Dr. Ghizlane Bendriss, a teaching specialist in biological sciences, said the participants are very motivated and the biggest challenge for teachers is to engage with them without having regular face-to-face contact. She said: “As students are in their 11th or 12th grade during the academic year, the main challenge was to establish a smooth communication and regular meetings with the students, without overwhelming them.
Thanks to the coordinated work with our IT department, students were allowed to have access to the Canvas learning management system, which allowed us to establish a secure space to communicate with the students all material needed and to arrange our meetings on site.
“The Office of Student Recruitment and Outreach conscientiously managed the program and organized our meetings to avoid bringing students several times in a small period of time and by dividing courses into short modules and adding deadlines, we managed to keep the students engaged throughout the year. The lab activities were a great opportunity for the students to work in a biology laboratory using material that they may not have in their own schools, which increased students’ interest in this program.”
Fatema Almarri is an example of how beneficial the QADP can be. A previous participant herself, she is now in the first year of the six-
year medical program. Fatema said: “We were taught the scientific basics and that helped me when starting off this semester. We had the physical sciences and biology and worked in labs, which also helped when starting this year. The program taught us different lab techniques and how to work with certain equipment. It made it that I was very comfortable in the lab when I joined the medical program, whereas others weren’t.
We also undertook research on various topics. Mine was biomechanics and it was the first proper research I had done and I had to put a lot of thinking into it. The QADP really helped teach me how to approach a research project.”
The QADP runs from September to March. Upon completion, each student receives a certificate, but more importantly they will have gained valuable skills that will aid them in their application to WCM-Q.
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