AL AIN // Mansoor Juma carefully picks up the tiny Lego man and moves him forwards, ever so slightly, for the next sequence.
A schoolmate points a camera at the figure and shoots a frame - one of hundreds of pictures needed to create their one-minute-long movie.
They are just two out of hundreds of children who have gone back to the classroom during the summer holidays - and they are loving every minute. "It's better than school!" grins 14-year-old Mansoor.
While many of his friends are happy to stay at home and play computer games, he and his pals are making everything from films to circuit boards.
They are among 240 children, aged 11 to 17, taking part in Abu Dhabi Education Council's (Adec) Summer Challenge at Al Ain.
The five-week challenge, which finishes next week, has seen more than 600 pupils at three locations in the emirate put their creativity to the test. There is a course for each week, at the end of which participants have something they have made to take home.
For many of the children, it is the first time they have made something with their own hands or used hi-tech equipment not usually available in schools.
"It's simple, but it's hard work," says Mansoor of his filmmaking, which has taken 112 frames to produce 20 seconds.
"It has some humans and some robots. The humans are good and the robots are bad, and they fight against each other. The humans win."
Since 2004 the Summer Challenge has been run by a German company, GTZ, at two locations in the capital.
This year, for the first time, it has been extended to Al Ain and Madinat Zayed at the Vocational Education and Training Institutes operated by GTZ on behalf of Adec, which are normally used to run courses for Emirati school-leavers and mature students.
At Al Ain, where the challenge is run in association with another German organisation, the Froebel Academy, the 96 boys and 144 girls are taught separately in classes of 12 in the morning or evening.
Boys can try electronics - which involves making a wooden house with a solar-powered light - filmmaking, web design and carpentry. For girls, the subjects are carpentry, silk painting, jewellery making, candle design and photography. Classes are free and all but a handful of pupils are Emirati.
"We want to give them an idea of what you can do with your own hands," said Andreas Toepfer, the Summer Challenge manager at Al Ain.
"At school, they don't have the chance to do carpentry and at home they don't either. They play on computer games, but they don't use a saw. For them, it's a new challenge to use a saw or a soldering station."
Part of the reason behind Summer Challenge was to persuade the children to consider careers they might not otherwise have thought of, Mr Toepfer said.
"Our aim is maybe to prepare them for studies, like professional training, in institutions like this," he said, adding that he hoped the course prompted questions including "'what can we learn here? What could I do later with this knowledge if I'm working on my own career?'"
While enthusiasm was always strong early on, Mr Toepfer said the challenge for teachers was to sustain the pupils' interest in a subject over several days.
"In the end, they are really happy to have their own product," he said. These can include a CD containing a film, a multi-coloured candle or a calendar featuring photographs taken by the pupil.
Anne Tornow, who teaches candle making and colouring, said she was surprised by how similar UAE pupils were to those in her native Germany.
Children in her classes were making white candles before colouring them and adding decorations.
"They are pretty much the same because they're just teenage girls," said Ms Tornow. "Although here they really love the glitter and colourful stuff."
dbardsley@thenational.ae
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A rare disease is classified as one that affects a small percentage of the population. More than 7,000 diseases are identified as rare and most are genetic in origin. More than 75 per cent of rare genetic diseases affect children.
Collectively rare diseases affect 1 in 17 people, or more than 400 million people worldwide. Very few have any available treatment and most patients struggle with numerous health challenges and life-long ailments that can go undiagnosed for years due to lack of awareness or testing.
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His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Dos
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- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
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Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
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Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
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Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
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GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
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Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
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Pakistan v Sri Lanka:
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18 Oct, 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi
20 Oct, 4th ODI, Sharjah
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
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Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Baby boomers (those born before 1964): Owing to market uncertainty and the need to survive amid competition, many in this generation are looking for options to hoard more cash and increase their overall savings/investments towards risk-free assets.
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980): Gen X is currently in its prime working years. With their personal and family finances taking a hit, Generation X is looking at multiple options, including taking out short-term loan facilities with competitive interest rates instead of dipping into their savings account.
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