ELM Science Fair 2026
Monumental Turnout
Around 1000 visitors and volunteers attended the East London Mosque Youth Hub’s second annual Science Fair, where children and families took part in hands-on experiments, explored robotics and artificial intelligence, tried medical activities including CPR and keyhole surgery, encountered live nature displays and experienced a 360-degree planetarium.
Held on Saturday 29 August across three floors of the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre, the ELM Science Fair 2026 transformed the building into five themed science zones, supported by more than 100 volunteers, including university students, medics, engineers and early-career professionals.
The fair is one of the flagship public programmes of the ELM Youth Hub, which was launched earlier this year to provide dedicated faith-based youth provision. At its heart is a desire to nurture curiosity, widen horizons and show young people that pursuing knowledge and ambition can go hand in hand with their faith.
Mohammed Aminoor Rahman, Youth Engagement Lead at the ELM Youth Hub, said:
“The Science Fair is the clearest expression of that idea we have produced so far. It brought more than one thousand people into the mosque in a single day, with young Muslim volunteers at the forefront”
He added:
“For many of the children who came, it was the first time they had seen someone from their own community working in medicine, engineering or science”
Rawaha Husam al-Deen, Medical Doctor & Science Fair Team Lead, said:
“Alhamdulillah - on the 29th of August, We successfully held the second ELM Science Fair.
As visitors walked through our doors and spread out across the three floors, our volunteers were often asked the same question: what was the drive behind this initiative?
The honest answer is complex, one that really deserves a long conversation over coffee.
But in short: we wanted to explore what happens when young people are given a space to experience, hypothesise, test, and make mistakes.
In a world where kids are increasingly pulled toward short-form content and social media, we wanted to offer something different - a space that draws them away from the scroll and back toward genuine curiosity. A place where creativity isn't just encouraged, but sparked, and where learning happens through doing, not just watching”
Families give Science Fair strong feedback
Public feedback collected following the event showed a very positive response from families and attendees. The Science Fair received an overall rating of 4.54 out of 5, with 96% of respondents saying they would attend again or recommend the event to others. Stalls and exhibits were rated 4.67 out of 5.
The feedback also showed that the event was introducing science activities to many families for the first time. Three-quarters of respondents said they had never previously attended a science fair, while only 15% said their child currently experienced a significant amount of faith-inspired STEM learning.
The event also reached many families who had not previously engaged with the Youth Hub, with 96% of respondents saying their child was not already a member. Visitors travelled from across east London and Essex, other parts of London and from further afield.
Engagement on the day was also strong, with 60% of surveyed visitors staying for two hours or more and 40% remaining for between three and four hours.
A Massive Thank You
We want to thank our volunteers and the university students who have dedicated their time and effort, most notably the following teams:
University College London Islamic Society
Imperial College Islamic Society
Imperial College Stem Muslims society
Institute of Imagination
Queen Mary’s Centre of the Cell
Project Shifa (University College London)
Imperial College Muslim Medics
A huge thank you to all external and internal teams in making this Science Fair a memorable experience to all those involved.
If you have any feedback, please email us - info@elmyouthhub.co.uk