The social media station, one of Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival’s prime crowd-pullers is back for the 12^th edition with 10 interesting workshops, which the festival organisers, Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) has designed to empower the UAE’s children and youth, and even their parents, with in-demand digital skills and fuel their imagination and creativity.

Taking place at the Sharjah Expo Centre from May 19 – 29, under the theme ‘For Your Imagination’, these social media-focused creative workshops are part of a whopping 537 activities that will be organised in both in-person and online formats, strictly in line with the UAE’s health and safety protocols.

From demystifying the vast world of Internet of Things (IoT), to an introduction to mobile app and SIRI-like voice software development,game coding, and more, these workshops will be led by industry experts and cater to the needs and interests of novices and advanced-level learners alike.

3D Modelling Social Media Theme

This workshop is designed to introduce participants to the world of 3D modelling, and will guide them to build their favourite characters and places, create logos, memes, and more, on an easy software.

Adventures in Coding with Gaming

The workshop will introduce popular open-source visual programming tools such as Tynker™ and Scratch from MIT Media Labs to teach students programming concepts. This workshop has a special focus on younger participants too, and seeks to help kids build a foundation in computational thinking, problem-solving, and other in-demand skills required to excel in jobs of the future.

PYTHON

This workshop is suited for Basic, Intermediate as well as Advance-level PYTHON programmers. From introducing fundamentals like data structures,types and logic to more complex things like building apps and games, this workshop intends to cover a broad spectrum of PYTHON applications.

Mobile App Development

A practical insight into how mobile applications are developed, this engaging workshop will guide attendees through all the stages – from conceptualisation to execution. The participants will be eased into learning the basics of app development on the visual programming interface.

Interactive Voice Software like ‘Siri’

Ever imagined creating you own version of ‘Siri’ or ‘Alexa’? Well you can try it out at this SCRF 2021 workshop, which introduces a voice-based interactive system – the same platform on which Siri is built. The voice recognition software participants build will be tested with questions on social media, science, math and other general topics.

Line Follower Robot

Build a smart robot from scratch, creating your own paper track and programme which your robot will follow, without deviation.

IoT

Participants will be given a soft introduction to the seemingly labyrinthine world of Internet of Things (IoT)with a focus on its importance in the world of design. A short talk will be followed by a hands-on session to come up with designing and prototyping ideas.

Kid Entrepreneurship

In this two-part masterclass, children can dive in with their parents to learn how to use social media to the advantage of the users’ natural talents, safely navigating the world of social media while harnessing the skills every successful child entrepreneur needs.

Caricature Sketch

This fun-filled workshop will elicit not just your talent but a few chuckles, as attendees test their caricature drawing skills, which will include simple portraits of people sketched with a funny twist.

Sculpture Art

Sculpting clay is a brilliant way to ignite creativity. From picking the right kind of clay to improving technique, this beginners-level workshop will help get participants, especially children, started with the basic skills they need for sculpting with clay.