Abu Dhabi, Sep 19(The National): Students of all ages can get their hands dirty digging for dinosaur bones or wrapping a mummy as the ancient Egyptians did when the first Abu Dhabi Science Festival opens in the capital.

From November 18 to 26, more than 150 live experiments, shows and workshops in science and technology will open free to the public at two locations: Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec) and the west plaza of the Corniche.

"This festival will play an important role in sparking an interest and desire among children and the youth to learn more about science and innovations," said Dr Mugheer Al Khaili, the director general of Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).

As part of the festival, the internationally acclaimed "1001 inventions" exhibition will make its Middle East debut. The exhibition, which showcases 1,000 years of Islamic scientific milestones and inventions by Muslim pioneers has already enjoyed successful runs in London, New York and Istanbul and has been visited by more than 1.5 million people. It will take place in Arabic and English.

"We are moving away from memorisation and allowing for more practical and interactive education culture," Dr Al Khaili said.

At the heart of the festival is the drive to encourage more Emiratis to specialise in science.

"Only 20 per cent of Emiratis become engineers," Dr Al Khaili said. "We want more Emiratis in the science field."

Humood Al Mahri, an Abu Dhabi university student training to become a pilot, has already got his hands "sticky" by volunteering, joining the festival as one of the "scientists".
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"You want a sticky or a bouncy slime ball?" he asked a group of curious passersby while dressed in a white lab coat and holding up wiggly, slimy objects.

Trained in the "slime workshops", the 28-year-old cadet will be among hundreds of Emirati students who will run workshops at the festival. "I had all this scientific information in the back of my mind somewhere, but never truly appreciated it or understood its importance," he said while playing with fluorescent goo.

More than 15,000 students from grades 1 to 9 from 174 schools (110 public and 64 private) will participate in the festival. It will also feature robotics, aeronautics, archaeology and biology.

"Abu Dhabi's vision is to build a knowledge-based society and is investing heavily in technology industries to achieve this," said Ahmed Al Calily, the director general of the Abu Dhabi Technology Department Committee.

"This in turn requires a scientifically literate society and a well-equipped talent base; this festival is one of the efforts that will help build this talent base," he said.