Activities

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

Choose Your Own Nature Tour

This virtual nature tour of the UT campus and around Austin utilizes the format of a choose-your-own-adventure game. Players can choose where to go, what to see, and with which systems they want to interact. Along the way, adventurers can discover the variety of ecosystems that exist and the organisms that inhabit them.

College of Natural Sciences Science
Anytime

Thirst for Power: A Virtual Field Trip

Water and energy are the two fundamental components of a society, and they are interconnected. View the film, Thirst for Power, shot on location across France, California, and Texas, to explore our dependence on water for energy as well as vulnerabilities in our current systems.

This on demand film screening with a digital study guide, Q&A session, and virtual field trip are vailable March 6 through May 31.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Protecting the Texas Coast from Plastic Pollution

Learn about nurdles, tiny plastic pellets that frequently turn up along the Texas coast and endanger wildlife, from whales to sea turtles. Jace Tunnell, Director of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, will also tell you how you can help by doing a nurdle survey and reporting your findings.

College of Natural Sciences Science
Anytime

Urban Safari

This video tour, an Urban Safari of the UT Austin campus, explores the natural world of our urban spaces and includes common – and not so common – organisms that can be found on campus.  It highlights challenges facing urban nature and spotlights areas where there has been success in encouraging plants, animals and microbes to flourish.

College of Natural Sciences Science
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

¿Qué se está cocinando?

Toma el cuestionario "¿Qué trabajo de nutrición se adapta mejor a tu personalidad?" y descubre profesiones nutricionales que te interesan. Después, ve el video que corresponde con el resultado del cuestionario para ver entrevistas con futuras Nutricionist.

College of Natural Sciences Science
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

What’s Cooking?

Take the "Which Nutrition Job Best Fits Your Personality?" quiz and then discover more about nutrition professions by navigating through fun interviews with future Registered Dietitian Nutritionists.

College of Natural Sciences Science
Anytime

Discover how Plants Talk, Move and Feel

Join Greg Clark from the Freshman Research Initiative Cell Signaling team to discover how plants have unexpected abilities to sense and respond to stimuli and "talk with" each other and with animals. Learn how plants sense and respond to changes in their environment and how plants are able to communicate using a chemical language.

College of Natural Sciences Science
Anytime

This is Public Health

Public health professionals are leading the response to the COVID-19 pandemic nationwide. This video presentation will use the pandemic to answer the question “What is Public Health?” and provide high school teachers with resources to help them explore this dynamic and impactful field with their students. Participants will also learn about the UT Austin Undergraduate Public Health Program and meet some of UT Austin’s public health graduates!

College of Natural Sciences Science
Anytime

The Waller Creek Monster

Discover the Creek Monster Habitat. This 16-foot-wide by 10-foot-tall nest structure serves as a metaphor for habitat, sheltering the creek's benevolent spirit guardian, "The Creek Monster." This project highlights UT researchers and their work with the local environment and creates a space for the community to connect with Waller Creek on campus while focusing on multiple aspects of sustainability.

College of Natural Sciences Longhorn Life
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, 11 to 11:30 a.m.

Computational Modeling of the Heart and its Valves

Join Professor Michael Sacks and members of his research team to learn how heart valves work.  A world authority on cardiovascular biomechanics, Dr. Sacks will demonstrate how engineers study heart valves to design improved repair methods and replacements, as well as the advanced tools that are a part of their research.

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

Look (Safely) at the Sun

Feast your eyes on the sun as you’ve never seen it before: live, through specially filtered telescopes and cameras. Learn about sunspots, prominences, solar flares, and more. As a bonus, learn how, when, and where to safely view the upcoming total solar eclipse, a once in a life time event, on April 8, 2024. The host and moderators will answer your questions live.

College of Natural Sciences Science
March 5, 2021, noon to 12:45 p.m.

Women in Engineering Program: FabFems Friday Webinar

Join the Women in Engineering Program FabFems Friday Webinar. We welcome recent STEM alums and role models to share their professional experiences and educational journeys with participants. Hear their career stories, ask questions, and get inspired. The webinar is part of a FabFems Friday webinar series featuring fabulous women in STEM role models throughout March for Women's HIstory Month.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 5, 2021, 2 to 2:45 p.m.

A Day in the life of an ECE Student

Come hear from a student panel about what it's like to be an Electrical and Computer Engineering student at UT Austin!

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 5, 2021, 2 to 2:30 p.m.

A Day in the Life of a College of Natural Sciences Student

Watch a short presentation on what a typical day looks like for a student in the College of Natural Sciences, then chat with current students in a live Q&A. Depending on the volume of audience questions, this program may run longer than 30 minutes.

College of Natural Sciences Longhorn Life
March 5, 2021, 2 to 3 p.m.

Explosive Chemistry with Kate the Chemist

Join Kate the Chemist, author of “The Big Book of Experiments” for this explosive event. Dr. Kate Biberdorf will show off chemistry experiments such as the Thunder Cloud and viewers can participate along with her from school or home during the Dry Ice Bubbles and Bubble Snake experiments.  There will be a live Q&A and you won't want to miss the Kate the Chemist Texas Educators Prize Give-away including a visit and performance for one lucky school. Enter and learn more details here.

College of Natural Sciences Science
March 5, 2021, 3 to 4 p.m.

Biomedical Engineering Prospective Student Session

Learn all about the Biomedical Engineering (BME) program – its curriculum, career, research and student organization opportunities, as well as the study abroad options available to BME students.

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.

Aerospace & Computational Engineering Prospective Student Session for 9th, 10th and 11th Graders

Discover the opportunities available to students majoring in aerospace engineering or computational engineering including numerous career paths in the fields. An academic advisor and current students will be available to help you discover more about our programs.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 10 to 11 a.m.

Engineering Student Services - Prospective Student Information Session for 11th Graders

Prospective engineering students in 11th grade and their parents are invited to learn about opportunities within the Cockrell School. This introductory session will introduce 11th graders to the school and its various departments, offices and programs.

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, 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, 11 a.m. to noon

Explore Aerospace

Join aerospace engineering graduate students as they walk through some of their research topics relating to orbital mechanics, small satellite engineering, robotics, and satellite remote sensing. Short video presentations will be shown from each area, followed by an interactive Q&A session.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 11 to 11:30 a.m.

Rocketry 101

Join researchers from the Texas Rocket Engineering Lab to see what goes into building a rocket. We'll share information on our current project which is a part of the Base 11 Space Challenge. Explore the various components of a rocket and learn about how students like you can launch a rocket into space.

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

Repurposing Plastic Film into Plastic Yarn

Learn how to reuse and repurpose one of the peskiest household items: Plastic Shopping Bags. We will be turning these shopping bags into rope, coasters, bowls, and more! If you have questions or want to chat, you can join the zoom meeting and speak to a student from Engineers for a Sustainable World!
Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
March 6, 2021, 1 to 1:30 p.m.

Rocketry 101

Join researchers from the Texas Rocket Engineering Lab to see what goes into building a rocket. We'll share information on our current project which is a part of the Base 11 Space Challenge. Explore the various components of a rocket and learn about how students like you can launch a rocket into space.

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
March 6, 2021, 10 to 11 p.m.

Live Deep Sky Tour

Take part in a special night time Explore UT program, starting at 10 p.m., to go where no human has gone before: thousands of light years from Earth. Join the McDonald Observatory for a live tour of galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and more through a research-grade telescope in West Texas. An astronomer will discuss the unique features and scientific observations of each target and moderators will answer your questions live.

College of Natural Sciences Science