Hands-on experience for junior scientists

From operating rooms to fossil digs, the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Science Festival included 150 activities and experiments for children.

School children react seeing a dummy mummy at the Abu Dhabi Science Festival yesterday at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

ABU DHABI // As a line of children patiently awaited their turn in the emergency surgery room, Awais Al Darei was teaching four others how to remove bullets from a plastic body.

Open wounds filled with fake blood and little stones tucked inside a dummy lying on a hospital bed awaited the children, who had dressed up as doctors.

"The kids have to use hospital equipment we have, like an endoscope, to remove the stones from the body," said Mr Darei, 19, an Emirati engineering student at Khalifa University. "We also teach them what's inside the human body, like a gall bladder."

The 45-minute procedure was taking place in seven different rooms for children aged over nine as part of the opening day of the first Abu Dhabi Science Festivals in the capital.

The event at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), included shows, workshops, an exhibition and experiments for children aged five and over between 2pm and 9pm.

Further down the hall, about 22 children were busy making a copy of an ammonite fossil in the "Dig up a Dinosaur" room.

After learning how fossils were formed, the children grabbed a few tools and headed to a large sandbox where the copy of a dinosaur's skeleton was buried.

They had to brush off the sand and place every fossil found in a bucket, with the help of four Emirati students from Abu Dhabi University.

"Once they discover the bones we discuss what they found and we try to evaluate what the creature might be," said Karsten Hutten, one of the team leaders.

For the British schoolgirl Imogen, 7, the exercise was very insightful.

"I am the dinosaur expert here but it's fun to be able to make our own fossils," Imogen said.

Nearby, two fake Egyptian mummies lay in a dark room. This exercise was in three stages.

"The first stage is the antechamber where we explain to them why the Egyptians were entombed in such ways to preserve them for thousands of years," said Abdullah Al Dhiyebi, 20, an Emirati business student at Abu Dhabi University.

"Then we show them the mummies in the dark room and what's put inside them because they believed in the afterlife."

While some children were too afraid to participate in the experiment, others were taught how to mummify a body. Using tools, they started removing ankhs from the mummies.

"Afterwards, we take them to a lab where they learn how we know the mummies' ages, whether they are male or female, and they also make their own experiment," said Mr Dhiyebi.

The children placed a piece of apple in a bag and added three different types of salt.

"They keep it for a two-week period to understand the process better," Mr Dhiyebi explained.

A total of 20,000 schoolchildren in Abu Dhabi will attend the festival in the mornings this week as part of a school trip organised by the Abu Dhabi Education Council.

"These experiments as a platform have proven to be a great supplement to formal education in schools," said Wasfi Abu Ghazaleh, the chief operating officer at the Technology Development Committee, which organised the festival.

"It helps students engage in science in a fun and exciting manner, and simplifies what can appear as complex subjects."

Mr Abu Ghazaleh said educating the children at these ages could help to shape their career aspirations.

The festival has more than 150 activities led by more than 500 university students in Abu Dhabi who were trained as "science communicators" for the children.

The festival opens on the Corniche West Plaza today between 2pm and 10pm with shows including Jetman, who flies with a jet-propelled wing.

The Corniche venue will be open from 2pm to 10pm on weekends and 5pm to 10pm on weekdays.

The Adnec event will open from 4pm to 9pm during weekdays and from 2pm to 9pm on weekends.

The festival, which is open to the general public on weekends and weekday afternoons, will end on November 26.

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