Dec 19 2022 | News
Singapore hosted the 2022 Global STEAM Finals from December 1 through December 11, 2022. 54 students from several Ghanaian schools from Grades 7 to 12 made up Team Ghana, together with a 15-person chaperone team made up of teachers and parents. The Team was led by the Program Director of the Ghana Olympiad Academy, Abel Ohene Acquaye. The competition featured over 700 students from thirty-three countries worldwide.
The Olympiad competition is a worldwide Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) program for highly motivated students from many different nations. It gives children in grades 3 through 12 the chance to compete with students from all over the world in the disciplines of mathematics, arts, science, and computational thinking. The Ghana Olympiad Academy, a part of the Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP), which also runs the Sharks Quiz for senior and junior high schools nationwide, is in charge of organizing the Olympiad contests in Ghana.
Since the beginning of this year, scholars from numerous Ghanaian schools have participated in tests for the local run of the VANDA - Science, America Math Olympiad (AMO), SASMO Math, and Dr-CT Computational Thinking which were organized by the Singapore International Mastery Contest Centre's (SIMCC) – the largest Olympiad centre in the world. The local runs are online-written and directly proctored by SIMCC. Students have the choice of writing the exams either at school or from the comfort of their homes. The local run medalists earned spots in the 2022 Global Finals, which Singapore hosted from December 1 to December 11.
The students as part of the program were sent to the Disney-inspired Universal Studios - Sentosa Singapore on the first day of the STEAM Ahead in Singapore to explore and have fun. On day 2, the exams, IJMO, VANDA Global- individual contest, and Team contest were written. On day 3, a grand awards dinner night was organized. Team Ghana performed creditably amassing a considerable number of individual and team awards. In total, the Ghanaian contingent received 26 medals in addition to the 22 more medals they later won at a five-day camp run by the Youth Achievers and Leadership Academy (YALA) held at the renowned National University of Singapore. Ivan Elolo Apedo and Paa Kobina from Ghana Chrisitan International High and Shrirang from DPS International were among the standout candidates receiving multiple medals from STEAM Ahead and YALA competitions.
STEAM education is critical in any nation’s development. It is the reason why the Academic Talent Development Program through the Ghana Olympiad Academy has focused on providing STEAM opportunities at the global level to students in Ghana to churn out the next generation of global thinkers and innovators.