Connecting Minds, Creating the Future

Patrick Thompson | Head of UAE Social Studies, DESC

From tomato ketchup and the icecream cone, to the touchscreen and telephone, EXPOs have provided a space for millions of people to share ideas, showcase innovation and celebrate human ingenuity.

In October 2021, Dubai will be the first city in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia to host this highly prestigious global event. Although it will take place in 2021, Dubai has decided to keep the title ‘EXPO 2020’ – road sign workers, rejoice!

The theme of this year’s EXPO, ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, remains as pertinent as ever. Reflect momentarily on our most recent scientific collaboration and medical advancement, which is paving the way to an increasingly promising decade. As we are currently unable to visit the site, the UAE Social Studies team, working alongside the Geography and History Department, decided to bring EXPO 2020 to the College. Our students in Years 7, 8 and 9 have been delving deep into the heritage of some of the participating nations, investigating their past, present and future. With this, we have explored each country’s EXPO Pavilion with the aim of creating an ‘artefact’ that ties together the EXPO 2020 themes of sustainability, opportunity and mobility.

Two weeks of Geography, History and Social Studies lessons were dedicated to the project and students were given the choice of three roles to work with. One option was the ‘Design Guru’ role, which involved creating a prototype of an innovative feature for a Pavilion. The ‘Exhibition Expert’ was tasked with creating a 3D or virtual model of an entire Pavilion. Finally, the ‘Marketing Master’, produced an informative resource to advertise a Pavilion to a select group of visitors.

The focus was very much on process as well as outcome with students completing a reflective Production Log outlining the tasks they had completed and challenges they had overcome in each session. Students worked creatively and many used resources such as Minecraft and TinkerCad to design their Pavilions. Some students went as far as building models and sculptures as well as prototypes of their artefact.

The two-week project culminated in the ‘DESC EXPO Exhibition’ – a showcase of the best pieces from across all three year groups, on display in the Desert House Atrium. There were some fantastic models and designs which really engaged with the original brief and represented the three themes of EXPO admirably. However, despite tough competition, the judges awarded the ‘best in class’ title to Diane Piniau in Year 9. Mr Vizzard described her work as “a project which exceeds every objective, combining the wow factor with a considered process”. Congratulations to Diane and all of the students who were involved in the Exhibition.

On a final note, legacy in a global event is always a challenge, but it is claimed that 80% of the EXPO 2020 buildings will form a new business zone called District 2020. We hope that our students appreciate the significance of hosting such a globally recognised event such as EXPO and that, as a College, we embrace our own legacy in the form of a Design Week such as this each year.