Dubai science teacher wins award for educational children’s parties

DUBAI // A teacher who won the Dh100,000 first prize at the Women of Tomorrow Award for her educational children’s party service said the funding would be used to develop her idea into a business.

Nichola Fisher, a teacher at Dubai British School, in The Springs, was inspired to create Rock It Science to get children interested in the sciences.

The award competition attracted 500 entries and was run by ExpatWoman.com in association with Emirates NBD Business Banking.

“I’ve been to what seems like hundreds of children’s parties in Dubai and noticed that there was a gap in the market for something a little more educational,” Ms Fisher said.

Using her science background, last summer she held her first science-themed party called Crazy Chemical Chaos.

“The whole idea is to spark a child’s curiosity and imagination about science while they are enjoying themselves,” she said.

“They don’t have to be good at science to enjoy themselves but we do encourage them to explore how things work.

“They get the chance to make lava lamps and slime, among other things, and have a lot of fun doing so.”

The atmosphere is set as soon as a child arrives at a party as they are given a white lab coat, a professor badge and safety goggles.

“It’s really about getting children to role-play as scientists,” said the mother of three.

“I started out doing about two parties a month but as word spread I’m getting bookings for 10 to 12 a month now.

“I’ll use the prize money to apply for a business licence in September, as well as to pay for associated costs and further develop what we offer.”

Rock It Science offers three themed parties that include physics and a Harry Potter inspired “potions” party.

Three new themes will be added after September. Ms Fisher, who has one assistant, expected three more qualified science teachers would join her team later this year.

Jodi Allison booked a party for her daughter Sam’s eighth birthday in March.

“My daughter had gone to a friend’s party where Nichola was doing the Crazy Chemical theme. She loved it so much that she wanted us to do something similar,” said the Briton.

“It was a lot of fun as we invited all the girls in my daughter’s class. The great thing is that the themes are so different that the children don’t get bored.”

Donna Limin heard about Rock It Science from a friend and booked a theme party for her son’s sixth birthday.

The South African praised the educational value of the party, with the goody bags containing various science experiments proving particularly popular.

“We had a lot of great feedback from other parents who told us that their children were playing with the experiments for days afterwards.”

The prize includes Dh50,000 from Emirates NBD and Dh50,000 worth of advertising on ExpatWoman.com for a year.

nhanif@thenational.ae