WCMC-Q Faculty Judge High School Olympiads

March 2009

The fourth annual “Week of Doha for Education” event recently took place at the Doha Independent Secondary School for Boys. And Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar faculty joined in to help inspire upcoming university students and highlight advancements in local high school education.

The event ran for one week in February and involved discussion forums, seminars, and competitions — computer-based quizzes termed “Olympiads" — in which teams of three students per school tried to outperform each other.

“For students this is a chance of measuring themselves against their peers from different schools, it’s a chance of being beyond the walls of their school, it’s a chance of seeing what they’re learning in class … not just as a moment of toil, but as a moment of fun,” said Dr. Marco Ameduri, WCMC-Q’s senior lecturer in physics and Assistant Dean for Pre-medical Education, who facilitated and judged the math and physics Olympiads.

Olympiads were based on the Holy Quran, English, computer programming, biology, mathematics, physics and chemistry. The top three teams in each category won awards. WCMC-Q sponsored most of the olympiads through volunteer work by faculty, five of whom, including Ameduri, served as judges and facilitators of quizzes in their specialty.

“It’s important to have activities in Qatar that promote education, promote competition, promote subjects, and promote integration of schools — I think it’s an excellent idea,” said Sheila Qureshi, WCMC-Q professor of chemistry, who served as judge and facilitator of the chemistry olympiad.

Most of the olympiads involved only boys, but for the first time in the event’s history, one of the competitions took place at, and involved girls from, Al-Ieman Secondary Independent School for Girls. A tiebreak question was necessary between the boys and the girls, Ameduri said.

“This event encourages them to explore aspects that they didn’t explore before. It also encourages interaction between students and faculty, and helps them know what to expect in college as well,” said Noha Saleh, WCMC-Q director of student recruitment.

Overall, 10 faculty from WCMC-Q volunteered to judge and facilitate the olympiads. Drs. Phyllis Griffard and Chris Ogden assisted with Biology; Dr. Imad Makki served along with Dr. Ameduri in the field of Mathematics; Dr. Frank Smith and Dr. Qureshi facilitated the chemistry competition; Drs. Krystyna Golkowska and Rodney Sharkey helped oversee the English section; and Dr. Laith Abu Raddad worked with Dr. Ameduri on the Physics Olympiad.

This year’s event sustains a well-recognized outreach program—the Doha Independent Secondary School for Boys received a supportive letter for the first “Week of Doha for Education” in 2005 from Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, wife of the Emir and Chairperson of Qatar Foundation. She sent it as acknowledgement of resounding success of the event.

Report by Emily Alp