On March 19, as part of National Engineering Month the IEEE and PEO provided two engineering related activities at the London Children’s Museum. Murray MacDonald, IEEE TISP Champion for the London section provided the activities from the www.tryengineering.org website. The PEO provided the manpower for the day.

The first activity, “Ship the Chip”, involved designing, building, and testing packaging for a single potato chip. The testing went a little “over the top” with a drop from the second story of the museum. Most of the chips survived – only to be eaten by the budding “engineers”

The second activity, “Tall Tower Challenge” involved designing building, and testing a tower constructed using plastic straws and masking tape.

Although all of the participants were young, they started to appreciate the role engineers play in society and, with luck, a few may choose to pursue a career in technology and perhaps engineering.

If this or other educational outreach activities are of interest, please contact Murray at murraymacdonald@ieee.org.