 |
 |
| july 2006 | |
| seed news for schlumberger people worldwide |
|
 |
||||||
My name is Tarek Medhat, and I have been a SEED volunteer since I became the SchlumbergerSema East Africa & East Mediterranean GeoMarket (EEG) operations manager, based in Cairo, Egypt, in June 2002. SEED started in Egypt in 1998, and had connected five schools to the Internet. Inspired by the value that SEED provides, enabling students to access global knowledge resources, I committed myself in my role as coordinator to advancing collaboration among students both within schools and with other schools and to raising awareness of SEED programs. With the full support of Schlumberger Oilfield Services (OFS) EEG management and the SEED staff, our local SEED team began to host Collaborative Workshops in Egypt. Motivated by a desire to ensure the sustainability of SEED, I concentrated on strengthening the SEED community of students and teachers. Our team began to hold facilitator-training sessions, at which teachers learn to run workshops in order to extend SEED’s hands-on learning methods to their own schools. The success of SEED in Egypt encouraged me to take my commitment a step further and create a way for students to participate in SEED activities anytime, not just at SEED workshops. It occurred to me that there could be nothing better than a SEED center within the historic Library of Alexandria! Schlumberger management and the Library of Alexandria administration, especially Mrs. Hoda Elmikaty, director of the library’s Planetarium Science Center, enthusiastically welcomed the idea. I took pride in the inauguration of SEED Corner in the Alexandria Library on June 24, 2006 (see the accompanying sidebar). This fantastic resource gives visiting students and teachers the ability to participate in hands-on SEED activities using fully connected computers and MicroWorlds ™ and GoGo board programming software that teach new scientific techniques and skills. SEED has provided me with great satisfaction. I will never forget the 13-year-old student from a SEED school in eastern Egypt who had never been farther from home than Cairo. We selected her to represent Egypt’s SEED schools during the Society of Organizational Learning (SoL) Forum on Business Innovation for Sustainability in Dearborn, Michigan, USA, in October 2004, where she confidently presented her SEED water project to more than 300 people. SEED gave her a life-changing opportunity that made everyone who helped her very proud. The talent students show and discover during SEED workshops and projects—and the fact that teachers use SEED methods and tools to improve the way they teach science—always impresses me. There are many people with whom I share credit for the achievements of SEED in Egypt, including Hatem Soliman, Belgacem Chariag, Zaki Selim, Simone Amber, Michael Tempel, and the many volunteers who have teamed to ensure the success of every step in the SEED story. —Tarek Medhat |
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||
|
|
"This is the first initiative of its kind for SEED. We are excited about this special relationship with the Library, and our goals are well aligned," said Jorge Garcia, SEED School Network Program Manager. "The modest grant commitment we have made will be rewarded many times over by our ability to provide more students and teachers with valuable learning resources." Egypt has been an active sponsor of the SEED program since it was established in 1998, and today the country has 11 SEED network schools. Find out more about this collaboration in the Voices section of the SEED web site.
|
|
|
|
|
August 19-24: Cairo, Egypt |
|
|
|
July 9-13: Port Said, Egypt |
|
|
|
July 24-25: Neuquén, Argentina |
|
|
