National Engineers Week!
"Bound only by our imagination, we have endless opportunities to design and build tomorrow's
global infrastructure."
Les McCraw
To help increase understanding of the profession, engineering "goes public." Each February during
National Engineers Week, PCS Centers demonstrates its support of this nationwide event by hosting
an Engineering Sleepover. PCS has been doing this every year since 1991! Unfortunately
I do not have any documentation of the challenges prior to 1995, and lost the videotape of the 1997, and 1998
challenges. I never had access to the pictures of the NEW activities held at the other centers...hopefully the following will give some sort of idea about what can happen!
Every year, select individuals ( students with a purple badge or higher ) are invited to the sleepover.
This usually involves no sleep, lots of pizza and pop and experiments involving exactly how far can
one slide down the hall with WD40 treated socks...
...and of course plenty of building with LEGO® bricks! Talk about the ultimate education event!
The PCS staff issues an engineering challenge. One year it was to move 50 LEGO® bricks one at a time
from one end of a table to the other without touching them with hands. The following year students had to
move 2 large red bricks up 6 feet and across a 6 foot table, without touching. Another time it
was to move 2 goldfish from one fishbowl to another over a distance of 6 feet again without
touching them.
Last year, the scenario was that the LEGO® soccer team was trapped on the top of a mountain and
needed supplies before things got desperate! Students were asked to build three 6 foot free spanning
bridges capable of bearing 15 pounds of food and medicine ( cleverly disguised as the PCS rock! ).
To increase the difficulty, the final span had to gain 3 feet in altitude to reach the top of PCS Mountain.
SEE SHOTS OF NEW 1995 PCS CHALLENGE!
As part of National Engineers Week, PCS has invited Boise State University's Engineering students to
build with us. ( Much to my pleasure, while the college kids' projects have been aesthetically superior
and elegant, PCS students have to date outbuilt them...perhaps that will change this year! ) I encourage
everyone to participate in National Engineers Week!
1996 NEW BUILDING CONTEST
PCS CORTE MADERA'S 1996 NEW CHALLENGE!
The 1999 NEW at the Boise PCS Center!
"What a wondrous time to be an engineer."
Les McCraw
A note: I have sent the NEW headquarters documentation of what we have done every year we have held the challenge. In all this time, I have NEVER had them contact me or show any interest whatsoever in what we are doing. This is not to reflect badly on what they do...the NEW headquarters will send you an information packet if requested...but their primary goal is
to encourage local engineering clubs to get nvolved. If you want engineers to participate in your school's eweek activity, I suggest you contact your local college or engineering firms first.
For further information:
NEW Headquarters
1420 King Street
Alexandria Virginia 22314
703-684-2852
Go Back to Weird Richard
Copyright© 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 by Richard Wright for PCS Education Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved
