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National Engineers Week was founded in 1951 to increase public awareness and appreciation of the engineering profession. It is always celebrated at the time of George Washington's birthday in February. In addition to being the first president of the United States, George Washington was also a military engineer and a land surveyor.
Each year, the ASCE Met Section organizes a day of interactive activities for children in the New York City area during National Engineers Week. This event is always held on the President's Day holiday and allows kids to learn about civil engineering with interactive games and other fun activities. Volunteers from the Met Section help to run various game tables:
- In Gumdrop Dome, kids build a dome using 11 gumdrops and 25 toothpicks. Children guess how much weight their dome can support and then test the dome by placing styrofoam weights on top of it until it collapses.
- Topple-A-Tug is a game that teaches the principles of buoyancy. Children are given the opportunity to design their own boat made out of a single 12" square sheet of aluminum foil that must remain afloat as more and more pennies are loaded on as "cargo." The goal is to create a boat that can carry with most pennies without sinking.
- In the Paper Bridge competition, kids are asked to fold an ordinary 8 ½” by 11” sheet of paper and then lay it between the ends of two wooden blocks to form a bridge. Four paperclips can be used anywhere on the bridge. The strongest bridge is determined to be the one that can support the most pennies without collapsing.
- The object of Paper Tower is to design and build the tallest tower using ten index cards and 20 paper clips. Each tower must be a minimum of 10" high and be able to support a weight placed on top. Children are allowed to fold the index cards into any shape to increase their strength and may only use two paper clips per index card.
- Using West Point Bridge Designer software on a laptop computer, children find out how truss bridges work, learn about engineering through a hands-on problem-solving experience, and discover how engineers can use a computer as a problem-solving tool. The goal is to design the least expensive truss bridge that will pass a simulated load test. If their structure collapses into the river under the weight of a truck, kids return to the drawing board and try over again.
- In the Jenga game, children try to build the tallest possible tower of blocks before the tower falls over. In this activity, kids learn which area of blocks can be removed first before comprising the structural integrity of the tower.
For more information about volunteer opportunities or corporate sponsorships at the Met Section's annual National Engineers Week Kid's Day Event, please contact Douglas Castelli at
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