Activities

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Explore UT is open to the general public with online programming that is accessible to all. Activities specifically designed for K-12 students include an indication of a suggested grade level, denoting the difficulty of the concept or activity presented. Some programs will require participants to join virtual platforms (Zoom, Brazen, etc.). Children who are participating in these programs must be monitored by an adult chaperone (parent, guardian or a teacher) in order to join the virtual platform. Some may require verification that a chaperone will be present in order to register for participation.
 
Anytime

Ahlan wa Sahlan: Arabic at UT

Dr. Olla Al-Shalchi, the Arabic Program Coordinator at UT Austin, teaches you about the Arabic language! In this short video, you’ll learn what the Arabic alphabet looks like, where Arabic is spoken, and a few common Arabic names and what they look like written in Arabic. You can try your hand at writing Arabic letters in your notebook!

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Clean Energy for a Cleaner Tomorrow

Sustainable energy storage and conversion technologies are needed to tackle the emerging challenges caused by using fossil fuels and by global climate change. Join Professor Arumugam Manthiram to discusses battery and fuel cell technologies from a chemical and materials science perspective. The presentation will include demonstrations of the construction and performance of a metal-air fuel cell and a lithium-ion battery.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Creating Kaleidoscopic Tinker Tray Truck Art

Discover how Pakistan’s colorful aesthetics are often expressed through decorations and the creative ways truck drivers in Pakistan decorate their trucks with colorful kaleidoscopic designs. Learn how drivers personalize their trucks with fantastic artwork and how to recreate these kaleidoscopic truck art designs using craft items you have at home in your tinker trays.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Light and Crystal: Floating Zone Single Crystal Growth of Materials

Material scientists have a lot of techniques in synthesizing novel materials, and floating zone single crystal growth is one of the most versatile and effective method of single crystal growth. In this demonstration, we will show you what is it like to grow single crystals in using the floating zone method.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Making a Tempest at Home

Join the Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach team as they bring the storm from Shakespeare’s The Tempest to life in your home. Get ready to move and make some thunderous noise!

College of Liberal Arts Arts, Design and Media
Anytime

A Virtual Tour of Greek and Roman Myths on the UT Campus

Follow Hermes (a.k.a. Dr. Todd Curtis) on a virtual tour of some of the most interesting Greek and Roman mythological figures found on UT’s campus. The presentation will consider the symbolism and myths behind the statues and building decorations that make UT a very classical place.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Civil Engineering 101

Join us to learn more about Civil Engineering, what we do in ASCE, and how to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks!

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

The Texas Archeological Research Lab (TARL)

Discover the world of archeology with this introduction to the Texas Archeological Research Lab (TARL).  Marybeth Tomka, Head of TARL Collections, shares an inside look at materials from caves and rock shelters that were protected by the hot and dry climate in the southwestern part of Texas and only preserved by the unique environmental conditions.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Mapping Organ Systems

Learn about the human body in this fun lesson on organ systems!

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Dramatic Reading from Pride and Prejudice

Discover the wicked wit of Jane Austen in this dramatic, and fun, reading of the opening chapter of her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice.   The reading will use the original text with UT freshmen, Raishma Kazi and Tucker Rinne, portraying Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet while English Professor Janine Barchas serves as narrator. This is the stuff of great literature, served straight up – albeit with funny hats.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

UT Austin South Asia Institute

Watch a short video highlighting the strengths of programs, events, and resources offered by the South Asia Institute (SAI) at UT Austin. With over 60 core and affiliated faculty members in more than 15 departments, UT Austin hosts the largest, longest standing interdisciplinary South Asia program in the southwestern United States. As a National Resource Center for South Asia with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, SAI brings the Austin community South Asia focused K-12 resources; cultural events in dance, music and film; academic seminars and conferences; and support for undergraduate and graduate students. SAI connects Austin to the complex cultures, histories, and languages of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Fun with Optics

Join the Biomedical Optics Graduate Organization (BOGO) to see fun and understandable experiments illustrating different properties of light. Examples of demonstrations will show how certain objects absorb light, how some materials glow when exposed to light, how light can be bent, and more!

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Discover the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab

Welcome to Dr. Jessica Church-Lang’s Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. Our lab researches cognitive development throughout late childhood and early adolescence. We are a dynamic group of researchers who are passionate about kids’ brains. In our lab, we use methods such as behavioral testing and fMRI to look at how the brain and behavior change over time and study how these changes relate to mental health and academic skills.

College of Liberal Arts Science
Anytime

Build a Lung Model

Building a model of the human lungs and diaphragm using balloons to understand how they work. Our lungs are vital to our body's respiratory system and our ability to acquire oxygen. The bottom balloon works like your diaphragm, which is a strong muscle that expands and contracts, causing the lungs to fill with air and then emptying it.

Cockrell School of Engineering Science
Anytime

Our Home

Welcome to the Department of French and Italian. In this program, students and faculty demonstrate the excitement and adventure that can come from studying French and Italian languages and cultures at The University of Texas at Austin. Undergraduate students share personal experiences from their language classes and traveling, in faculty-led study programs, to Europe, to explore Rome in Italy and Lyon in France. Faculty course presentations cover a wide-range of topics, from Dante’s underworld to French film, from Italian art history to French life-changing experiences. For many UT students, encountering new languages and cultures through UT's foreign language study programs has been a "mind-blowing" experience.  We hope this video showcases that experience and inspires you to learn more about these wonderful languages.

College of Liberal Arts Arts, Design and Media
Anytime

South Asian Popular and Pulp Fiction Collection

Did you know that the University of Texas at Austin Libraries has a nationally-unique collection of popular and pulp fiction in the regional languages of South Asia? Have you ever wondered what makes it into library collections, and how? Watch a short video to learn about the efforts of Darsana Manayathu Sasi (UT Austin Malayalam Lecturer), Mary Rader (UT Austin South Asia Librarian), and Laura Brueck (Associate Professor of Asian Studies, Northwestern University) to bring an academic focus onto Indian and Pakistani pulp fiction while building a unique library collection.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Design a Lava Lamp

Design Your Own Lava Lamp. Create a lava lamp using oil and water. To create the lava lamp, you will learn how a chemical reaction generates the lava lamp effect.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Read Russian like a Pro

Welcome! Let’s take some time to learn more about the rich culture and language of Russia. Russian language can be intimidating, but with this preview of our innovative Online Russian curriculum, you too can learn Cyrillic in 20 minutes and will be reading in Russian in no time!

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Design a Puffmobile

The Challenge: Create a racecar entirely powered by your breath. Setup a racetrack and race with your family and friends. The winner is the Puffmobile that gets across or reaches the finish line first. Huff and Puff and blow to get your racecar to move. Good luck and have fun!

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

South Asia Garden

Welcome to the South Asia Garden, a living classroom where students of all ages can learn about South Asian cultures, sustainable food production, healthy eating, and the global histories of vegetables, herbs, and fruits common to South Asian foodways. The garden, established with a UT Austin Green Fund grant, is a collaboration between University Housing and Dining’s UT Farm Stand and the South Asia Institute. The garden is located behind the Brackenridge residence hall near Waller Creek, on the ancestral lands of Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, Comanche and other First Peoples. In this short video, you will learn about the making of the garden and some of the herbs, vegetables, and fruits that grow there.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

The Heritage Spanish Language Program at UT

Did you grow up hearing or speaking Spanish at home? Did you hear Spanish from your parents, grandparents or other family members since you were very young? If you were exposed to Spanish at home while growing up, then you probably are a heritage learner. Most heritage learners have a great understanding of their cultural heritage, but there are a wide variety of heritage learners in terms of proficiency, language dominance and language use.  In this video, you will hear from some of our students and learn about our Spanish classes that have been designed specifically for students who grew up hearing or speaking Spanish at home.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

The Children's Research Center Presents: Science Bookmarks

Create hands-on, creative bookmarks with the CRC to show off your love of science!

College of Liberal Arts Science
Anytime

Salaam! Persian at UT

Dr. Babak Tabarraee, the Persian Program Coordinator at UT Austin, teaches you all about the Iranian New Year, known in Persian as Nowruz! You’ll learn about how Iranians celebrate their New Year, when the celebrations take place, and important words in Persian related to this topic, such as haftsin, chaharshanbeh-suri, and sizdah beh dar.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Designing Super Paper Planes

Learn the basic science of air travel and test your engineering skills by creating a super paper plane.  The guide will provide design tips that may help your plane fly farther.  Once you've tested it in flight, you may want to choose to change the design to make it better.  The sky is the limit. 

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

A Festive Welcome: The Colorful Art of Rangoli

Explore the creative world of Rangoli, a popular form of Indian folk art in which colorful patterns are created to welcome guests into homes on festive occasions and to bring good luck to the host family.  Learn how to recreate India’s geometric Rangoli designs using sequins, beads, mirror tiles, stick-on foam shapes and other craft items, and create a decorative, Rangoli welcome for your home.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

DNA Extraction Extravaganza

Ever wondered why you look similar to your parents, siblings, cousins, or grandparents? Ever wondered what makes you unique? Ever wondered what makes something living? The answer to all of those questions is deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. Learn what makes you unique by extracting DNA from fruits.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Montague vs. Capulet Insult Battle

Travel with the Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach team to Verona, where a battle between the Montagues and Capulets is brewing in the streets. Practice your Shakespearean insults as a member of the house of Capulet against our Outreach players.

College of Liberal Arts Arts, Design and Media
March 5, 2021, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Design and Create a Lightbulb Circuit on TinkerCad

Join members of Texas Engineering World Health (TEWH), a project-based solutions organization, to learn how to design and create a lightbulb circuit using the online 3D modeling program, Tinkercad. It is easy to use, and you can discover what it takes to create a fun Light Up Squishy Circuit.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 5, 2021, 10 to 11 a.m.

Exploring Nanophotonics

Join members of the Zheng Nanophotonics Research Group to discover how light can be used as a tool to control objects on a small scale for both fundamental sciences and daily-life applications. See how the team invents light-based tools to accelerate innovation in quantum technology and nanotechnology. 

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 5, 2021, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Tinfoil Boats with Longhorn Racing

Create a boat using only foil. Gently place your boat in the water and then add your weights (pennies, small rocks, etc.) one at a time until your boat sinks. Count how many pennies it took to sink your boat. Redesign your boat and try again to see if you can create a boat to hold even more weight.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 5, 2021, 3 to 4 p.m.

Medical Jeopardy

Join students from UT Austin's Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) in a medical "jeopardy" game to see how much you know about the human body and learn more about medicine.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Design a Gumdrop Dome or Marshmallow Tower

Design and create a dome or tower (or any shape) using only toothpicks and gumdrops or marshmallows! How tall can you make your tower? How strong of a structure can you make? If you shake the table like an earthquake, does it stay standing? If you put a book on top of it, will it withstand the weight? If you press on it from the side, does it hold up or does it topple over? Stop by to build with members of Chi Epsilon and talk about engineering! To older students, drop by to chat about UT, honors organizations, and anything else you want to know about civil engineering, etc.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 10 to 10:30 a.m.

Missing Person Search with the Human Centered Robotics Lab

See how legged and mobile robots team up to perform tasks in a real world apartment setting like searching for a missing person. Explore how these robots work and move around with unknown obstacles.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 10 a.m. to noon

Design your own Google Logo!

Use your creativity and imagination to bring the Google logo to life using code. Make the letters dance, tell a story, or create a game. You can learn the basics of coding with this activity and learn all about how the professionals do it! If you finish this activity, head over to the Hour of Code website and choose whichever coding activity you’d like! With Scratch and CS First, anyone can become a designer and programmer for the day!
Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 10 a.m. to noon

Virtually Operate a Robot

Join graduate students in the Radionavigation Lab in teleoperating a real robot around an obstacle course on the roof of the UT Speedway Garage. Learn more about how robots are controlled and how robotics are used in engineering applications. All skill levels encouraged to participate.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, noon to 2 p.m.

Draw a Robot Design Challenge

Join us to see Dance Bot, hands down UT's cutest robot, show off a few moves. You'll learn how Dance Bot and other robots work and discover how Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) can be used. Then, take the Robot Design challenge to draw a robot that will accomplish a specified task. 

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, noon to 4 p.m.

Girl Day at UT Austin: Interactive Booths, Live Broadcasts, Interactions with STEM Role Models

Explore 50 booths with hands-on STEM activities, demonstrations, videos, and role models available for one-on-one video chats with participating families. Students with an adult can choose which activities they'd like to explore and come and go during the "live" virtual booth experience from noon to 4 p.m. CT. Girl Day at UT Austin, including Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and the Girl Day STEM Festival, is a free STEM event hosted virtually through Sunday, March 7, 2021.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, noon to 4 p.m.

Twinkie Coring

Learn how Petroleum Engineers find oil through our fun, simple, and edible activity: Twinkie Coring!

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 1 to 3 p.m.

Scratch That, Let’s Code

Join us to learn how to make an animation using Scratch. Scratch is a free programming language that uses command blocks and characters, known as sprites, to allow users to design games and animations. Start by learning the basics of Scratch, such as the different kinds of sprites you can use and how command blocks interact with each other.  Use your imagination and have fun.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 1 to 3 p.m.

Coding Challenges with IEEE

Activities for Beginners - Intermediate Coders! We are UT Austin’s official chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the largest ECE organization at UT! IEEE UT encapsulates all the extracurricular activities needed for an ECE student by providing social, professional, and technical outreach opportunities. It serves as the all-in-one org for ECE majors! Design Challenges: Clapping Heart, Electronic Pets, MakeCode Microbit Coding Challenges.
Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Soft Bioelectronics Lab Open House

Tour Dr. Nanshu Lu's lab to explore tattoo-sticker-like wearable devices she and her students are developing using stretchable electronics. See wearable e-tattoos measuring cardiovascular health as well as brain and muscle activities.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering