GM vows to put SAMIS on top Preparingforbigchanges

by Hazem Gaber and Yousef Yasser

Mr. Majed Al Rubaian, General Manager (GM), reveals concrete plans for Shorouq Al Mamlakah International School (SAMIS) guided by the vision and commitment to put the institution in the top five international schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“My vision is for SAMIS to be in the top 5 international schools within the country that focuses on [providing] quality education, especially by establishing STEM and pre-school education, and college preparatory courses for high school,” Mr. Majed said. This is aligned with the school’s continuous effort to help students develop 21st-century skills to succeed in their careers. The skills include creativity, collaboration, communication, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity, and social skills.

“The knowledge and skills gained by the students are the output of any institution. We have begun helping our students develop 21st-century skills through a competency-based curriculum; extra- curricular activities such as sports, student government, community service, and educational clubs; student consultation programs; and different contests held inside and outside the school,” he said. School facilities have a part in improving the quality of education as they can affect students’ behavior, engagement, and learning. With this, the administration has planned to continue the construction of the new building for the girls’ section.

“The new building for the girls’ section was supposed to be put up in 2019, the year the boys’ section’s building was completed, but due to some changes to government requirements in the building site and the effect of COVID-19, it was delayed. It is expected to finish in 2024,” said the general manager. continue to page 4...

byRezkallahFadiDouna

Gen Z does not have to socialize and can-do things in the comfort of their own homes like they always wished for. “This is truly revolutionary,” they say, but is it for the better?

Flashback to the year 2020— COVID-19 has become a global phenomenon, and many countries have gone into lockdown to prevent its spread. This has caused many facilities to shut down, including schools, leaving the entire educational system with no choice, but to make an immediate transition to distance education. Now, can this solution continue to persist post-pandemic and replace byMohammedRashidandAbdurahmanM.I. continue to page 11..

Greece is waiting for Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed (MIM), Grade 9, and Mohammed Aydin, Grade 6, after emerging victoriously in the first Kangaroo Global Linguistics (KGL) Contest held in Shorouq Al Mamlakah International School.

SAMIS joins the KGL Contest, a 3-stage worldwide and fastest-growing English competition organized by the International Testing Authority, making it the first school to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continue to page 3...

SAMIS marks 15 years, highlights cultural diversity

SAMISians impart knowledge to gifted students

SAMIS hosts first online College Fair

byMohammedIbrahimMohammed

With representatives from 15 universities around the world attending the event, a seven-day online college fair was carried out for the first time from April 14 to April 21, 2022.

Through the initiative of Sir Martin Kit Guzman, Student Counselor, the event, regularly attended by over 50 students, was successfully organized with the help of third-party organizations. The event is part of the student consultation program of the Office of the Student Counselor.

“A good number of third-party organizations invited me to attend several symposia that provide information on colleges and universities around the world. I thought the same programs may be done in SAMIS. All it need is for everybody’s will,” Sir Kit said.

College fairs occur all around the world, and they are an effective way of representing different colleges where students can have the opportunity to gather information about various programs and about admissions, financial aid, and testing requirements.

“Its benefits can be felt in many ways, but it is clear that it provides a baseline information to students. [These are] details on what to expect for college, what to look for in the process of application in different countries, and what to consider when choosing a degree,” Sir Kit mentioned.

Sir Martin Kit, through a symposium that was attended by the counselor and members of staff and administration of participating colleges and universities, made a direct partnership that will cater students’ queries by allowing the representatives to present their programs and services.

The 15 colleges and universities are University of Kansas, University of Texas Arlington, Colorado State University, University of Redlands, Florida International University, Kansas State University, Miami University, Roger Williams University, Stony Brook University, EU Business School, Trinity College Dublin, University of Arizona, University of British Columbia, James Cook University Australia, and George Mason University Virginia USA.

SAMIS helped its students learn essential information about colleges and universities, and it is planning to make this an annual event with more partnerships in the future. When asked about this, Sir Martin Kit said “Yes, and it is our hope that we organize a face-to-face college fair in the near future.”

Sir Kit gave some advice to students in choosing a college or a university, “Research. Like in selfexploration process, choosing a college under career-exploration process must be guided by your objective to learn. Learn what is best for you in terms of your abilities, interests, priorities, etc.”

The counselor also assures everyone who participated in the event that the school will always help the students in every stage of their academic journey and even in choosing a career they would like to pursue in the future.

As part of the celebration of Gulf Day for Giftedness and Creativity 2022, selected students of SAMIS showcased a community initiative at the Office of the Talented Administration in Taif City on March 29-31, 2022.

Abdallah Hajid, Abdelmuhsen Al-Amoud, Ijtihed Kilani, Islam Tayeb, and Osama Al-Zaydi shared their knowledge for other gifted students from various public and private schools. They were honored by the General Director of Education in Taif, Mr. Talal bin Mubarak Al-Luhaibi.

The celebration, which spanned 3 days, was made with intention of having students knowledgeable in a specific field present to other enthusiasts to support and nurture talent in different academic stages, “It was an initiative to help students who are talented in a certain field explain topics to their fellow students who are interested in the same field” Mr. Abdallah Al-Ashmaoui, SAMIS’ Activity Coordinator, said.

Each presentation lasted around one hour per batch with two batches daily. Chosen students decided how to present and what form of activities to use.

SAMIS’ student representatives presented a total of three different topics with Ijtihed Kilani discussing game development; Islam Tayeb and Abdallah Hajid presenting biotech; Osama Al-Zaidi and Abdelmuhsen Al-Amoud talking about cyber security.

“I basically presented the basics of functionality in unity,” said Ijtihed. “I was able to show them how to make a certain game called Bong” he added.

When asked about his approach to teaching the students, he said that he capitalized on the participant’s emotions in order to keep them active.

While presenting biotech, Islam and Abdallah were met with a variety of responses from the participants. “The elementary ones and the middle schoolers were very attentive. They liked to talk a lot and give their ideas,” said Abdallah.

The participating students were chosen by the school after the talent administration reaches out to them. “The administration reaches out to the school and the school then selects the students they think are talented in their specific fields” described Mr. Al-Ashmaoui.

The selected SAMISians were given plaques to recognize their efforts and initiative to extend help to the community and promote creativity.

Fostering Innovativeness: Robotics team competes in First LEGO league

byAwabAbdallah byAhmedAbdelnasser

Imagine taking a pile of plastic bricks and a few circuit boards and smashing them together with a sprinkle of code to make a robot that moves and executes commands.

These were the processes Islam Mohammed, Ahmed Samir, Ahmed Tauqer, and Ijtihed Khilani had to go through to receive The Rookie Team Special Award as delegates in the First LEGO League Challenge held on March 26, 2022.

First LEGO League is a contest in Saudi Arabia where students compete on a table-top playing field using their own designed, built, and programmed Lego Mindstorms robot kit. It includes the application of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics concepts plus creative thinking to solve a problem.

The contestants are judged based on three categories: innovation, design, and code. The trainers had to make sure that student-participants are well-trained in these skills.

“We had to undergo specialized training in order to prepare our contestants to be innovative and to know how to code robots; we held online seminars and meetings. These serve as ways to figure out their strengths and weaknesses and how to improve [upon] them,” Sir Avie John Tesorero, SAMIS Robotics Team’s Facilitator, stated.

“They have to design, make, and code the robots if they want any chance at victory. This helps measure the students’ ability in the robotics field,” Sir Heman Gonzales, one of the facilitators, added.

The robotics team at SAMIS was split up to tackle each category as effectively as possible. Each sub-team was led by a student who excels in his respective category, like Ijtihed Kilani, a student at SAMIS, who says “Personally, I’m interested in software and coding, so I was assigned as the head of the coding team.” Other members of the team worked on designing and building the robots.

The boys’ section team’s hard work has paid off after receiving The Rookie Team Special Award, while the representatives of the girls’ section won 3rd Place in the Core Values Presentation in the league.

Robotics is an integral part of STEM, combining both engineering and technology as well as science. As SAMIS is gearing up toward becoming an accredited STEM school, the First Lego League is a big step towards that end goal.

“This competition was but a single step. SAMIS plans to expand its representatives to include elementary and middle school students as well as implement other fields of STEM in order to be accredited; the future of SAMIS is STEM,” Sir Heman further said.