In recognition of changing trends in education, and in a bid to offer an outlet for girls to discover and develop their skills in a safe, fun environment, Sharjah Girl Guides (SGG) has launched a series of innovative intellectual workshops in smart learning skills, computer coding and do-it-yourself robotics.

Highlighting the need for more qualitative approach to learning and development,.ShaikhaAbdulaziz Al Shamsi, Manager of SGG said:“At Sharjah Girl Guides, we acknowledge the need for establishing in our future generations the right mixture of cognitive skills and mental capacities, which are the basics of intelligence. Real intelligence is a lot more than just being smart as it requires one to exhibit numerous attributes like problem solving, abstract thinking, creativity, memory, concentration, interpersonal skills, movement skills, among others.

She added: “It is essential that a child’s inclinations and capabilities are identified early on so they can be guided on the right path of self-development.”

SGG recently concluded three workshops, namely ‘Smart Brain’ and ‘Future Coder’, designed to develop personalities and skills of Brownies (7-11 years), and ‘Re-Robot’ where Guides (12–15 years) learned how to build robots using recyclable material.

‘Smart Brain’ utilised advanced mental arithmetic techniques for overall development of personality and self-confidence. Participants were been introduced to the renowned Abacus Chinese Math system to polish their counting, reading and writing and their overall imaginations.

The second workshop, ‘Future Coder’, took things to the next level by offering participants the opportunity to approach computer learning in a whole new way, assisting them to make a shift from being just users to viewing themselves as creators. Brownies experienced the basics of coding, and utilising hi-tech software developed by MIT to design basic computer games and websites.

The third workshop,titled‘Re-Robot’, was conducted in collaboration with the Sharjah Business Women Council (SBWC). The activity offered a group of 20 Guides a briefing on the future prospects of robotics, and a hands-on opportunity to try their hand at the art of building robots from recyclable junk like cardboard, water bottles, and other materials.

The guides were introduced to the concepts of hardware and software computing through the popular open source DIY hardware platform, Arduino, and used a Junkbot Visual Coding tool based on the popular MIT Scratch platform to code their robots.

“These workshops successfully trainedparticipants to create, using futuristic computer technologies, and polish their analytical skills with a specific focus on discovering their intelligent capabilities in their early years. Our objective is to engage these young minds into new and exciting ventures, moving away from conventional learning to applying their intelligence and abilities more creatively in the process of their training and development,” Al Shamsi noted.