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

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

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

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

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

Programming Maze Game

Computational engineers often have to solve big problems as fast as possible, but some programs can take hours or even days to find a result. This means that engineers need to think carefully about the code they are writing.  Learn to code by guiding your character through the levels of this online programming game.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
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

FLAS Fellowships

Do you have a passion for world languages and want to get paid to study Europe and European cultures? The Center for European Studies can help you. Every year, the CES invites undergraduate (and graduate) students from all majors and disciplines across the 40 Acres to apply for Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships. FLAS fellowships allow you to study European topics and over 18 foreign languages while providing $10,000 toward UT Austin tuition AND a cash stipend. You can even use these funds toward an education abroad program and explore Europe. This brief video will show you how to apply for the FLAS fellowship, explain its benefits, and features information from recent UT Austin alumni on how the FLAS fellowship has helped them advance their professional careers.

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

Intro to European Studies

The Center for European Studies offers an interdisciplinary major and minor in the study of Western and Central Europe. This video will offer a brief overview of the EUS major and minor, highlight our variety of course offerings across UT departments and colleges, as well as the education abroad opportunities the EUS major offers. 

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

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

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

Edison Lecture Series: Failing Well

Discover how failing at something can also lead to incredible success.  Middle and high school students can see the fun side of electrical and computer engineering through a series of four mini-lectures on this year's topic, "Failing Well." Next you can watch these concepts come to life through fun demos on our "Edison Lecturebank" available on Padlet (https://padlet.com/tc78/aa5lho2qkazid1s6).

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

German and More

Hallo! If you are curious about the German language or interested in learning German at UT, this is the place to be (at least during the pandemic).  We will tell you everything about our language program(s); we will introduce you to some of the benefits of speaking a foreign language, and we share samples of all the fun you can have when learning to see the world through the lens of another language.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
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

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

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

Unexpected Collections

The Unexpected Collections event showcases how special collections in The University of Texas connect the state of Texas to the world. The showcase uses digital maps and images about the Spanish American War in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection of UT and information about the Texas Volunteers to demonstrate how historical materials come to life in our classrooms. Using freely available images and tools, the audience will see where real life volunteers came from and catch a glimpse of how they may have experienced the Spanish American War of 1898, all through an interactive digital map. Not only will the audience see the map, but they will also experience how this activity is normally done in our courses through a walk-through. Honoring the rich and unique history of Texas and UT, the event also demonstrates the diversity of ideas and languages that exist on our campus. Through this event, we hope to give our visitors an idea of the amazing possibilities for learning, experimenting, and creating that only UT makes possible.

College of Liberal Arts Arts, Design and Media
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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Scandinavian Series

Hej! Hei! Hallå! Can you believe you already know some Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish? It’s true! These three Scandinavian languages have a close proximity to English, making them easy languages to learn for native English speakers - starting with instantly recognizable words such as kaffe (coffee), democrati (democracy) and natur (nature). Join us as we introduce you to all things Scandinavian, including funny language tidbits, captivating culture topics, as well as what it means to study Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish at the University of Texas at Austin.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
Anytime

Clovis: An Early Prehistoric Tool Technology

Experimental Archaeologist, Sergio J Ayala, discusses and demonstrates the role of experimental archaeology and how this advances the understanding of ancient stone tool industries and the prehistoric individual. Sergio also demonstrates the strategies in Clovis dart point technologies, starting with the earliest steps of large bifacial reduction.

College of Liberal Arts Science
Anytime

Autorickshaw Decorations in Jaffna

Follow autorickshaws around Jaffna, Sri Lanka, and learn about how their drivers elaborately decorate them to express themselves and Tamil culture and history. Asian Studies PhD candidate daniel dillon leads us through the pop culture and political references found on autorickshaws as an expressive cultural form.

College of Liberal Arts Business, Culture and Education
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

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
Anytime

Mapping Organ Systems

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

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
Anytime

Party Pipeline Adventure

Create a party pipeline that delivers a party snack (marble, marshmallow, ball, cheerio, anything, etc.) to the party people (or animals) who are at least 6 feet away. Use paper, toilet paper rolls, tubing, boxes or anything else to create your pipeline. The pipeline must not have more than a 10-inch change in elevation and must incorporate at least 3 changes in direction.

Cockrell School of Engineering Engineering
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

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

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

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
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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 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.

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 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

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 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 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, 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, 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 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, 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