Science Across the World in the Middle East (Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen)

Qatar: November 3-4, 2007

Trevor Drury, deputy principal of the Mohammed in Abdul Wahab Independent School for Boys invited Keith Kelly and Lida Schoen or a two-day-visit to the school in the capital Doha. The school is situated in the outskirts of Doha, surrounded by planes of white sands, real desert. Qatar, a peninsula in the Gulf on the Eastern side of Saudi Arabia has a lot of natural gas and oil. It has around one million inhabitants of which 20% Qatari and 80% expats, from Eastern Asian countries for the labour work and from the Arab world for the more intellectual work.
We worked with all teachers from the Science, Math and IT department, most of them recruited from Egypt, also from Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, on Content and Language Integrated learning (CLIL), Science Across the World and the topic Chemistry in our lives. It was a wonderful experience to work with 20 enthusiastic teachers in English, with Trevor and Keith as the only native speakers.
The school published it's own elaborate report soon after our visit: www.mbwschool.com/News/2007-2008/1st%20term2007-2008/CLIL.htm

Bahrain: November 7-8, 2007

Christina Phelps of the British Council Bahrain hosted our visit in Bahrain. The Kingdom of Bahrain consists of an island (Manama), surrounding by many very small islands in the Gulf East of Saudi Arabia and it is also full of oil and gas. We presented the Science Across the World programme and an outline of the Young Ambassador for Chemistry project to curriculum specialists from the Bahraini Ministry of Education, chaired by English Language Specialist Dr. Minas. Specialist in Chemistry Dr. Fatan, showed the audience a ten year old printed address book of Science Across the World with her as the first member in Bahrain. Welcome back!
We gave two more presentations of Science Across the World for the 'English as a Foreign Language' (EFL) group and the senior teachers of English for at least 60 teachers. We also carried out practical work, made possible by Fatima Fakhro, with a group of BC teachers and English teachers of the Communications Department of the Bahrain Institute of Technology. Great fun and good results: products with fancy names like Desert sensation, Everlasting Gulf! And presentations you might expect from communication specialists!
Teachers that like to exchange with teachers in Bahrain, please contact Dr. Fatan at fabdelhameed@hotmail.com.

Oman: November 10-11, 2007

Alexandra McGee of the British Council Oman hosted our visit in Muscat, Oman. Oman is a much bigger country and has a much larger population. On the first day we were briefed about the state of art in education since 35 years the first school under a tree started. Since then the government has put a lot of money in developing the level of education on all levels. In the evening Keith presented his ideas about CLIL for Science and Math to the officials of the Ministry of Education and interested teachers in a large audience.

On the second day we could also explore possibilities for Science Across the World in three schools.

1. Qurum, an English-medium Private School. We visited a Grade 5 Biology class by Mariam from Tanzania and a Grade 10 class Maths by a teacher from India.
2. Hail Al-Awarmer Basic Education School. We visited a Grade 9 lesson in Chemistry about Safety in the Chemistry Lab.
3. Al-Nubugh Basic School. We visited a grade 2 class on colour mixing (in Arabic). The students and the teachers gave us a great idea of what goes on in classrooms in Oman. To experience all hospitality was heart warming!

Yemen: November 13-14, 2007

Eilidh Hamilton of the British Council Yemen hosted our visit in Yemen. Yemen has only a little oil, but is a very old civilization. In Sana'a we admired the very characteristic architecture. We delivered two days of workshops for teachers of English and Science (and Science in English), including inspectors, university lecturers and students. The programme was CLIL, Science Across the World, the YAC programme and practical work on cosmetics.
The workshops were located at the Middle East Modern School in Sana'a with director Hussain Al Sayyadi as our host. On day 1 we had 44 participants and on day 2 we had 60, great experience! We couldn't have worked without the help of Huda Saleem, who prepared the practical workshops.