News & Event

With wide participation and interaction, the activities of the Oman Science Festival 2022 continue in its second day at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Center in its third edition under the slogan “Together we live the passion for science”, which aims to deliver science to students and members of society in an easy way, and in an interactive way that stimulates creative thinking, and creates a positive trend towards science, innovation, and scientific research. The festival also aims to keep up with global trends based on the dissemination of science and technology and the expected future changes and developments, encouraging students to realize the importance of science in life, urging them to innovate, enhancing their skills to integrate into the knowledge-based economy, and encouraging them to continue learning in scientific disciplines.

Today, Tuesday, discussion sessions accompanying the festival will be held, including the presentation of (15) papers in two themes, namely, food security and cyber security. The evening period will witness today, Tuesday, a ceremony honoring the cognitive development program for the academic year 2021-2022, which includes a short film presentation on the program cognitive development, the ministry’s speech, and a short film about the programs of the Innovation Department and the Scientific Olympiad.

On the sidelines of the festival, the Green Schools project was launched as a pioneering model in environmental sustainability and education for sustainable development, which comes as a partnership between the Ministry of Education and the Oman Environmental Services Holding Company (Bee’ah), with the aim of educating students, teachers and the local community, and raising awareness of environmental issues, circular economy and sustainability as well as educating students to make informed decisions on issues related to the environment, this project, in its first and experimental version, will host a number of schools in the Governorates of South Al Batinah and Al Dakhiliyah.

This inauguration came under the patronage of Her Highness Dr. Mona bint Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Assistant of chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University for External Cooperation, at the Ahmed bin Majid Theatre. HE Dr. Abdullah bin Khamis Ambosaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Education, delivered the ministry’s speech, saying: “We are launching the Green Schools project, as a pioneering model in environmental sustainability and education for sustainable development. It is a real application of the meaning of institutional partnership, as it brings together a partnership between the Ministry of Education from the government sector and the Oman Environmental Services Holding Company (Bee’ah) from the private sector.”

HE added: “Oman's Vision 2040 has emphasized the themes of sustainable education, environmental protection, and the preservation of natural resources as one of the government's priorities, which aims to create an educational system in line with the goals of sustainable development, protect people from harmful environmental effects, and create a safe environment for a prosperous society. The Green Schools Project comes as a translation and a reflection to achieve the goals of education for sustainable development, as the Ministry of Education and Bee’ah seek through it to educate students and teachers and raise their awareness of environmental issues, promote sustainability and applications of the circular economy, and transfer this knowledge to the local community surrounding the school by providing many activities and field visits that may Contribute to the consolidation of the behaviors, principles and values of sustainability among young people.”

On the Commerce and Economics corner, Abdullah Al-Shaqsi, Senior Specialist of Scientific Innovation from the Department of Innovation and Scientific Olympiad, said: “This corner includes (20) activities, including: “Lego event” which is implemented by the University of Technology and Applied Sciences - Al-Musanna, with the aim of training skills and basics of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the “Soap Industry Production Line”, which is implemented by Al-Amal School for the Deaf. In this activity, the visitor prepares the materials used in the soap making process and then cuts and melts the soap, then add colors and aromatic scents and pours them into the molds until they dry and then packaging the product for marketing.  The corner also includes the "white clay production line", which is implemented by the University of Technology and Applied Sciences - Nizwa, where the visitor to the corner mixes the components of white clay (kaolin) and then forms the clay in creative shapes, drying it, and then coloring it to reach the final shape of the product, and also the "pottery production line" with the participation of Abdullah bin Hamdan Al-Adawi Pottery Factory, where the visitor manufactures clay, converts it into a product and markets it, in addition to many events targeting visitors of different ages to train them on entrepreneurship.”

On the Food Safety corner, Haitham Al-Farqani, Senior Specialist of Scientific Innovation in the Office of HE the Undersecretary for Education, said: “This corner includes (20) various activities, including: fish cultivation, its mechanization and marketing, and agriculture without soil; due to the hot weather in the Sultanate of Oman, and most of the lands are not suitable for agriculture. This cultivation is suitable at home to achieve self-sufficiency in agricultural crops, as well as veterinary, cloning, and product improvement in livestock, bees, saffron cultivation, bio-culture, floating cage culture, and farming in a closed system.”

On the Science and Exploration corner, Nabil Al Habsi, Senior Specialist of Scientific Innovation in the Scientific Committee of the festival, said: “This corner is concerned with presenting science in an entertaining, attractive and interesting way to the target groups by presenting (27) scientific workshops that combine experiments, games, virtual reality techniques, augmented reality and some life applications that are concerned with presenting science in the field of physics, chemistry, biology and some phenomena and scientific theories, and through workshops that are presented in an interactive way, either through scientific games and experiments, chemical reactions or electrical connections, and it includes the presentation of electronic engineering workshops, the Internet of things, motion physics workshops, the world of cars and nano applications.

The second day of the festival included the presentation of a number of training programs and workshops, including the Green Schools Program, which targeted a number of teachers at schools in the governorates of South Al Batinah and Al Dakhiliyah, and a number of members of the national team with the aim of training and introducing them to green schools and explanation of the mechanisms and strategies for implementing this project in schools and transferring the impact of this knowledge to students in those schools, and developing their awareness and skills to preserve the environment.

The Innovation Workshops corner also provided training workshops on designing the business model of the project, which is the method that the startup uses to create value and achieve that value on the ground and benefit from it. The training session targeted middle school students and higher as they already have the necessary skills. The workshop was presented by Ahmed Al Ameri and Zakaria Al Wahaibi from the Center for Innovation and Information Transfer at Sultan Qaboos University. Ahmed Al-Hinai, a Talent Senior Specialist at the Ministry of Education, presented a training session on the creativity scale models for school students. The training session targeted all segments of society and addressed the definition of creativity and its various measures such as the Renko scale for Creativity.

On the sidelines of the festival, Moza Al-Kalbani, IT lecturer at the Vocational College in Seeb, presented a training workshop on infographic design using PowerPoint. The workshop aimed to teach the target group to design the infographic in an innovative and interactive way by investing all the features in the program to prepare attractive content in a way that is different from the common method and with high profession.

Oman Royal Police is also participating in Oman Science Festival in its third edition. Major Abdullah Al Sarmi from the Traffic Department said: “Our department is showcasing the latest traffic control used as well as the most prominent indicators that shows a decrease in the number of accidents, deaths, and injuries, in addition to the electronic services provided by the Royal Oman Police represented by the Traffic Department through modern devices.” Major Abdullah Al Nahashi from the Special Force Department said: “The ROP corner includes various equipment and devices they use in explosive detection and in handling suspicious objects.” Captain Harib Al Busaidi, from Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Control pointed that their participation in Oman Science Festival aims to raise awareness among society with different types of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and the appropriate way to discard them, in addition to providing visitors with explanations of the mobile awareness exhibition role.