Activities abound Feb. 17-23 for Engineers Week

Participating in Engineers Week doesn't require much planning, either for engineers individually or within an ASME unit.

If you would like to get involved but are running short on time or ideas, here are some suggestions on what you or your fellow section members can do during the Engineers Week celebration or anytime afterward.

In order to access links directly relating to these tasks,visit www. eweek.org.

• Host a program at a local Boys & Girls Club.

• Volunteer to serve as a judge for a school science or technology fair.

• Contact a local speakers bureau — your local Chamber of Commerce may list one — and offer to speak about engineering before local civic and business groups.

• Enter news of your local section activities on the www.eweek.org database and enter your name as a local contact. Do the same with your local newspaper by writing a letter to your local newspaper editor letting the person know about the importance of engineering to your community.

• Contact a teacher or principal at a local elementary, middle or high school about speaking to students about engineering and/ or providing hands-on experiments that are relevant to engineering and careers.

• Help local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts with their engineering badges.

• Present a demonstration for high school science and math clubs.

• Create special exhibits in public spaces at your office.

• Develop and maintain a directory of engineering societies or company engineers willing to visit schools, and let schools know this list is available.

• Organize a walking tour or a bus tour of interesting engineering achievements in the
community.

• Sponsor a workshop to help teachers understand what engineers do.

• Contact a high school guidance counselor. Offer to talk with students and provide Engineering & You brochures or an Engineers Week video for the guidance office.

• Volunteer to help a local middle school participating in the National Engineers Week Future City Competition. Or, you can help sponsor a prize or judge a local contest, which may win you a trip to Washington, D.C. Visit www.futurecity.org to find out more information.

• Visit www.discoverengineering.org and promote this site to middle school students.

• Contact a middle or high school and offer to have a student shadow you on the job.

• Suggest an interesting engineering sight or landmark in your community to National Engineers Week headquarters. Suggestions must be accessible to the public.

• Contact the Junior Engineering Technical Society (www.jets.org) to request guidance brochures for various engineering disciplines and explore high school programs.

• Contact your employer's internal communications staff and let them know when Engineers Week will occur. Present ideas for ways to celebrate the company's achievements.

• Order Engineers Week materials that can help with your programs.

• Visit www.greatachievements. org for useful information about great engineering achievements of the past 100 years.

• Organize an extracurricular program for young students, such as a tour or competition. Build spaghetti bridges or race boats, or design and build Rube Goldberg-like machines.

• Get involved with a volunteer organization such as Habitat for Humanity and represent your section with a volunteering spirit.

• Take information from the Engineers Week Internet site on the engineering of chocolate, potato chips and other little-known engineering connections and pass it along to your company newsletter, local newspaper or local school.

• Write and test a hands-on engineering activity to interest students (see samples in the volunteer kit or at this site) and send your ideas to Engineers Week headquarters.

Related story: 'Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day' aims to reach one million youngsters

 
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