly a good indication of the success of this initiative, making us more delighted to back Intel ISEF for the second consecutive year. MobileCom truly aims at developing and enhancing the youths’ capabilities while urging them to invest their efforts to improve their future,” MobileCom’s CEO Majd Shweikeh said.
“This fair successfully highlighted Jordanian promising youth. It also helped prepare a cadre of competent teachers to teach students the principles of this competition and motivate them towards winning and achieving. Intel ISEF is continuously accomplishing its goals by motivating and encouraging scientific research,” Intel Education Manager for Jordan and Lebanon Rula Habash said. “We thank the Ministry of Education and MobileCom for their continuous support for this initiative as they played an essential role in expanding the participation level among students,” she also added.
The south fair took place at Sumayah Bent Khayat Secondary School in Petra city while the north fair took place at the Teachers’ Club in Irbid and the middle one at the Teachers’ Club in Amman.
About Intel ISEF
Intel ISEF is the world’s only international science fair. Every year, more than one million students in grades 9-12 participate in regional science fairs. Over 1200 students from nearly 500 countries win the chance to compete for more than $3 million in scholarships and prizes at the Intel ISEF in a number of scientific categories such as mathematics, science, technology, engineering, and more.
In May 2005, at the state of Arizona, USA, Jordan took part in the international fair with two projects, a single and a group project. With the support of MobileCom, a member of Jordan Telecom Group, Jordan also took part in May 2006 in the international fair held at the state of Indiana, USA with four single projects and two group projects where two Jordanian students won prizes at the fair.
