AstraZeneca Contributes to Developing Students' Scientific Skills

AstraZeneca Türkiye supported 10 teams from 5 provinces, contributing to the development of students' scientific skills. Supporting the FIRST^® LEGO^® League Explore program, one of the world's most widespread science initiatives run by Bilim Kahramanları Derneği and implemented in Turkey as "Minik Bilim Kahramanları Buluşuyor", AstraZeneca Türkiye contributed to primary school-age children acquiring basic engineering and programming skills through volunteer participation of its employees and online events. AstraZeneca Türkiye contributed to the learning of basic engineering and programming skills for children aged 6 to 10 within the scope of the "Minik Bilim Kahramanları Buluşuyor" program run by Bilim Kahramanları Derneği. Implemented in 41 countries worldwide by FIRST Foundation (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and LEGO Education, the FIRST LEGO League Explore program, implemented in Turkey under the name "Minik Bilim Kahramanları Buluşuyor", enables student teams to learn basic engineering and programming skills using LEGO components. During the 2020-2021 academic year, AstraZeneca Türkiye supported 10 teams from 5 different cities as part of the "Minik Bilim Kahramanları Buluşuyor" project, enabling students to participate in scientific processes. Volunteer AstraZeneca Türkiye employees who also participated in online festivals held at the end of the term had the opportunity to observe the fun and educational experience gained by the students. In the program whose 2020-2021 season theme was "PLAYMAKERS: Game Makers", student Minik Bilim Kahramanı participants explored what activities could be carried out in different fields and how to make games and activities more fun and accessible to everyone, designing solution proposals. Prof. Dr. Sıddıka Semahat Demir, Chair of the Board of Bilim Kahramanları Derneği, emphasized the following regarding the "Minik Bilim Kahramanları Buluşuyor with AstraZeneca" project: "Introducing children and young people to science at an early age and ensuring every child has access to quality education is one of our most important goals. We are very pleased that in line with this goal, we reached primary school children studying in public schools through our cooperation with AstraZeneca Türkiye with the support of our teachers. We sincerely thank the entire AstraZeneca Türkiye team for supporting this project, which provides children the opportunity to become excited about science, scientific research and engineering, and contributes to their acquiring skills such as teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving appropriate to the professions of the future, and for emphasizing a more participatory process by including employee volunteering." Ecz. Serkan Barış, Country Head of AstraZeneca Türkiye, made the following statement regarding the project: "As AstraZeneca Türkiye, we regard passing on scientific thinking, which strengthens our foundation, to future generations as one of our most important responsibilities. We believe that the fundamental way to push the boundaries of science in our country and add value to our society is to support our youth in acquiring scientific knowledge and skills. We are pleased to contribute to building the future of our children by realizing this meaningful cooperation."