Engineering School’s ‘Girl Day’ is Biggest of Its Kind in Texas

EVENT: The Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin will host more than 5,000 girls from cities across the state for its annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and Girl Day STEM Festival, a daylong event filled with fun activities that spark creativity, inspire future careers and show how engineers can change the world.

Elementary and middle school students from across Texas will engage in more than 130 engineering activities, from driving robots to learning how to code. With the help of hundreds of volunteers from UT Austin, nonprofit organizations and community businesses, Girl Day has grown to become the largest of its kind in Texas and one of the largest in the U.S.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is presented by Halliburton, and the Girl Day STEM Festival is presented by Google.

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 27, noon-5 p.m.

WHERE: Cockrell School of Engineering Complex at UT Austin

WHO MAY ATTEND: Introduce a Girl to Engineering is open to kindergarten through eighth-grade students. Registration is now open at https://www.givepulse.com/event/14462-Girl-Day-at-UT-Austin-2016

GIRL DAY BY THE NUMBERS:

• 7,300+ — Kindergarten through eighth-grade students registered for Girl Day 2016
• 93 — Registered students in 2002, UT Austin’s first-ever Girl Day
• Over 1,000 community volunteers are expected this year from over 140 partnering companies, nonprofits, colleges, and UT Austin research groups and organizations
• 130+ — Activities throughout the day
• 9,000 — Gumdrops used by students for various experiments
• 20,450 — Toothpicks used by students for various experiments
• 2,800 — Lifesavers used by students for the puff mobile activity

NOTE TO EDITORS: Tricia Berry, director of the Women in Engineering Program in the

Cockrell School of Engineering, will have press availability. Berry can be reached at 512-963-3366 or triciaberry@utexas.edu.

For more information visit http://www.engr.utexas.edu/wep/girlday