Repton School Abu Dhabi and Mastercard have collaborated to bring Girls4Tech, the global technology leader’s signature STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program, to Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 students.
The Fry Campus at Repton Abu Dhabi invited 219 Reptonians to participate in the online STEM program, facilitated by expert volunteers from Mastercard. The session focused on inquiry-based and hands-on activities spanning key scenarios under three distinct disciplines: Detection, Encryption and All Things Digital, which connect Mastercard’s innovative technology to STEM principles. Each concept was supplemented with interactive sessions to engage and build students skills.
Gillian Hammond, Principal at Repton Abu Dhabi, says, “This education program with Mastercard will further enhance our efforts to build our students’ 21st century skills and competitiveness for future jobs in STEM careers. As educators, our role is to facilitate our students’ learning journey, encourage their aspirations and guide them in achieving their true potential.”
In the first discipline, Detection, Reptonians explored the concept of fraud detection by listening to sample data clusters of customer buying patterns, analysing buying patterns of different customers and describing patterns to identify potential fraud activity. As part of the second discipline, Encryption, the young tech wizards traversed the realms of symmetric and asymmetric encryption. Using the applications of scytales and Navajo language code, students were able to model symmetric encryption, discuss the shortfalls and use padlocks, keys and tokenisation to visualise asymmetric encryption. In the final discipline, All Things Digital, students explored the concept of digital convergence; arranging the familiar technologies (music, reading, photo and payment) from the least to most technologically advanced. Students participated in live demonstrations of Near Field Communications (NFC), and learned about biometrics and visual identification technologies.
“We will continue to support our students to develop the necessary skills required to succeed in their ambitious future endeavours. Girls4Tech is a pioneering program that has accomplished key milestones in its tenure, and we are proud to be affiliated with Mastercard on this venture,” Hammond continued.
In line with the UAE’s ‘Principles of the 50’ to develop digital, technical and scientific excellence in the country, Repton Abu Dhabi aims to further empower young female students to become the digital leaders of tomorrow, and inspire them to pursue STEM careers for greater gender parity through the outstanding STEM program. The curriculum is based on global science and math standards that connect the foundations of Mastercard’s business to STEM principles as well as various areas of interests and skills to pursue a career in STEM.
The Repton Family of Schools in the UAE, initially partnered with Mastercard in January 2020, to empower young Reptonians and support their real-world scenario development in STEM fields. The Girls4Tech programme, now in its final instalment with Repton schools, has supported the STEM skills development of 390 girls from Repton Al Barsha, Repton School Dubai and Repton School Abu Dhabi.
“International Women’s Day casts a spotlight on female participation in the workforce and the vital role they play in the economic prosperity of countries around the world. The Girls4Tech program is part of our efforts to inspire the next generation and provide them with the tools and resources to innovate as they become tomorrow’s technology leaders,” said Beatrice Cornacchia, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard.
Launched in 2014, the Mastercard Girls4Tech program has already reached over two million girls across 49 countries, with the goal to reach five million girls across the world by 2025 as the company ambitiously fuels a pipeline of future female talent in the tech sector. As part of its commitment to Expo 2020 Dubai in its role as the event’s Official Payment Technology Partner, Mastercard has pledged to reach 2,020 girls in the region through the program.
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