Ready, Set, Golf! Madar International School wins 1st GESS STEAMathalon Ai Golf Tournament.
In association with Kalebr, Canada’s leading Ed-Tech company, GESS Dubai 2020 hosted the second season of ParOne STEAMathalon, one of the fastest growing STEAM x AI programmes in the region.
Participating teams were invited to GESS Dubai 2020 to trial a GolfBot, an artificial intelligence robot trained to traverse a purpose-built mini-golf course. The competition which served as an official qualifying event for the finals of season two was the first Artificial Intelligence Golf Tournament for educators in the region to be held at an education trade show and witnessed over 100 students from leading British, American and IB schools in the UAE compete with support from over 300 teachers, senior leaders and education experts. The disruption of Artificial Intelligence met the tradition of Golf mixed with the grit of young innovators.
What is ParOne STEAMathalon?
STEAMathalon is a project-based learning program developed in Canada and tested in Finland. It presents real-world challenges in a future workplace setting to integrate STEAM, coding and UN Sustainable Development Goals in the curriculum to promote future skills, innovation, well-being and sustainability to prepare young learners for the future.
The ParOne Ai Golf Tournament hosted by GESS had participating teams code, train and test a robot specifically designed to compete in the custom built 3-hole mini golf course. Students were challenged to teach their GolfBots using Artificial Intelligence, amass fans and compete in front of visitors and exhibitors alike to complete the course in the shortest possible time. STEAMathalon also provided the opportunity for teachers to call upon their educator friends, colleagues and peers to physically vote for their teams at the show in a bid to help them qualify to the final stage of the competition which is scheduled to take place in the upcoming months.
Participating Teams
Over 50 schools across the UAE were invited to compete in the tournament. Among others, participants included:
- Madar International School
- Dubai British School
- Regent International School
- Dunecrest American School
- Sharjah American International School
- Deira International School
- American School of Creative Science (ASCS) Barsha
- Safa Community School
- Star International School Mirdif
- ASCS Maliha Road
- Sunmarke School
Competition Overview and Results
For schools already registered for season two of ParOne STEAMathalon, as well as teachers and managers of the student teams, competitions to play took place throughout Days 1 and 2. The tournament witnessed intense competition between participating teams with frequent changes in the leaderboard standings. Ultimately based on the scores accumulated from all three stages of the course, Madar International School from Al Ain emerged on top and was crowned the winner. The school’s accomplishment was celebrated at the 7th GESS Awards gala dinner where a trophy was handed to Manal Khaled Mousa, the school's ICT Teacher and team leader. The first and second runners up were Dunecrest American School and American School of Creative Sciences Maliha respectively and both were also recognised for their accomplishments. On the third day of GESS, this new and exciting feature was opened to the public to give all visitors an opportunity to put their “Golf” skills to the test for a shot at topping the GESS Public Leaderboard.
