Observing the moon is one of the most fascinating activities on earth and not just for fellow astronomers worldwide but also for us. The moon evidently appears to change shape over time and this phenomenon leaves children gleaming with wonder, doesn’t it? In order to satiate their intrigue, schools across GCC, UAE, Dubai, and the Middle East are incorporating effective ways of teaching astronomy.

Throughout the month, the Moon appears to change its shape and this phenomenon is commonly known as ‘Lunar Phases’. The Carolina Building Blocks of Science® A New Generation: Sky Watchers is a unique kit that allows students to effectively understand the phases of the moon and analyze the repeating patterns. The kit comes with a special teacher’s guide, all the necessary supplies, and apparatus for a class of 24 students. Unlike other spectacles of the universe, the Lunar phases of the moon are strikingly obvious as they are simply the visible sunlit area of the moon, which makes learning about it further interesting. There are 8 phases of the moon and you will be able to immediately recognize them as soon as you learn about them.

1. New Moon: During the first phase, the side of the moon facing us is not illuminated by the sun so it is not visible to us at all. Not many of us know that during this phase, the moon is not up at night but in the day, however, we cannot see it with our naked eye.

2. Waxing Crescent: This is when the moon starts growing into its crescent phase. You will be able to see a silvery crescent in the sky right after dusk.

3. First Quarter: 7 days after the new moon, it enters the first quarter. In this phase, only half of the moon is visible to us in the evening and then it sets shortly after. With The Carolina Building Blocks of Science® A New Generation: Sky Watchers kit, students all across GCC, UAE, Dubai and the Middle East are able to analyze this transition in detail and understand the moon’s pattern.

4. Waxing Gibbous: This phase of the moon is as interesting as its name. The moon appears to turn into a gibbous shape and almost all of it is visible except for a dark silver line. During this phase, you will be able to notice the moon in the afternoon as well.

5. Full Moon: During this phase fellow earthlings can see the entire surface of the moon that faces the earth as the sunlight falls upon it completely. It rises just as the sun sets and it is the brightest phase of the moon which is often a beautiful sight to see. The Super Moon is another phenomenon that takes people by surprise because the moon looks larger than usual, as it is the closest in its orbit to earth.

6. Waning Gibbous: Right after the beautiful full moon, the shape starts to get a little smaller. You will be able to sport the waning gibbous later at night and in the early mornings.

7. Last Quarter: Similar to the first quarter, only half of the sunlit surface of the moon is visible in this Lunar phase. However, the interesting part is that it can be easily spotted in the daytime sky as well.

8. Waning Crescent: This is the last phase before it enters the new moon. Only a small silver line is visible from earth and towards the end of the 28-day cycle, it vanishes almost entirely.

Lunar Phases are a beautiful display of the universe’s phenomenon and it indeed evokes a sense of wonder among early learners in turn giving birth to a whole new generation of skywatchers.

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As a student, one of the best habits you can instill is reading. With limitless topics, you can explore the world of fiction, non-fiction, history, biographies, etc.

Developing the habit of reading is a crucial step that needs to be taken care of at both the institution and at home. It is teamwork that will lead to such great results.

Apart from making it a habit, it is also a requirement to attain knowledge. Any student enrolled in any grade, even at primary levels, needs first to develop the recognition of letters, alphabets, word formation, etc. It will enable them to read and write in their future levels and life in general.

It is scientifically proven that reading benefits the reader in more than one way. It also develops a creative cognitive part in the reader’s mind. It helps them be more creative than the people who are less prone to reading.

Being the global hub, Dubai, GCC, UAE, and Middle East encourage schools to employ technologies that enable the students to benefit. One such helpful application is myOn. It is an application that the schools can buy and let the students use it.

MyOn

myOn is a digital library. It has more than 6,000 enhanced books from various genres and is available online. It has books and reading material appropriate for students of all grades and levels.

All users can personalize it. They can set up the app as per their interests, and this virtual library will have unlimited books to suit the individual’s interest. The myOn® reader is a student-oriented, customizable literacy environment.

This app also has a variant that is called myOn News. It can be bought in a bundle with myOn or separately.

The app is easily available in Dubai, GCC, the Middle East, and UAE. With an ever-growing population of immigrants and natives, the wards admitted in schools are also increasing. It makes a larger market for apps like myOn. But the first step is to implement the app in schools and promote it to students.

Benefits of Reading

It is a habit that benefits students, but it leaves a positive impact on people of all age groups. The benefits are also for the society as a whole as more readers mean a more literate society. Most of the benefits are long-term and can be passed on to others, such as;

• Strengthens the Reader’s Brain: It helps the brain retain new knowledge gained via reading stories & biographies. It will help the student in their academic life and the long term.
• Vocabulary Building: New words are added to the person’s vocabulary.
• Creative Thinking: The Reader has more knowledge compared to non-readers. They can be more creative with ideas and other work in their daily lives and projects and assignments.
• Reduces Stress: It is a great way to divert attention. If the reader is facing any stress or issues, reading for a few minutes will let the mind relax and think clearly.
• Opens Areas of Interest: Reading material with information about general knowledge develops students’ interest in current affairs. Children who read stories about the inner lives of characters better understand the feelings and beliefs of others.

So do your children a favor by getting the MyOn app, and help them build a more defined character, based on good habits – because every book matters.

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We are a part of the digital revolution where everything is getting digitized. Be it payment to vendors, reading e-books, or even watching movies on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. All your source of entertainment and learning has been concised in downloadable apps available via subscriptions. Innovation especially during the lockdown period is at its peak and many new start-ups have introduced EdTech solutions that can be made conveniently available to students at home. Mathspace is a forerunner in this space and is providing a competitive edge by offering interactive Math lessons digitally, without completely eliminating the comfort of the paper & pen format.

Learning from Physical Textbooks

The good old Math textbooks looked colorful with graphs and pie-charts and students could actually use a pen to scribble, make notes, underline, and solve sums on paper. Preserving the textbooks in good condition until end of last semester exams is a thrilling experience, which today’s generation may not understand. Let us highlight some Pros and Cons to debate on this topic.

Advantages:

• Research suggests that students who learn Math or any other subject from a physical paper-back textbook are able to recall the matter more effectively.
• Students showcase greater confidence in exams after studying from textbooks
• Physically tuning pages, highlighting important points, and running fingers over the lines, helps enhance a photographic memory, which is possible only in physical format books.
• Students are away from access to digital devices, and therefore there is full focus
• One can read the textbook without connectivity and WiFi connection

Disadvantages:

• The cost of printing a physical textbook is expensive
• One needs to handle the paperback book carefully and keep it in good condition all through the year
• Used books are discarded and it ends up in the dustbin, leading to wastage of resources
• Trees are cut in order to make paper and hence unfit for the environment
• Can’t provide an interactive learning experience

Learning from E-Books & Apps

The e-books and apps provide a fun-filled learning experience with colorful graphics that make the learning process even more seamless. Children love to interact with characters and undertake quizzes, that subtly tests their understanding of concepts. Let’s go through some points that favor this digital learning method, versus its drawbacks.

Advantages

• Very cost effective, as parents don’t need to invest in buying books
• Testing students through in-app games, quizzes, and challenges
• Positively reinforce the efforts of students by incentivizing the question & answers
• The learning can be personalized to match the individual pace of students
• Parents and educators are kept in loop and get to track the progress of kids

Disadvantages

• Too much time spend on devices may lead to fatigue eyes and spoil health
• Child may get distracted and open other tabs on the internet instead of studying
• Seriousness associated with studying might be diluted • Real retention & learning may not happen

Mathspace is an all-in-one learning app which integrates video lessons and textbooks, to make children independent learners. This platform has gained much popularity in Dubai and UAE regions, and their standardized curriculum lessons support hands-on GeoGebra applets. Giving learners dual advantage, parents have an option to print matter or choose to study on a device. Due to its personalization, schools in GCC countries and the UAE, recommends this approach to students.

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What is LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime?

A robot or kit designed for middle school students to help in education and assignments. It was launched recently and is a kit that links LEGO® bricks to sensors, motors, and coding and wraps all these into lesson plans. The primary purpose of Lego® SPIKE™ Prime is to keep students engaged in playful activities that allow them to think and come up with solutions to complex problems.

It is also beneficial to enhance the learning level. The main components of Lego® SPIKE™ Prime are to combine the colorful Lego® elements, coding language, and easy-to-use hardware. This new education system is designed for students of age ten and up, from sixth to eighth grade. This solution was introduced in April 2020 by Lego® Education, an education-focused toys building manufacturer.

Covid-19 instigated the makers to introduce this idea for a smooth educational process, especially in GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East.

Why Education is Challenging in the Covid Pandemic?

During Covid, GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East adopted a
stay-at-home policy. Continuing education with the same spirit and keeping the creative phenomenon on. As a result, online classes were introduced. These online classes posed a challenge to teachers and as well for parents. In those difficult times, an educational toy manufacturer company introduced Lego® Education SPIKE™  Prime to continue education without any hassle and disturbance.

It is crucial to provide engaging and relevant learning experiences that help students develop resilience. Educators worldwide try to cope with the disruption in their pupils’ education due to the pandemic.

What is the Hybrid Model?

Managing class and making lesson plans is always an important and challenging task. Still, during Covid, it became more challenging due to online classes in GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East. So at Lego® Education, hybrid learning methods were adopted to support education from home by delivering kits to the student’s house and conducting classes online, until it is safe to get back to school in full swing. The hybrid model has different lesson plans that give students an authentic learning experience.

How Lego® Education SPIKE™  Prime Provides a Solution?

When schools were closed in GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East for students and teachers, then Lego education came up with the solution of Lego® Education SPIKE™  Prime to build confidence and prepare students for life beyond school. Lego education provides the ultimate solution while adopting a classroom set or buying a personal kit for home use. If the school doesn’t have a playful learning STEAM experience, students can buy that system for home use.

Lego® Education SPIKE™  Prime gives the robotic system to teachers and students to continue education in Covid times in GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East.

What is Included in Lego® Education SPIKE™ Prime?

Lego® Education SPIKE™ Prime has all the elements that make the education process easy and smooth as Lego® Education SPIKE™ Prime comes with over 600 LEGO elements, including large wheels, gear racks, a color sensor, and a large motor, plus a unique maker plate for accessible building with your choice of single-board computing devices such as (SBC).

The set also has a Lego® Education SPIKE™ Prime Set (45678) and the free SPIKE™ App that helps launch students and teachers into the exciting world of robotics competitions, with over 10 hours of curriculum-based competition-ready learning. This Lego® Education SPIKE™ Prime solution brings ease and creativity to the educational system.

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MiRo is an autonomous and advanced robotic platform for research purposes and educational advantages. MiRo Robotics & Technology enables you to imagine the unimaginable and create socially engaging classroom experiences making learning a fun activity for every student. It is conceived to mimic friendly domestic animal-like behavior while serving as a highly specified, low-cost, flexible, easily programmable AI robotic platform for both researchers and students. If you want to create a collaborative and diverse classroom experience for everyone and anyone to get involved and learn, MiRo-E is the answer.

After enormous research and the incredible success of the developer version, MiRo-E is now available to schools all across the Middle East, especially Dubai, UAE.

MiRo is the first robot in a development program that intends to accelerate companion and social robotics research progress. It also aims to promote public engagement with robots, especially students, from the bottom up.

Why Is MiRo-E Suitable for Classrooms?

MiRo-E has powerful hardware optimized with 8-10 degrees of freedom, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity, and a wide sensor array. It renders unparalleled interaction with students within the classroom environment.

MiRo-E has a unique user-friendly interface that allows students to test their code on a simulated MiRo. Unlike other educational robots, MiRo-E’s engaging pet-like appearance immediately stimulates students’ imaginations. Colleges and universities across GCC have started using MiRo as a platform to teach STEM subjects, particularly digital technology and computing. It helps students code and implements creative ideas through a well-balanced multi-level learning experience.

What Does MiRo-E Do?

With six senses, an ingenious brain-inspired OS, and a simulation software package, MiRo-E is programmed to interact with humans using sound, light, and behavior. MiRo-E likes to be stroked and responds to sounds. It can also see everything around and likes movement. Above all, MiRo-E can be easily programmed to do much more.

What Else Is MiRo-E Useful for?

Multiple colleges and universities across UAE are using MiRo-E for assisting with:

• Special Educational Needs (SEN) in adults and children
• Sophisticated research into hacking robots or performing custom programming

Recommended Age Group to Use MiRo-E

• MiRo-E can be used as a classroom pet in early school learning in the pastoral care model, enabling a journey of healing and wholeness among students. It can help support students younger than 7 years, in their natural progression and facilitates the development of their social skills, self-esteem, and ability to cope with stress.
• The simple-to-grasp MiRoSim interface can be used for teaching primary school students ranging from 7 years to 11 years of age.
• In secondary schools, MiRo-E is used to learn to write and implement programs using C++, Blockly, and Python programming languages by kids older than 11 years of age.

Schools and colleges across UAE encourage students below age 7 to interact primarily with the physical MiRo-E while older students utilize the MiRo educational interface for an incredible learning experience by practicing robotic coding and exploring complex research and behaviors. 

MiRo-E’s Key Highlights

• Exhibits pet-like behavior and is ready to work straight out of the box in demonstration mode.
• Flexible enough to be used in primary school and high-level research labs.
• MiRo-E is engineered for educational purposes, especially learning robotic coding from basics to a high level.
• Browser-based Gazebo App allows simulating MiRo’s behavior on screen, reducing the need of having more than one MiRo per classroom since the whole class can work on programming.
• Friendly and emotionally engaging personality
• Imitates a small pet’s behavior using state-of-the-art Biomimetic AI technology by responding to sounds, wagging its tail and moving its ears when stroked.
• Possess a powerful Raspberry Pi B 3+ processor
• Fully programmable, upgradeable, and serviceable
• Communicates using Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/USB

MiRo-E’s is an engaging, pet-like educational robot that stands out from the crowd and stimulates students’ imaginations, helping them learn how to code, transform their imaginative ideas through the highly featured platform into reality.

Educational institutions across the Middle East, especially in Dubai, UAE are using MiRo-E as an excellent robotic device for any level of education, starting from early school learning to University.

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School is one of the first public places that a kid visits regularly. Communication is the key anywhere and at any place.
To improve, enhance and encourage communication skills, schools have School Radio. School Radio is a medium to ease communication among students of different age groups and levels.

School Radio:

Most schools in GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East introduce innovative ways to impart learning and communication skills to their students. Students are also eager to adopt technology-based ways rather than old ways.
International schools in GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East boost confidence in their students by employing different techniques. One such way is through School Radio. It makes it hassle-free for the teachers, students, and parents/guardians to stay on the same page regarding school activities and performance.

If you want to help students build confidence and improve their communication skills, you need to up your game and introduce School Radio.

Opportunity:

It is a great initiative by the school for the students. It will help raise confident and well-spoken individuals. With the world’s pace, the kids need to be multi-talented. It is just one step closer to giving them more character, expertise, and a new skill.

This talent-based activity is by the students, and for the students. 

The UAE is one of the growing hubs for multiple arenas globally, and schools here have a greater responsibility to enable the wards with talent and education.

Possibilities:

When you employ School Radio in your school, you will be empowering your students and even teachers to evolve in a new direction. They would be able to explore new opportunities and areas of interest.

The students, teachers, and even parents in GCC, Dubai, UAE, and the Middle East can benefit. There is a list of activities that can get done on School Radio. The list includes:

• News
• Promotional activities
• Talk Shows
• Drama
• Discussions on issues
• Announcements of competitions
• Announcements of school or student’s achievements
• Music

Benefits:

School Radio has proved to be favorable for all the parties involved to make the school a better learning environment in many different nations.
School Radio has benefits for students as individuals and the school as a community. In the Middle East, a lot of its population is not native. Most of the population in the GCC speaks a different language from the official language.
The benefits to all the parties include:

• Developing skills for speaking as well as listening
• Learning new words
• Gaining knowledge by listening
• Builds confidence
• Teamwork
• Helping kids with learning and writing better
• Empowerment to the students to voice their opinions and even concerns
• Inclusion for kids and students of all levels
• Sense of authority and responsibility to the students
• Gaining extra knowledge apart from the curriculum
• Including topics from the curriculum to reinforce major topics of the syllabi
• Ease of use
• Wider scope of use
• Free resources

School Radio Packages and Products:

There are many packages offered by School Radio to cater to schools of all budgets. There are even starter packages to entertain schools with a tight budget.

The products or devices that would come with the School Radio are:
• 2 microphones
• 19inch screen
• Built-in USB myriad channels
• 1 VoIP live channel (Skype)
• Mic Live
• Mini-tower with 4GB Ram, Intel G3 Processor, 1TB hard drive
• Wireless keyboard and mouse
• Windows 10 Pro OS

School Radio is a great opportunity for students and will prove a great investment with multiple benefits.

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