RIYADH: The children of the martyrs and wounded soldiers will be given preference for jobs in the organization, KACST President Prince Turki bin Saud Bin Mohammad Al-Saud said Riyadh on Tuesday.

On an initiative from the Ministry of Education, a two-day field trip to the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology here was organized for these students for a first-hand knowledge of the development of science and technology in the Kingdom.

The KACST president told the visiting students that the country is thankful to their fathers who have sacrificed their lives while defending their motherland and some others who have got injured. He stressed that their bravery is well appreciated by the people of the Kingdom, who will always respect and remember them as heroes who defended their nation.

The prince said KACST will lend full support to make these orphaned children scientists and technologists.

While speaking on the importance of science and techology, Al-Saud told the students that they should take a keen interest in these subjects, which would not only help them personally but also benefit the country.

He explained about a KACST proposal to select 20 students from 20 schools for a project in science and technology, where the selectees will be given an intensive course to be part of the scientific and technological development in the country. “They will be allowed to use the facilities of the KACST to enrich their knowledge,” he added.

The students visited the important departments such as the National Center for Petrochemicals Technology, National Center for Biotechnology, National Center for Remote Sensing and the Planetarium located on the KACST campus.

The students were able to watch stars, follow movements of the sun and moon while moving around the earth, observe longitudes, latitudes and the meridian placebo connecting the South Pole and the North Pole through the planetarium provided by the National Center in the Space and Aviation Research Institute at KACST.

The visitors listened to detailed explanations on the lunar phases or the phases of the moon while orbiting the sun beginning from the new moon at the beginning of the month, then the crescent followed by the first quarter moon until it becomes a full moon or completely illuminated desk at the middle of the month.

The children were thrilled by the technique of determining the geographical directions through knowing some well-known constellations.