Kazakh school team wins 8 medals at STEM Olympiad in Baku

The students demonstrated strong results in engineering, technology and environmental studies (STEM). All seven projects were awarded, giving Kazakhstan’s team two gold, two silver and four bronze medals The “Yurt of the Future” project, developed by primary school students under the Primary Years Programme (PYP), attracted particular interest from the international jury, which included experts from the United Kingdom. The students presented a high-tech version of the traditional Kazakh dwelling adapted for modern urban environments, featuring a robotic control system, transformable furniture and a “smart” shanyrak equipped with weather sensors and a built-in telescope Nurgul Saparova, who accompanied the delegation, highlighted the importance of such initiatives for developing children’s potential “The main idea was to encourage children to think about real problems in Kazakhstan and propose their own solutions. Our students developed and presented their ideas, which received very high evaluations. International competitions for primary school students are not very common, so this became a very important and exciting experience for them,” she said The teacher also outlined the details of the main project “We proposed the idea of a modernized yurt that could be used in an urban environment. The children designed transformable furniture and a modern technological solution for the shanyrak — an automatic system that closes during rain and opens in sunny weather. The traditional element of the home was turned into an educational tool,” the teacher added This year the event brought together representatives of several leading educational institutions from across the region. It was organized by the CCAAIBWS association, an international educational network that unites 42 schools from different countries. For the Olympiad, this year marked the fifth edition held in Azerbaijan and the third in an international format According to the organizers, the CCAAIBWS Olympiad aims to develop innovative thinking among young people, with winners of the Baku stage set to present their projects at the global final in Italy Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that 200,000 Kazakh teachers are set to create AI assistants with ChatGPT Edu pilot project