The teams presented their ideas to an audience of fellow students, parents and educators

Dubai, June 15, 2022: Twelve GEMS Education schools have taken part in a new initiative based on finding imaginative and innovative solutions to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, carried out by five teams of students of varying abilities.

The ‘STREAMability’ teams presented their ideas at GEMS Legacy School to an audience of fellow students, parents and educators. Ideas included, among others, solutions for preventing water wastage in school, a novel new system for school security against unwanted intruders and a prototype car that is equally at home on land, on water and in the air.

The driving forces behind the programme, which is primarily for middle school children aged 11-14, include Asha Alexander, Principal of GEMS Legacy School and Executive Leader – Climate Change at GEMS Education, as well as the school’s Curriculum and Research Developer, Ranjani Ramnath.

Each school team included children of exceptional ability, slower learners, as well as Children of Determination. The teams had no outside assistance from their teachers and had just three weeks to finalise their prototypes and demonstration models.

GEMS Winchester School, Dubai, produced a system for recycling wastewater (aptly named ‘No Money Down the Drain’) from children washing their hands, which they calculated amounted to many thousands of litres every day at their school alone.

STREAMability is the latest initiative of the GEMS Global Ambassadors Society, which represents around  30 member schools across the GEMS network.

It was formed to share best collaborative practices by twinning with schools both locally and internationally, and to collectively work on projects that further the UN’s SDGs.

In the past 12 months alone, the Society’s projects have included planting more than 40,000 trees (‘Plant a Legacy’) across 42 countries, ‘Plogging’ sessions across five UAE beaches and working with UK author Alan Hesse to publish a comic picture cookbook of healthy food recipes.

Participating schools for STREAMability included GEMS Legacy School, GEMS Millennium School – Sharjah, GEMS Modern Academy, GEMS New Millennium School – Al Khail, GEMS Our Own English High School – Al Ain, GEMS Our Own English High School – Dubai, GEMS Winchester School – Dubai, Our Own English High School – Sharjah (Girls), The Millennium School – Dubai, The Westminster School – Dubai, Al Khaleej International School and Our Own English High School – Sharjah (Boys).