GET INVOLVED!

ESTEME week is April 11–16, 2005. You can participate by attending or helping to produce a public event, or by supporting a hands-on science experience in your home, school, and community.

Here are some examples of events others have staged:

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Encourage scientists and engineers to visit schools to give demonstrations or talk about life in the lab. Ask undergraduate and graduate students to help with field trips.
Showcase your facilities by inviting local classes to tour your labs, meet your scientists and engineers, and attend your lectures.
Host a Science and Engineering Day on campus.
Stage competitions for local students to invent solutions to problems in the natural world. Ask your students and faculty to administer and judge the competition.

SCHOOLS
Invite a local scientist or engineer—a parent, university professor, or professional—to demonstrate science and engineering activities or talk about life as a scientist or engineer. Ask them about what they do and how they do it.
Teachers, pose as a host of your own talk show on the wonders of science. Have each student appear on your show as a famous scientist (examples include Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton and George Washington Carver) or engineer (examples include Leonardo Da Vinci, Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison and Burt Rutan).
Challenge students to express their views of science in original works of art. Create a drawing or a game. Make T-shirt designs or a poster.

If you're looking for a scientist or engineer to visit your school, there are several organizations that can help:
The Optical Society of America has a database of professionals ready to share their experiences with your students. And NEC's "Give a Day, Make a Difference" program schedules visits for scientists to local schools.

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
Encourage employees to participate in ESTEME Week by serving as science or engineering ambassadors in their own communities and schools.
Invite students, their parents, and youth organizations to visit your company to learn about your involvement with science, engineering, and technology.
Organize internships or summer volunteer programs to give students hands-on experience in science, engineering, and technology.
Pursue partnerships with other science, engineering, or educational community organizations.
Underwrite a science field trip.

LIBRARIES
Invite a volunteer to read to young children. Help them discover the science, engineering, and technology in stories, adventures, mysteries, and history.
Display children’s inventions, artworks, and photographs about their interest in science, engineering, and technology. Create a display of science and engineering books, posters, and periodicals including biographies, journals, and stories.
Organize a media fair to gather books, films, videos, and audiotapes about science and engineering to acquaint the public with available materials to plan for ESTEME Week.

MUSEUMS, PARKS, ZOOS, PLANETARIUMS, AND AQUARIUMS
Museums, parks, zoos, and other informal education centers are encouraged to host educational science and engineering activities on the weekend before and the weekend after ESTEME week.
Host a hands-on science and engineering event and invite children and parents.
Organize a scavenger hunt for children, parents, and teachers. Give them clues leading to the collection of objects and information from libraries, labs, and your own facilities.
Invite students, teachers, and clubs to spend a night exploring science and engineering through hands-on learning in your institution.
Present a special show-and-tell program to teach from the ground up what ingredients go into an existing exhibit.

PROFESSIONALS
Volunteer your time and expertise to a local science teacher.
Visit a classroom and share your experiences as a science, mathematics, engineering, or technology professional.
Organize one or a series of field trips around a theme that represents your organization’s interests and membership.

COMMUNITY GROUPS, CLUBS, AND PUBLIC AGENCIES
Form coalitions with schools and businesses to organize and sponsor a community-wide event or contest for ESTEME Week.
Host a Science, Engineering, and Technology Expo and Career Fair, bringing students and industry personnel together to highlight opportunities in mathematics, science, and engineering fields.
Work with churches and after-care centers to establish tutorial and mentor programs and information resource centers to support learning in science and technology throughout the year.
Involve parents in ESTEME Week by organizing evening and weekend workshops and events that allow parents and their children to enjoy science, engineering, and mathematics together.