FAQs

 

How will students be selected?

Students will be nominated by the Principal or Senior Leadership of their school based on a selection criteria.

 

When and where will the learning sessions be held?

The sessions will be held on Thursdays from 4:00pm - 5:30pm in the Blended Learning Plaza (Wellington Academy, Silicon Oasis).

 

How many sessions are part of the programme?

Four 90-minute sessions per term. (12 sessions in total)

 

How will students learn?

Students will learn through:

Blogs

Online discussion fora

Flipped classrooms on TED-Ed

Active learning and field trips

Discussions and debates

Set texts and extended reading

YouTube videos

Google Hangout sessions with distinguished former GEMS students

 

How many hours of commitment will a student be expected to make at home per week?

About two hours.

 

How will students be assessed?

Students be formatively assessed through ongoing tasks and assignments based on their multiple intelligences. Some of these formative assessment tasks include blog comments, video trailers, poster designs, online articles, reflection journal entries. These will be saved on an online portfolio.

At the end of the programme students will be required to present their online portfolio and celebrate their learning.

 

What trips will students be expected to make?

Planetaria

Movie Screenings

Poetry Recitals

Plays

Art Exhibitions

Science Museums

Natural History

Astronomy Camps

 

Why should students take this course?

• Completing the GEMS Honours programme will offer a major advantage to students wishing to apply for scholarships and honours programmes in major international universities.

• The programme focuses on fundamental areas of human knowledge that are not covered by the regular high school syllabus.

• Students will gain unique perspectives by allowing them to make those essential cross-curricular links that allow for a breadth of vision needed to be creative, critical, innovative thinkers, who can manoeuvre outside of the box.

• By being in the company of other high-functioning, more able students, this programme offers the kind of intellectual challenge and rigour that is often lacking in high school environments where teachers are under pressure to complete the syllabus and teach to the curriculum.

• This programme nurtures the growth of the whole student, academically, socially, emotionally, and intellectually.

• Students on this course will get preference to be on various radio shows, science and literature festivals, and the opportunity to be keynote speakers at conferences.

 

Will students get a certificate?

Yes, all students who successfully complete the course will be awarded a certificate of completion. There will also be a certificate of distinction for students who show above and beyond participation. There is no penalty for not completing the course.

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Who will be leading the learning sessions?

The sessions will be run by Rohan Roberts. He is currently Change Leader at GEMS Innovation Research Development. He is the recipient of the 2014 Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Distinguished Teacher Award. He has also won the 2014 GESS Award for Innovation in Education and the 2013 GEMS Core Values award for Professional Development. In addition to the GEMS Honours Programme, he has developed The HUMAN Project curriculum and the Shots of Awe: Deep Think curriculum. He is the author of the Learning Theories module of the GEMS Pedagogy Series, and is also the author of the Digital Learning strand of the GEMS Teacher Development programme. He is the director of SciFest Dubai, founder of Cafe Scientifique Dubai, and moderator at the Emirates Festival of Literature. More details here: www.rohanroberts.com