DUBAI // How will the children of today design the city of tomorrow? That is the concept of an international exhibit launched yesterday at Children’s City in Creek Park.
The Science of Survival: “Your Planet Needs You” is a new hands-on exhibition that takes children on a journey of possibilities into the future. Accompanied by four virtual guides – Dug, Tek, Eco and Buz – visitors will confront challenges such as finding water in unusual places, designing a super-food, and creating the kind of neighbourhood a person would want to live in.
“The exhibition is aimed at educating children about the importance of sustainable living in an exciting and fun-filled environment, which will focus on some of the most pressing issues of today, including global resources, climate change and our options for a sustainable future,” said Hussain Nasser Lootah, Dubai Municipality director.
More than 650 pupils from five schools attended the opening. Organisers expect the exhibit, which runs until the end of August, to attract between 500 to 700 children daily.
“The visitors will discover new ideas and technologies that could make a big difference right now and in the future – like a net that collects drinkable water from fog and jeans made from sugarcane,” said Naila Al Mansoori, head of Children City.
“At the start of the exhibition you will meet Buz, Eco, Tek and Dug – your guides from the city of 2050 who have found a way to communicate with you from the future. These four will provide advice on different ways to tackle the challenges ahead and live more sustainably,” she said.
The exhibition takes children through such stages as educating them about water conservation, food sources, transport and constructing homes from recycled materials.
After learning about each stage they then play an interactive game to put what they learned into practice, such as designing their own transport vehicle, or building their future green home. Each child is given a “survival card” that records their progress through the exhibition.
The final stage is the “Future City”, where each child is given a plot containing all the items they created, the food and water they collected. Once they are happy with the design, it is added to a larger map with everyone else’s plots.
“Explore, be inspired, make decisions and then see how your choices combine with others as your neighbourhood comes alive in Future City. The countdown to 2050 begins now,” Ms Al Mansoori told the young visitors.
“All the decisions you make along the way are included in the Future City at the end of the exhibition. You will see that we all make different choices based on our different priorities and that these will have major effects on the world of tomorrow. Changing climate and resource availability mean the way we live will change, but we can make positive choices to affect our futures,” she added.
The exhibition also offers an early, first-hand opportunity to see new inventions designed to make best use of the planet’s resources. These include the Q-drum, a rolling container that allows people to easily transport clean water over long distances; the Eglu Chicken House, a fun way to keep poultry and produce eggs in an urban garden; the Lifestraw, which disinfects any body of water making it safe to drink; the Toilet-lid Sink, which recycles sink water to flush toilets; and the eCube, a low-cost device to insulate food, creating zero-energy refrigeration.
The Science Museum in London exhibition has been to the Liberty Science Centre in New Jersey, the National Centre for Science in Kuala Lumpur and the International Exhibition Centre in Greece. It has attracted 295,000 visitors over 16 months and is visiting the Middle East for the first time.
malkhan@thenational.ae
