A week-long festival will show children the 'wow' and the wonder of engineering and the sciences, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Treasure hunts, magic shows and robot building are all on offer during the inaugural Engineered! A Week of Wonder programme which runs from February 19-23.
Geared for students in the eight to 14-year-old bracket, the five-day event takes place at a number of centres across the State. Aside from the fun involved, one student will win a family trip to Disneyland Paris and there are also iPods to be won.
"It is all about making people aware of engineering and helping them to understand engineering is all around them," says Margie McCarthy who manages Engineers Ireland's STEPS to Engineering programme for schools. "Engineering is not just muddy boots."
Engineers Ireland (EI) represents 21,000 engineers here and the body is also very active in promoting student interest in engineering and science generally. Its STEPS programme has been running for six years and includes dozens of events and activities that engage thousands of students a year. EI already had a significant involvement in National Science Week activities organised each November by the Governmentsponsored Discover Science and Engineering programme and it decided to develop a second national event, says McCarthy.
"It is really to complement Science Week, but also making it different," she says. "This is our pilot programme. We wanted it to take place during the mid-term break because we wanted to encourage the involvement of parents."
There are two mainstream events backed by EI including a treasure hunt and the "Wow" magic show. Hunts have been organised for Cork, Galway, Athlone and Dublin and the magic shows will also take place in these locations.
The hunts, which take about two hours to complete, are based on regional features so each is unique, says McCarthy. In Cork, for example, the Naval Service is involved and part of the activity takes participants to the city's English Market.
All are designed to help people recognise the contribution made by engineers, "so people will know engineering is very strong in Ireland", she explains.
The programme allows up to 360 children to participate on any given day, with teams involving at least one adult and a maximum of three children. Families are encouraged to take part and all events are free of charge. This is also the case with the Wow magic shows. These have a strong interactive content and students will be asked to come up and participate, says McCarthy. There will be places for up to 3,000 pupils per day at the four locations where the show is being presented.
While there is no cost to participants, it is necessary to register for events. This can be done over the internet at www.weekofwonder.ie. The website also gives information about events taking place at other centres, including access to flight simulators and robot building.