Build your problem-solving skills at Homeschool Days: Careers in Engineering on Thursday, February 24 from 10am-2pm. All kinds of engineers are problem solvers, whether they work with buildings, computers or even human bodies. Explore diverse engineering fields as you mix up new materials, draft blueprints and build a robo-bug prototype. Plus, special Learning Labs with biomedical engineers from UT Austin who study the way our blood works!

NOTE: The activities and Learning Labs originally listed for this month have changed, as we received an exciting opportunity to collaborate with UT Austin. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns: info@sciencemill.org.

Hands-on Activities

Polymer Play
Become a materials engineer—aka makers and testers of innovative new materials—by mixing up a custom recipe for a not-so-silly putty with unique properties.

Living Mural: Blueprint Basics
Planning is key to every kind of engineering and blueprints help those plans take shape. Learn how to draft a blueprint for a bug-inspired biomimicry drone of your own design.

Robo-Bug Rapid Protoype
Take your ideas from paper to prototype by following the Engineering Design Process! Start with a blueprint, then head to Station 1 to build a rough mock-up for a bug-inspired drone. At Station 2, select a special skill for your robo-bug—strength, flight or speed—and improve your design to help it excel in that area. Finally, on to Station 3, where you’ll find robotic components to help bring your robo-bug ideas to life.

Wild Engineering
Explore engineering marvels in nature through the concept of biomimicry. Test out gecko-inspired nanomaterials, discover the surprising origins of Velcro, and get a microscopic look at how they work!

Career Corner
Learn more about the diverse careers highlighted at this Homeschool Day, including mechanical and structural engineers, product engineers, robotics engineers and biomedical engineers, with resources from Teach Engineering and the Career Girls–just follow the QR code on your event schedule. 

 Learning Labs

Additional Learning Labs added! Due to the popularity of this month’s program, we’ve added new Labs for 3rd-5th graders and 6th-12th graders. Registration for these Labs is open now. Please note that registration for the UT Austin Labs is available for STEM Scholars only. 

Kinder-2nd Grade
Zip, Zip, Hooray – 10:30-11:15am
Help our Lego friends make their way down three zipline slopes. Design, test and improve a zipline car that is speedy and safe—three cheers for the engineering design process!

3rd-5th Grade
Shaky Structures – 11:30am-12:30pm
What’s the engineering secret to standing strong in an earthquake? Experiment with different structural designs as you construct a building from marshmallows and toothpicks. Then put it to the quake test with the Jell-O-tron 3000!

6th-12th Grade
Rapid Prototyping – 1-2pm
What would make it easier to…? Take a real-world problem from brainstorm to sample product in this fast-paced, hands-on prototyping session. Think like an engineer and an entrepreneur to address consumers’ needs through your problem-solving design.

3rd-5th Grade 
Science in Our Veins – 10:30-11:30am [NEW TIME]
Limited spots still available for STEM Scholars; general registration closed
Special Lab with UT Austin! Our bodies are made of some very cool materials: take fibrin, the thread-like structures that help blood form strong-but-flexible scabs. Join biomedical engineers from UT Austin to examine blood's biophysical properties, then build a device to measure the strength of blood clots.

6th-12th Grade
Science in Our Veins – 1-2pm
Limited spots still available for STEM Scholars; general registration closed
Special Lab with UT Austin! See description above; this Lab session will include additional grade level-appropriate challenges. 

Schedule Update for 2022
Starting in 2022, Homeschool Days will be held once a month. Each monthly program will run from 10am-2pm, with Learning Labs typically held at 10:30-11:15am (Kinder-2nd grade), 11:30am-12:30pm (3rd-5th grade) and 1-2pm (6th-12th grade). Here is the updated winter/spring schedule:

Thursday, January 27 – Careers in Energy
Thursday, February 24 – Careers in Engineering
Wednesday, March 23 – Careers in Space Science
Wednesday, April 13 – Careers in Earth Science
Wednesday, May 11 – Careers in Art & STEM 

We look forward to exploring STEM careers with you in the months ahead!