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

Mask Making for Teens

Make your very own 3D cardstock mask. Choose from an alien, cat, skull, or dragon. Print out the mask of your choice on heavy cardstock, cut it out, assemble, and decorate it! These 3D masks take some time and patience to create but are worth the effort! Each mask takes approximately 30 minutes or more to complete.

College of Fine Arts Arts, Design and Media
Anytime

Explore UT’s Public Art Collection

Enjoy the Landmarks collection using your smartphone, computer or tablet to access self-guided tours, audio guides, artist videos, Spotify playlists, and more. Open the app and share your experience.  During your visit, take a picture and tag Landmarks on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter (all @landmarksut) with the hashtag, #LandmarksUT .

College of Fine Arts Arts, Design and Media
Anytime

Learning by Doing with Landmarks, UT’s Public Art Program

Join us to learn how artist Nancy Rubins uses recycled materials to create large sculptures and discover how she collaborates with structural engineers to make sure the sculptures are very strong, even stronger than the buildings around them.  Learn how to make your own mini sculpture, including the structural engineering behind it, with activity guides for all ages.

College of Fine Arts Arts, Design and Media
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

Meet Our Underwater Neighbors

In this series of short videos, you’ll meet members of the main groups of invertebrates that live in the ocean—anemones, corals, snails, shrimp, crabs, sea stars and sea urchins. And just for fun, you’ll also meet some of the most popular vertebrates on the 40 Acres: residents of the UT Turtle Pond.

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
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

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

¿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

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

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

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

INSPIRATIONS Video

In this video presentation, Art Education Majors at the University of Texas at Austin share inspirations, influences and future aspirations (why I want to teach art, what kind of art teacher I would like to be). Dr. Donalyn Heise, Art Education Faculty in the College of Fine Arts, and her students created this video as part of the statewide arts advocacy initiative known as "Big Art Day" in Texas. These undergraduate and graduate art education majors are future leaders in the field of art education, and will be prepared to share their love of art with K12 students in schools, art museums or community settings. https://youtu.be/8eVNC7vMH6w. https://art.utexas.edu/art-education

College of Fine Arts Arts, Design and Media
March 5, 2021, 9 to 9:30 a.m.

Everybody Chill Live Performance

Join the UT Austin Physics Circus as they use do extremely "cool" science demos to show how temperature relates to the three states of matter. They might even show you how to turn a banana into a hammer.

College of Natural Sciences Science
March 5, 2021, 10 to 10:30 a.m.

Meet the Showbots!

When the pandemic made it impossible to teach a hands-on robot building course in person, UT professors “went small” and collaborated with a teacher to create a remote Robot Club at Metz-Sanchez Elementary in Austin. Twenty amazing robots were created. Learn more about five of them and meet the robot makers. Discover how robots work, and a few lucky teachers will even get the chance to control one of the robots live via the internet. 

College of Fine Arts Arts, Design and Media
March 5, 2021, 10 to 10:30 a.m.

Science Up Close

In this interactive game, participants will test their skills at identifying scientific objects and organisms from super-zoomed-in images.

College of Natural Sciences Science
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, 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, 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 6, 2021, noon to 12:30 p.m.

UT Austin Physics Circus "The States of Matter" Live Show

Watch our live show on "The States of Matter" from 12 - 12:30 p.m. This show is part of the Girl Day at UT Austin experience. Learn more and register to join in.
College of Natural Sciences Science
March 6, 2021, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Fire, Tungsten Wire, Glass Tubing and a One of a Kind Light Bulb

Join in for video demonstrations of glass blowing and live Q&A with UT Austin glassblowers. This show is part of the Girl Day at UT Austin experience. Learn more and register to join in.

College of Natural Sciences Science
March 6, 2021, 1 to 2 p.m.

Behind the Scenes: The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop

The Bass Concert Hall stage turns gallery as Texas Performing Arts presents Behind the Scenes: The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop. Visit mid-century Hollywood without leaving your home with guidance and insight from professor Karen Maness, Texas Performing Arts Scenic Art Supervisor.

College of Fine Arts Arts, Design and Media
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