Dakahlia

Dakahlia STEM School

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2019 - 2020

Dakahlia STEM School First Edition 2019 - 2020

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Dear Dakahlia STEM Learning Community,

Thank you for another wonderful and productive school
year. I can’t thank everyone enough for your endless hours of
volunteering, chaperoning, reading, organizing, donating and
doing whatever was necessary to support students—both at
home and at school.

Special thanks to our B.O.T who, as usual, went above and
beyond the call of duty to provide whatever was necessary to
add to our students’ already rich school experience. That
experience could not occur without the endless energy, skills
and devotion of the STEM Dakahlia staff. Thanks, and well
done to an incredible group of professionals.

A final word to my students, Thank you for all your hard
work throughout the school year. I am so honored to be your
principal; you make me proud to be a STEM Dakahlia
member. Best wishes to our graduating third graders, whom I
will miss greatly, please come back and visit. Everyone has a
safe and happy summer break.

School Principal

Tarek Ghonaim

Former Principals

Strong leadership is the foundation of school success and without you that
would not be possible. Thank you for inspiring our students to achieve their dreams
every single day. Thank you for creating a safe and welcoming environment for our
students at school and thank you for setting high expectations for our students and
educators. We are forever grateful for your impact on this school and we will never
forget how amazing you are and how much of a difference you have made at this
school!

The Egyptian STEM Schools were initiated by a
partnership between the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) World Learning and its sub-
recipients -the ECASE project- to provide technological
and administration assistance to the Ministry of Education
in order to establish model STEM Schools. Currently,
STEM schools' unparalleled educational capabilities place
them as the best high school system in Egypt. They offer a
comprehensive research-based learning system and a
capstone-based academic curriculum. The program
integrates technology and research into a highly demanding
academic regimen. Moreover, it emphasizes on developing
core skills, including leadership, critical thinking,
responsibility, teamwork, and self-motivation. STEM
Schools select the most elite students from all over the
country and provide them a high level of secondary
education that will produce top-notch research.

Established in 2015, Dakahlia STEM School is a highly
selective three-year high school. It is an exceptional
educational system for outstanding students in science,
math, and technology. With an average class size of 25, the
school creates an interactive environment in which students
get significant attention to reach their full potential.
Furthermore, the school requires students to pursue
scientific research to solve Egypt's grand challenges
through 5 capstone projects.

Dakahlia STEM School

Vision

Pioneering in Building Leaders

Mission

Mission of Dakahlia STEM school for Boys and Girls is to
provide students a challenging learning environment focused on
math, science, and technology, to inspire joy at the prospect of
discovery and to foster a culture of innovation based on ethical
behavior and the shared interests of humanity. The overarching
goal of the school is to create self-sufficient school with newly
established curriculum, trained teachers, industry partnerships and
operational system under the MOE's public schooling system to
educate high performing students from across Egypt, regardless of
socioeconomic status. At Dakahlia STEM School, we believe that the
school was designed to create “Centers of Excellence” that embody
trans-disciplinary collaboration, real world applications, critical
thinking, and a pioneering spirit. Ultimately, Dakahlia STEM
schools support a new vision of Egypt as a country equipped with
both the human capital and the institutional resources to compete
and excel in the international marketplace.

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Admission

The admission process in Dakahlia
STEM School is highly selective with only
1.9% of the applicants getting admitted
each year based on their academic
supremacy in middle school. In fact, only
150 applicants are accepted from a yearly
admission pool of over 12000 students This
allows only students who demonstrate an
aptitude and burning passion for scientific,
mathematical and technological fields to get
admitted into this high-caliber research-
based boarding school. The admission
criterion is highly selective with its
minimum requirement to be one of the top
students in the class in all middle school
years (grades 7 — 9). Also, students are
required to pass the special admission test
(math, science, English and IQ test).
Students who apply are expected to have
achieved at least an A+ at their grade 9 final
report with an A* in at least two out of the
three subjects: science, math, and English.
Students are also expected to get a passing
grade in the special admission test which
demands higher levels of critical thinking
and mastery of the three subjects tested.
Only the elite students are admitted and
allowed to continue their high studies on a
new educational level designed to improve
their mindsets and produce top-grade
academic researchers. The total number of
enrolled students in all grades for the
2019/2020 school year is 450.

Boarding School Experience

Dakahlia STEM School requires all its
students to live on campus for the three
years of secondary school. The boarding
school experience can offer opportunities
and experience that cannot be harnessed in
other education systems, allowing students
to take full responsibility of themselves
while encouraging a sense of unity among
students and improving communication
skills. The campus is separated into boys'
and girls' sections, and students live in
rooms of four. The school is keen on
creating a sense of community among all
students which allows them to accomplish
their goals together, including community
service, arts clubs, and major every-year
national and international scientific
competitions like the Olympiads and
science fairs. Furthermore, the campus'
experience produces students capable of
succeeding at international educational
institutions.

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Academic Curriculum

The honor-based curriculum offered at Dakahlia STEM school is designed to
prepare students for course-load at college by depending on self-learning and
advanced teaching methods. The curriculum is tailored to fit with the capstone
challenge assigned each semester, with its learning outcomes being instantly
applied into each team's project. STEM schools employ young teachers especially
with graduate degrees and previous job experience in research; such policy creates
a stronger bond between teachers and their students and improves communication
between both sides. Moreover, teachers help their students to find their passion
and provide them with hands-on experience by working in labs and research
facilities from grade 10 - 12.

Mechanics Lab

GRADING SCALE & RANKING

Grading scale:

Dakahlia STEM School, similar to all STEM Schools in Egypt,
applies the letter grade system for both subjects and Capstone.

Ranking:

The school doesn't employ ranking system; however, it uses
a standardized grading system. Capstone is considered a
separate subject with its own grade even though it composes
60% of each subject's grade.

THE SCHOOL DOES NOT
RANK ITS STUDENTS.

Assessment and exams:

As STEM high schools in Egypt encourage analytical thinking,
assessment shall reflect the understanding of concepts and knowing how
to apply them, rather than the mere memorization of the covered topics for
each subject. Hence, grading shall reveal the cognitive ability of students,
and not just their ability to recall theories. Exams are to measure students’
high-order reasoning, problem-solving skills, and scientific creativity.

While other public schools focus all the attention on the midterm and final exams, STEM puts
into consideration attendance, assignments, in-class performance, and the capstone project that
combines the learning of all subjects together. This entails grading on the drawn linkages between
the subjects and the understanding of concepts, rather than the memorization of book content.

STEM high schools in Egypt have their own scoring criteria and passing grades. Students must
achieve a total score of 60 percent to pass each year. The total score is calculated as follows:

• 40 percent is on the subjects
• 60 percent is on the capstone project, which entails:

o The individual assignments: including the bi-monthly journals, which presents the
student’s progress over the year.

o The group assignments: including the posters presented at the end of the year
together with the prototype exhibition and the portfolio

In fact, more than half the grade comes from the capstone performance, putting less focus on
the written examinations. This assessment introduces students to the concept of teamwork, as their
capstone projects are done in teams. So, they must cooperate and share their ideas to come up
with the best outcome; and push each other to do their best since each one’s performance affects
the grades of other team members.

FAB LAB

Digital Fabrication

Fab lab STEM is an environment that promotes
innovation and education by providing collaborative
open makerspace equipped with digital fabrication and
prototyping machines & tools and hands-on workshops
& training using MIT based curriculum. The school
shares machines, tools, skills, resources and ideas to
create new opportunities for economic and social benefit.
All students are welcomed to use the digital fabrication
machines at STEM Fab Lab to support the innovation
and design work in all subject areas and capstone
projects. With a goal of empowering the students in
different sectors, students are encouraged to participate
in designing and making the products they use such as
physical objects and machines to materialize their ideas.

BEST PLACE TO INNOVATE

EXTRA CURRICULAR OPPORTUNITIES

Students are offered a rich co-
curricular program that builds on team
and leadership skills. Many of our
programs are student-initiated and led.

• Athletics: football, basketball,
handball, volleyball, and ping-pong.

• Activities: Counseling club, Math club,
Biology club, Robotics club,
International Youth Neuroscience
Association (IYNA) STEM Dakahlia
Chapter, TED-ED, School newspaper,
Media team, Arts Club (Art-mania).

Summer Camp
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OPPORTUNITIE
S

The English Language and Leadership Summer Camp serves as an
overview English course for each new cohort of STEM school students. It aims
to enhance the English language and youth leadership skills students need for
success in Egypt’s STEM Schools. The course adopts a communicative approach
that engages learners in using English to carry out social, academic/STEM-
related and real-world tasks.

Unforgettable moments

Capstone

Following the standards set by former STEM schools, Dakahlia STEM School
applies student research techniques to elevate students' abilities of critical thinking
and problem solving. Student research is integrated into each subject making up 60%
of the final grades in both grade 10 and 11; however, it constitutes only 20% of the
final grades of grade 12. Student research is applied through five capstone projects
distributed on five semesters. Each capstone assigns one or more challenge(s) that
affects Egypt to the class groups and requires them to design a solution with the
ability of solving the problem. Students follow a standard method of solving problems
called the Engineering Design Process through their capstone project. Also, they
work in teams to create a well-developed solution and to build a prototype that
showcases their solution. At the same time, they are required to document their work
in a portfolio which shows the whole process from A-Z. An exhibition is held at the
end of each semester to review the projects and the process that each team followed
in developing the desired solutions, and such details are summarized in the groups'
posters. Specialized evaluators in research and scientific field are chosen to grade the
projects made by the students. The evaluators are chosen carefully, and the Ministry
of Education makes sure that they are specialized in the related scientific material
that the students work on. Egypt grand challenges include but are not limited to:

• Improve the use of alternative energies
• Recycle garbage and waste for economic and environmental purposes
• Deal with urban congestion and its consequences
• Work to eradicate public health issues/disease
• Increase the industrial and agricultural bases of Egypt
• Address and reduce pollution fouling our air, water and soil
• Improve uses of arid areas
• Manage and increase the sources of clean water
• Deal with population growth and its consequences
• Improve the scientific and technological environment for all.
• Reduce and adapt to the effect of climatic change

Capstone Team - First Term

General Capstone Leader: Ms. Noha Abd Elhaleem
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (+20) 1008860288

Grade one leader: Ms. Mona Shaalan
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (+20) 100 437 8086

Grade two leader: Ms. Rehab Mohamed
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (+20) 100 437 8086

Grade three leader: Mr. Ibrahim Mahmoud
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (+20)1000940165

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Panel Review - Demo exhibition

• A Panel Review is scheduled for the first few weeks of the semester
• Students prepare a brief (e.g. 3 minute) presentation of their solution
• A panel of internal & (external) subject matter experts (subject teachers,

university faculty, business experts, etc.) will be assembled for this day of
Panel Review
• A “consultancy” approach is used – students present, panel asks clarifying
questions, panel talks for two minutes and provides one minute of feedback
to the student team
• The panel will take two minutes to document feedback about the following:

• Whether the solution has a foundation in sound STEM principles (not
whether it is a great idea)

• Whether the solution is NOT feasible in the time frame of a semester
• Whether the solution is NOT feasible given budget constraints.

Great moments are born from great opportunities

You never know how strong you are until
being strong is your only choice…

Capstone Exhibition

Capstone Exhibition

Capstone Exhibition

It gives me great pleasure to be a part of STEM Dakahlia” achievements
for three years now. My job makes the students see their potentials and find
their passion. It assists them to select their majors and the colleges that fulfill
their dreams. During that time, I found the secret of obtaining a scholarship lays
on solid C.V, outstanding academic scores, extra-curricular activities, and
strong recommendation letters.
My message to everyone for the best scholarship is as follow:
• Define your abilities and your uniqueness,
• Set your goals,
• Prepare plans A, B and C,
• Work, work, and work.

Scholarships need certain documents and certificates as ACT, SAT, IELTS,
and TOEFL. Most of colleges outside Egypt specify on having these
international tests. Therefore, be sure you use your time and money to get high
score. This will enhance your eligibility for full funded scholarship.

[email protected]
(+20) 1008860288

CONTACT INFORMATION:

CEEB Code: 648027
Address: International Coastal Rd, 15 May District, Gamasa, Dakahlia, Egypt
Postal code: 35712
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/STEMDakahlia/
School e-mail: [email protected]
Principal: Mr. Tarek Ghonaim
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone Number: (+20)1224547601
School Counselors: Ms. Manar Moussa
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (+20) 1008860288 •

Mr. Mohamed Mounir
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (+20)1125310753

Mr. Ibrahim Mahmoud
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (+20)1000940165

Ashraf Mohamed Safwat Elawad Mostafa Ismael Hamed Mohamed
Biomedical Engineering Computer engineering
Abdullah GUL University METU University
Turkey Turkey

Fekry Yasser Fekry Hassan Kareem Amer Suelim Abdelkader
Engineering Mechanical Engineering
AUC METU University
Egypt Turkey

Mariam Mohamed Zakaria Abdullah Mohamed Hamed
Pharmacy Renewable Energy Engineering
BUC
Egypt Zewail City
Egypt
Hisham Hany Ahmed Fouad
Engineering Osama Ayman Ahmed Hassan
BUE Engineering
Egypt
Arab Academy for Science
Egypt

Accepted Students 2020

Yousef Nabil
Neuroscience , Rhodes College

Ahmed Shata
Cpmputer Engineering

Improving teamwork and collaboration, enhancing social and
emotional learning, increasing intrinsic motivation and enhancing
beneficial peer comparisons are just a few of the benefits that students
can achieve through educational competitions. While losing is a face
in competition, winning is the other side of the coin and competition
teaches kids these facts of life. It allows them to win with grace, respect
the opponent and enjoy their win with the right spirit. Competition
also reminds children that a win today could be a loss tomorrow and
hence one must always have the right attitude.

I feel really so proud, and I think I am so lucky to be a teacher of
Dakahlia STEM school’s brilliant students and to be their guide in the
various competitions which they take part in. My wish for them is that
they see the light in this world, in themselves and in others, because I
see the light in them.

My dear students, be proud of your accomplishments and
believe in yourselves, as you are stronger than you know. Learning is
your superpower. Never stop trying and never stop growing your
brain.

noha. [email protected]
(+20) 1007699019

Egypt IoT & AI Challenge 2019

It is the first time to design a track for senior
high school students to get trained on design
thinking and selected technical topics related to
new technologies and IoT.

Egypt IoT & AI Challenge is breaking the
barriers between technology and students to give
them an opportunity to work on projects and get
ready to lead a connected future.

Nasa Space Apps Cairo 2019

What is Space Apps?

It is a 48-hours HACKATHON, participant teams have to work together in these
two days to solve the challenge they choose. The team consists of 3-5 members. The
Judging is on the second day. Each team takes from 5 to 10 minutes to present his idea
under this judging rubric:

Vision, Planning, Functionality, Innovation & Project Presentation
Teams are evaluated on these points. The teams that will get the highest number of
points. These are the Local Winners in each category. From these teams, the judges
will choose the teams that will present Cairo in the global competition.
They will be three teams; The highest two teams are the score, the last one based on
people's choice.

ISEF (Schools)

Number of participating Students: 116
Number of projects: 58

The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), a program of Society
for Science & the Public, is the world's largest pre-college science competition that
brings together over 2,000 leading young scientists from 80 countries, regions and
territories to compete for scholarships and prizes.

ISEF (Governorate)

Number of participating Students: 62
Number of projects: 31

Egyptian Math Olympiad
(EMO)

The registration for EMO contains a 3 weeks online training before the first
filtration. The final filtration occurs by the end of March at Nile University. In the
online training students have access to handouts and webinars with global experts.

Students with top performance in IMO are nominated to top scholarships on
international universities. The IMO finals this year will take place in Russia.

EMO First Filtration
Results:

International Astronomy and
Astrophysics Competition

The International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition is an
international science competition that enables students from all countries to
prove their skills and to unleash their creativity in the fields of astronomy and
astrophysics. IAAC gives you the unique opportunity to apply your skills to
challenging problems. Participants can receive certificates, awards, cash prizes,
and global recognition.





Kangaroo International Mathematics Competition

Kangaroo Mathematics Competition is an international
competition, in which 87 countries all over the world
participate. This competition interested in focusing on the
logical constructions of mathematics and building applied
skills rather than knowing mathematical formulas and
equations. Kangaroo International Mathematics
Competition differs from other competitions in that it
focuses on developing issues that require the development of
creativity skills, critical analysis and problem solving and
getting students to deal with mathematical issues from
different aspects, thus developing students' positive attitude
in life.

The International Linguist
Kangaroo in English

Edu Meter Egypt is the official representative and organizer of
the International Linguist Kangaroo (ILK) Contest English in Egypt and
The Middle East. It is one of the largest international competitions in
the English language.

Name Grade Result

Mariam Mohamed Elsayed Ramadan Elweresh Grade 10 Certificate of participation
Alaa Magdi Abdelsatar Grade 10 Up to the semi-final level
Salma Ahmed Shawky El-dosoky Grade 10 Up to the semi-final level
Haneen Mohamed Elsherbiny Mohamed Grade 10 Certificate of participation
Samar Emad Taha Esmaeil Grade 10 Certificate of participation
Ahmed Mohamed Abdelghany Abdelaleem Sherif Grade 10 Certificate of participation
Ayman Tamer AdelMohamed Abd EL Hady Grade 10 Up to the semi-final level
Ali Hesham Mohamed Grade 10 Certificate of participation
Amr Ahmed Saad Esmael Grade 10 Certificate of participation
Omar Ahmed Kamel Abd EL Wahab Grade 10 Up to the semi-final level
Manar Aladl Elsayed Ahmed Grade 10 Certificate of participation
Wesam Ahmed Fathy Al Raghi Grade 11 Up to the semi-final level
Ahmed Sadek Eldosouky Ibrahim Zien-eldein Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Hana Anwar Saleh Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Menna Allah Ahmad Elsaid Attia Goda Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Aya Mahmoud Ahmed Moustafa Eltantawy Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Santy Hossam Eldin Refaat Ahmed Farghaly Grade 11 Up to the semi-final level
Sara Mohamad Abuhegazy Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Noura Moustafa Mahmoud Maklad Grade 11 Up to the semi-final level
Eman Mohamed Awad Abdallah Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Rawan Anter Fyad Ameen El Awady Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Ghofran Samy Mohamed Hassan Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Bodour Elsayed Abdelfattah Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Menna Allah Ahmed Muhamed Radwan Grade 11 Certificate of participation
Salma Hani El Sheshtawi El Sheshtawi Grade 11 Certificate of participation

The International Kangaroo Science
Competition

• The competition “International Kangaroo Science Contest” is organized by the
Edu-Meter Egypt Company.
• At the very beginning of 21st century, the science teachers and other scientists
realized the need to find some very effective way for bringing up the
schoolchildren with an aptitude of a research scholar. In 2006 a number of well-
known researchers and pedagogists from different parts of Europe and America
got together in Saint Petersburg to discuss a much needed intelligent and
attractive way of developing students’ taste for science. This should also serve as
very first concrete step towards research training for all schoolchildren. In this
meeting the experts agreed that the most essential and basic character of a
researcher is to be explorer and discoverer. Based upon this principle the
participants of the Saint Petersburg meeting created the science contest which
has different names such as “Explore and discover”, “International Kangaroo
Science Contest” and other names in different countries. In 2008 1st such science
contest was organized in Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Romania and
Russia. After that a number of other countries from America, Asia and Europe
joined the contest.

Number of participants: 6

Results: Bronze medal, Diploma of Excellence

NASA Space Apps Cairo 2020

Sharing an experience is the method we use to learn from each other &
going through a new experience is always the greatest challenge.
Now we are sharing with you the experience of one of the winners in our
photo contest "We Are Hacking"

Artco-19 Team



2020

TED's youth and education initiative — aims to spark TED ED Trainer
and celebrate the ideas and knowledge-sharing of
teachers and students around the world. Everything Mr. Osama Abd-Elkarim
TED-Ed does supports learning —whether its producing
a growing video library of original animated lessons, [email protected]
providing an international platform for teachers to create
their own interactive lesson plans, helping curious Phone: (+20) 11446554814
students around the globe bring TED to their schools and
gain presentation literacy skills, or celebrating innovative
leadership within TED-Ed’s global network of over
250,000 teachers. TED-Ed has grown from an idea worth
spreading into an award-winning education platform that
serves millions of teachers and students around the world.





BEAMLINE FOR SCHOOLS (BL4S)

International competition for high school students from all around the
world organized by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear
Research, in Geneva, Switzerland

The competition is open to teams of high-school students from all around the
world who, if they win, are invited (with up to two adult team coaches) to DESY to
run their experiment. Teams must have at least five students with at least one adult
team coach, but there is no upper limit to a team’s size (although just nine students
per winning team will be invited to DESY). Teams may be composed of students from
a single school, or a number of schools working together.

First Team

Coach of the team

Mr. Essam Abdelhamid Ebrahim Kassem
Physics Teacher

Email: [email protected]
Phone: (+20) 1557777114

International competition for high school students from all around the
world organized by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear
Research, in Geneva, Switzerland

Second Team

Coach of the team

Mrs. Mona Ahmed Shaalan
Physics Teacher

Email: [email protected]
Phone: (+20) 1004378086

International competition for high school students from all around the
world organized by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear
Research, in Geneva, Switzerland

Third Team



Between the Lines

Between the Lines is a component of the International Writing Program that brings
young writers to the University of Iowa for creative writing study and cultural
interaction. Students live in a dorm on the University of Iowa campus along with
university-trained counselors, who help foster a strong sense of creative community.
Sessions include literature seminars and language-specific creative writing workshops
taught by faculty who are renowned writers in their own right. the duration of the
study is 2 weeks. Applicants should demonstrate an interest in and ability to write
creatively (fiction and/or poetry) and fully engage their imaginations in a variety of
class settings. Three from our school had an interview at the USA Embassy.

Santi Hossam Eldin Refaat Ahmed
Grade 11

[email protected]

Salma Elsayed Lotfy Ahmed
Grade 11

[email protected]

Aya Mahmoud Ahmed Moustafa Eltantawy
Grade 11

[email protected]

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ED USA

Education USA Academy is a pre-college academic enrichment program for
international High School students offering specialized college preparatory
content, writing workshops, campus visits, and cultural activities. Students gain
an insider's perspective on higher education in the United States while getting the
chance to experience life on a U, S college campus. Students have the opportunity
to improve their English Language skills in an immersive environment, discover
tips for preparing for USA college application, and learn more about the USA
college admission process. This year 2 from our school went for the interview at
the USA embassy.

Mohamed Ahmed Abdelsattar Mahmoud
Grade 11

[email protected]

Santi Hossam Eldin Refaat Ahmed
Grade 11

[email protected]