Lakehead U Challenges Grade 7 & 8 Students to Think Like Engineers

(Thunder Bay, March 2, 2005) The minds of Grade 7 and 8 students will be challenged at Lakehead University during National Engineering Week (February 27 to March 5). In order to get students thinking like engineers, they will be designing and building spaghetti bridges, paper airplanes, electromagnetic fishing poles, even an egg dropper that will allow the egg to fall from a two-storey high elevation without breaking

National Engineering Week is a Canada-wide, annual celebration designed to increase awareness of the importance of engineering and technology in our daily lives, and to encourage young people to consider engineering as their career of choice. These four competitions are designed and run by the Student Chapters of the Institutes of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEE), the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE), the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE), and the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME). The Engineering Student Society (ESS) is coordinating the events at Lakehead.

The competitions take place in the Agora and the hallway on the main floor of the Centennial Building. The schedule is:

Thursday, March 3, 2005
9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Spaghetti Bridge and Egg Drop Competitions

12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Electromagnet and Paper Airplane Competitions

Members of the media are welcome to drop by and speak with the participants and event organizer Dr. Meilan Liu. The best time to attend is the morning session between 10 to 11 for the most action. Please call Marla at 343-8177 if you plan to attend closer to the end of the session.

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Contact: Marla Tomlinson, Lakehead U, 807-343-8177 or 472-9113