It is the Australian primary school science lab where a Nobel Prize-winning scientist runs workshops with nine-year-olds and 3D printers turn children's designs into holographics. 
Now the man behind it all, Australian teacher Richard Johnson, has less than a day left before he finds out if he has won the world's richest school education award, the $1 million Global Teachers Prize. 
One of a field of 10, Mr Johnson's face and those of his competitors have been plastered across the walls of Dubai's Atlantis Hotel, rock star posters of classroom teachers separate one-tonne chandeliers at the palatial venue, taken over by a profession that has been desperately trying to boost its status in Australia and abroad.  
In   February, Stephen Hawking announced the finalists. Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Salma Hayek will present the awards as 22 education ministers and three former heads of state take their seats in the audience on Monday. 
But organisers don't want you to pay any attention to them. It's about teachers like Mr Johnson, a spokesman for the Global Education and Skills Forum said.
"I'm overwhelmed by the whole experience," said Mr Johnson 
"There isn't a word to describe it, you can say extraordinary, humbling, whatever. The feeling you get when you walk in here and see your picture up, you become an overnight celebrity". 
The 60-year-old forged his way to the top of classroom science from a general primary teaching position more than two decades ago. Now crowd-funded robotics and augmented reality are fixtures of his primary school lab at Rostrata Primary School, south of Perth. 
"It's a classroom that doesn't stop evolving, it doesn't stand still, we source ideas from all over the world," he said. 
Mr Johnson's competitors are not short of innovation either. 
Among them is pop-star maths teacher Colin Hegarty, who has amassed more than 5 million views for his maths lessons on YouTube. Wherever Mr Hegarty walked through the marble halls of the Atlantis on Saturday, excited whispers followed. 
"Is that Colin?" asked 50-year-old teachers from Uganda and teenagers from the India. 
Less recognised but no less admired is Robin Chaurasiya. Forced out of the US Air Force after she revealed she was a lesbian, Ms Chaurasiya was a key part of the campaign that successfully over turned the "Don't ask don't tell policy" of the US Armed Forces. 
Then she turned her attention to one of India's notorious red-light districts. 
In the past five years, she has built a classroom for victims of human trafficking and daughters of sex workers between the brothels of Mumbai's slums. Her classes not only aid basic literacy, but have created a social justice curriculum that will allow them implement welfare programs in their own community. 
It's stories like Chaurasiya's and Hegarty's that show why we need posters of teachers, said Mr Johnson. 
"It has been needed for a long long time," he said. "Everybody on the planet remembers at least one of their teachers". 
"We've got the scientists, they are recognised; we've got the rock stars, they are recognised; teachers are the stars of the show, and totally forgotten," he said. 
The winner of the 2016 Global Teachers Prize is due to be announced on Monday morning, Sydney time. 
The reporter travelled to the Global Education and Skills Forum as a guest of the conference.