SCRF STEAM Lab: Turning theory into creative application for young learners

The STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) technology platform at the ongoing Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF 2019) is hosting hundreds of children every day, where participants of all age groups are partaking putting their STEAM knowledge to test in in five exciting problem-solving activities.

The venue features a green-gray floor maze, which is fascinating children while sharpening their problem-solving skills. The activation has been designed also to improve children’s attention spans, memory capacity and perseverance, and teach them about the work–reward relationship.

The spinning disc activity, on the other hand, is tasking participants with balancing red and yellow rings on a fast-spinning, for as long as they can. The activity puts the Bernoulli principle into practice, where the learning objective is, faster airflow causes a decrease in pressure and has a wide range of applications in engineering fluid dynamics.

SCRF 2019 is hosting hundreds of children every day.

Then comes the turn table, which involves angular momentum where children are seen crafting interesting sand patterns on a spinning board, tinkering the painter in them and encouraging creativity in children. Angular momentum as a property explains the Earth’s orbital angular momentum, while revolving around the Sun and spin angular momentum due to its daily rotation on its axis.

Another activity, ‘making shapes’ is witnessing children constructing different shapes with sticks, while tying the ends with a simple rubber band that can be the foundation for many creative artworks as also engineering techniques. Simultaneously, kids are also seen drawing different patterns on a sheet using a stirring scribble box, that’s implanted a coffee froth inside, employing its motor to draw circular designs.

Feleo Furtalo from Olioli, the group organising these different activities says, “these humble yet interesting activities enable children to experiment while playing with STEAM resources, which makes learning inspirational as well. Children are creative problem solvers, they are discoverers. If they play with objects that allow them to be explorers, they are more likely to learn important lessons about how to master their world.”

SCRF 2019 runs until April 27 at Sharjah Expo Centre. Around 2,600 activities featuring 198 guests from 56 countries are taking place during this 11-day literary and cultural extravaganza like no other in the region, dedicated entirely to children and youth.