It was a day of balancing creativity, structure, and imagination at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival on Saturday for scores of budding designers who gathered with tapes, bamboo skewers, and boundless creativity to take on a fun challenge: solve real-world problems through design thinking.

The hands-on workshop, “Think and Design”, saw children tasked with a deceptively simple challenge: build the tallest, strongest tower possible using only bamboo skewers and craft materials. The exercise was designed not just to entertain, but to introduce basic principles of design thinking, engineering, and problem-solving.

“Using design thinking and rapid prototyping, we introduce children to the mindset of problem-solving and continuous development. Whether it’s building a simple tower or designing a real-world solution, the key lesson is: fail fast, fail forward, fail often. Every attempt brings you closer to improvement—and that’s the true framework for innovation,” said lead instructor Omar AlZuabi of Fun Robotics that has been organising various workshops throughout the 12-day annual festival being held at the Sharjah Expo Centre until May 4. “Seeing these children transform simple materials into innovative prototypes shows the power of creativity. Design thinking is not only about solving problems—it’s about discovering that every challenge has a solution waiting to be imagined.”

Young innovators did not disappoint. One aspiring designer explained how his invention could help with everyday tasks: “I made a tower that could even hold a ball on top!” said Taim Mohammad, nine, proudly showing his bamboo creation.

“We had to figure out how to make the base strong so it wouldn’t fall,” added Taim’s classmate Chafia Ahmad, another nine-year-old.

Meanwhile, Mohammad, 10, said: “It was hard at first, but we kept trying different ways until it worked. It felt like building a real skyscraper!”

The Think and Design workshop was just one of many opportunities at SCRF 2025 for children to explore real-world concepts through hands-on learning. Taking place from April 23 to May 4 at Expo Centre Sharjah, the 16th edition of the festival promises an immersive experience with more than 600 creative workshops and activities, all under the theme “Dive into Books.”