Fatima bint Al Waleed School in Seeb has been announced as the overall winner of the MEDRC Eco School Prize at a ceremony held at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday, against the backdrop of the Oman Energy and Water Exhibition and Conference.
Sponsored by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the inaugural inter-school competition was launched by MEDRC on World Water Day in March of this year, at a celebratory event at the organisation’s headquarters in Al Hail, Muscat. The prize is designed to build greater water and energy awareness among school students in Oman by teaching them of the importance of both and why conservation of natural resources is vital for sustainable development.
Presenting the awards, Ambassador Laetitia van Asch said, “All around the world we see that young people are concerned about their future. Involving schools and students in saving our valuable resources such as water and energy we create a real impact. Together we can influence positively one of the most defining issues of our time: a sustainable future for you and your children.”
The winning prizes included a Horizon Energy Box — a state of the art teaching tool that provides a complete understanding of how fuel cell technology (hydrogen, salt water and ethanol) interacts with renewable energy sources to create an entirely sustainable power grid. The Energy Box can be used by the schools’ STEM teachers to conduct countless experiments showing many scientific principles at work in a fun and engaging way. Fatima bint Al Waleed School also walked away with a custom-made sand and gravel filter which can be used in the classroom to show how the process of natural filtration occurs and how clean freshwater is produced.
Five schools (Musab bin Zubair, Sheikh Nasser Al Kharusi, Aisha Al Rasbia, Fatima bint Al Waleed, Um Saad Alansaria) were nominated by the Seeb office of the Directorate General of Education to compete for the prize.
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