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| Diwali in Istanbul |
On Thursday evening (after I finished my last blog post), we celebrated
Diwali
with our #ibmcsc teammates from India: Deirdre, Sonal, Partha and Prayjot.
Diwali
or
Divali also known as
Deepavali and the "festival of
lights", is an ancient
Hindu
festival celebrated in autumn every year.
The
festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge
over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair.
[Source: Wikipedia] We
especially need something to overcome all of the very bad news we've been
hearing from around the world! Certainly the Diwali feast was good news with a
variety of chicken and vegetarian dishes topped off with some baklava. Thanks to all the cooks for sharing
their holiday with the #ibmcsc turkey team!
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| Kayseri Ministry of Education STEM Team |
Friday we worked at the IBM Turkey office. I must say it felt a lot like “home”
with IBM branding and interior offices with Made with IBM throughout. We dug
deeply into our interview findings and sorted through key themes and possible
recommendations. A key theme that’s emerging is the need for partnerships – a multi-member
coalition – to rally business, government, non-governmental organizations,
student organizations and their constituents to enable STEM across the school
system and in businesses – and to support it over the long-term. We had a
follow-up call with the team from Kayseri, a region that has already
implemented STEM education, Ömer Bay led the discussion backed up by his knowledgeable team.
They provided more detail on how they’ve implemented STEM and what their future
plans are – a seven step process where they’ve achieved up to #4: 1.
Feasibility study 2. Implementation – selection of schools and teachers 3.
Training of teachers
4. Integration into
curriculum 5. Integration into all Kayseri schools 6. Integration into all
Turkish schools 7. Accreditation and patents. They graciously shared their
insights into best practices.
Teşekkür ederim !
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| Egyptian spice market |
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| Fellowship of Turkish Delight |
Saturday was our day to explore Istanbul's famous Grand Bazaar.
The vendors amused us with their various enticements into their shops:
“It’s my birthday today – everything is half price.”
“Come in and I’ll sell you
something you don’t need.”
“Can I tell you something?”
“It’s my turn now.”
It’s as entertaining as it is
overwhelming with so many shops, so many colourful items for sale, and so many
people. It was a real challenge to keep the seven of us together, but we
managed to do so and enjoyed a dinner on the Galata Bridge before we
returned to enjoy some fresh Turkish Delight with the newly formed Fellowship
of Turkish Delight!
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| Galata Tower |
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| "If you really need to shed blood, try ketchup" |
Sunday was equally adventure-filled as
we made our way to Asia. Along the way we saw the Galata Tower and a clever design company called Aponia (see right), and wandered
down some passageways and across the Bosphorus to Eminönü where we caught the
ferry to the Asian side. Great views of the Atatürk Bridge and the Dolmabahçe
Palace, along with the rest of the European side. A great weekend of
exploration and inspiration!
Back to business this evening and
for the rest of the week!
More anon…
And while Turks are celebrating today, #ibmcsc #turkey will be hard at work
continuing our search for best practices in STEM. So far we’ve found good
examples in India, U.S.A., the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, South Korea, England,
and others here in Turkey. Now it’s a matter of seeing how they were
implemented and understanding how Turkey might do the same. We’re also
preparing for a workshop next Monday with some of the people we interviewed
last week. 
