I'm part of a committee that is in charge of planning what we can E-Week. Basically, its a series of events the college of Engineering and Technology holds to get high school seniors interested in coming to the university. Amongst the information events, we like to scatter some fun activities. In the past we've found things that work well were a quiz bowl and poker tournaments. Things that traditionally haven't worked out are a basketball tournament and a scavenger hunt. In addition to the quiz bowl and poker this year, we're considering having a hypnotist come and setup a mini-golf course.

What other activities would you suggest that we have at this event? They need appeal to a variety of interests and work moderately well if the group is small or large that is participating.

Thanks

As a (future) engineer myself, I say give them popsicle sticks and glue and get them to make bridges. Then give out prizes for the one that holds the most weight.

Give them Lots and Lots of Ducktape. and a 500 pack of toothpicks, see where it goes.

no. NO. NO. NO. NO!!!!

sorry. I am just so very very sick of building bridges!! We did it at school and that was kinda vaguely cool, then I went on this course aimed at getting more girls into engineering - it was supposed to give us an idea of what doing an engineering degree would be like. What did we do? Built bridges! As a result, I didn't take engineering.


It sounds like everybody likes the sitting down activities :p so just stick to anything that's not too active.

On the other hand, you could give them straws and paperclips and see who could build the tallest structure.

It's funny because it's true! Engineers like to think they're the smartest people in the world and enjoy opportunities to prove it to other people. Almost anything intellectual with an audience is a go. This includes poker.

Engineers *ARE* the smartest people in the world.

physicists > engineers :p

Haha that's my 3rd quarter physics project

Jenga?

Our E-week at Mizzou has some nice events that you may want to do. We have an egg catapult contest. People try to hit a frying pan 75 feet away. Winner gets $50. We have a road-scavenger hunt, but that takes closing some streets and city approval. We can do it because we've been doing it for many years. We change all the floodlights on our main academic hall (Jesse Hall) to green, in honor of St. Patrick. Finally, we have an Engineer's Ball that is a formal for the Engineers.

You need to have a spud gun building contest. We've had them here at RIT, organized and sponsored by the Engineering Proffessors, despite the fact that Campus Safety confiscates spud guns on sight.

did any ever tell you your name is the coolest name in the world, Aaron?

that is all.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

Get popsicle sticks and make miniature buildings. Then, place fire crackers inside and light them. The building that remains the most intact wins.

You're right, I never noticed that they were all sit down activites. We have tried to have a waterballoon launching contest in the past, but couldn't do it due to safety concerns. They barely let us do an egg drop, though launching them would be cool. Same thing with the spud gun, though I might try and push that one. The popsicle stick thing could definitely happen (all of these activities are optional). I don't think we've ever had any sort of formal ball before, though I'm scared to think how that may turn out.

And yes, Aaron, Aaron is the coolest name ever.

Give them all the same number New Potatos and Kebab Sticks, and see who can build the tallest structure that can hold a weight at the top.

hey, im in a club that is doing stuff for e-week too. we have a trebuchet contest, i think thats the *main* event that is going on. this is the official site for e-week link

We built....

Cranes out of paper
Solar Trucks for carrying loo roll
Floating cranes
Hydro-electric wheely things

in our engineering week...

also as a fun build, we made amphibious vehicles. Our rocked.

Oh, and trebuchets! And Ballistas! They're good fun too!

Oh, and maeve..

Engineers > Physists > Mathematicians :p

If I was an engineer, I would try to build a stakegun... ala Painkiller.

Agreed (except software engineers)

I didn't realize there was a national E-week, I think that's just something they came up with here, I don't think they're related.

We could probably get trebuchets past the safety people because they wouldn't know what they are. Hmm...