- Title: SAUDI-ARABIA/SCIENCE FESTIVAL Riyadh hosts science festival for students
- Date: 4th February 2015
- Summary: VISITOR TOUCHING VEGETABLE CONNECTED TO ELECTRIC CIRCLE MAKING MUSIC PARTICIPANT EXPLAINING EXPERIMENT TO VISITOR GIRL TRYING EQUIPMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PARTICIPANT, MISHAAL SULIMAN, SAYING: "We are here to offer something to the community and young people. Since we loved these experiments, it is certain that young people will love it too. We offer them something beautiful and useful." VISITORS AT THE EXHIBITION (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) EXECUTIVE MANAGER OF THE FESTIVAL, ABDUL-HAKEM AL-DAWOOD, SAYING: "It's time that the Saudi community and the Arab and Gulf countries change from a recipient of technology and to participate in the achievements. And to transition to phase of production and innovation; to compete globally with all seriousness and confidence in scientific fields." STUDENT TAKING PART IN MATHS TEST STUDENT ARRANGING PLAYING CARDS PARTICIPANT WATCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) VISITOR, MUHAMMED ABDUL-RAHAMAN, SAYING: "I came to the science festival today. There are many beautiful and new things here -- things I see it for the first time in my life. One of them is the maths section. It was an experiment or challenge to collect the number 24 from 4 playing cards." GERMAN STUDENT FIXING ROLLER-COASTER MODEL GERMAN STUDENT SWITCHING ON THE ROLLER-COASTER ROLLER-COASTER ON TRACK VISITORS WATCHING THE ROLLER-COASTER ROLLER-COASTER ON HIGH SPEED (SOUNDBITE) (English) GERMAN STUDENT, CHRISTIAN KNOBLOCH, SAYING: "They always ask - 'oh, how does it work? How does it go up?' Many people don't know how a roller-coaster works, that it's from kinetic and potential energy levels, that it's accelerated probably with the launch. And I explain it to them how this works, and they are also inspired to build their own things and to think like an engineer." VISITORS AT THE YOUNG STUDENTS INVENTORS SECTION STUDENT TESTING INVENTION ON A VISITOR STUDENT EXPLAINING HIS IMAGINATION GAME (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PARTICIPANT, AHMED SHDAIED, SAYING: "I am a school student in the high school. I participated and represented Saudi Arabia in the competition in the ITEX exhibition in Malaysia last year and won the first position among more than 1,200 inventors. Today we are participating for the second time in this exhibition and hope we keep the title of first place." YOUNG PARTICIPANT EXPLAINING TO VISITOR HIS INVENTION PAMPHLET READING (Arabic): "MOBILE TRAFFIC LIGHT" MOBILE TRAFFIC LIGHT IN HANDS OF THE PARTICIPANT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SAUDI STUDENT, SULEIMAN BALAHMAR, SAYING: "My project is the mobile traffic light. The idea is it organise the traffic if a natural disaster happens. Or if road accident or floods or heavy wind destroys the traffic light, we can have mobile traffic light in our bag that we carry, which we open and we have a traffic light." VARIOUS OF CHILD DOING WATER CUP TEST CHILD EXPLAINING HOW WATER STAYS IN CUP WHEN AIR IS TAKEN OUT PARTICIPANT INTERACTING WITH CHILDREN
- Embargoed: 19th February 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Saudi Arabia
- Country: Saudi Arabia
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAANOV15KLHSYC4MN2YGUI4NZCB
- Story Text: Hundreds of young people took part in activities at the six-day Saudi Science and Innnovation Festival that began on Tuesday (February 3).
The event aims to discover talent among young people and encourage them to take part in scientific activities.
Among the exhibits at the show was an experiment in which vegetables are used in a music system.
Participant Mishaal Suliman said the idea was to make the activity fun.
"We are here to offer something to the community and young people. Since we loved these experiments, it is certain that young people will love it too. We offer them something beautiful and useful," he said.
Organisers said Arab countries must start encouraging scientific innovation.
"It's time that the Saudi community and the Arab and Gulf countries change from a recipient of technology and to participate in the achievements. And to transition to phase of production and innovation; to compete globally with all seriousness and confidence in scientific fields," said teh festival's executive manager Abdul-Hakem al-Dawood.
Among those taking part is German student Christian Knobloch, whose work had many visitors curious.
"They always ask - 'oh, how does it work? How does it go up?' Many people don't know how a roller-coaster works, that it's from kinetic and potential energy levels, that it's accelerated probably with the launch. And I explain it to them how this works, and they are also inspired to build their own things and to think like an engineer," he said.
High school student Ahmed Shdaied had brought a game to the show. He hopes to win the competition, after picking up a similar award last year.
"I participated and represented Saudi Arabia in the competition in the ITEX exhibition in Malaysia last year and won the first position among more than 1,200 inventors. Today we are participating for the second time in this exhibition and hope we keep the title of first place."
Teengaer Suleiman Balahmar's project was inpired by a personal setback. He came up with his idea after his father and brother had a road accident, and the ambulance could not reach them on time because of traffic bottlenecks cause by road works.
"My project is the mobile traffic light. The idea is it organise the traffic if a natural disaster happens. Or if road accident or floods or heavy wind destroys the traffic light, we can have mobile traffic light in our bag that we carry, which we open and we have a traffic light."
The students displaying their experiments were chosen from among the 16,000 who took part in the national Olympics for scientific innovation.
Seventy-two winners will get a total prize money of 700,000 riyals (186,564 US dollars). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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