The First Edition of the STEM Initiative: A Unique Experience for Our Children

JESA Institute, in collaboration with JESA Future Network (JFN), organized on Saturday, March 11th, the first edition of "The STEM Initiative". STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics. 
This initiative is for the benefit of children between the age of 5 and 9 years old. 
This first edition gave the opportunity to our colleagues’ kids to enjoy firsthand unique, fun and friendly learning experiences to discover and learn more about engineering.  
We wish and strive to support and positively impact our ecosystem and hence believe that it is important to do it also through our youngest and that is because we want to:
1. Promote the STEM disciplines in a fun and attractive way allowing young kids to familiarize themselves with engineering and its practical applications, which could address in the long run the skills & jobs deficit in this sector;
2. Enrich our colleagues’ kids cultural activities through learning more about what their parents do daily and see that they too keep on acquiring new knowledge
Discover with us the activities organized during the STEM Initiative and referring to different departments that we have here in JESA. These activities helped the kids to learn about their parents' jobs: 
• Civil & Structure: Using Legos and three-dimensional cardboard buildings;
• Piping: Using a hands-on learning experience out of pipes, to explain the workings of piping systems;
• Mining: Using mining toys to explain the circuit to kids;
• Mechanical: Using a simplified crank rod to explain the different mechanical connections and conjectures to make complex machines;
• Process: Explaining with fun the principle of density using different liquids (honey, dish soap, water…);
• I&C: Using a simplified anemometer to explain the importance and how the sensors work and making an analogy between the human senses and the use of sensors;
• Electrical (Energy): Explanation of the electrical industry through some institutional videos, and by the use of solar panel and a bulb to explain the energy aspect;
• Other Fun activities:
• My balloon racing car: A fun experiment using a car toy and a balloon explaining Newton’s laws, by air escaping from a balloon and making the car moves;
• Balance Scale: Explaining how to balance counterweights by using a clothes hanger and two cups and checking the weights by putting the items on the cups.

Through everyone’s interest and feedback, we are glad to see how successful this first edition was. As this initiative aligns with our WE CARE value and also our desire to sustainably develop our ecosystem, our wish is to expand it to high schools around us in the medium-term. 
We would like to thank all the participants and the JESA Institute and JFN teams for making the event a success!!