Million Hours Campaign
National Engineers Week launches Million Hours Campaign
(From the NCEES publication LICENSURE EXCHANGE, December 2008, ISSN NO. 1093-541X, VOLUME 12, ISSUE 6)
National Engineers Week has set the bar high for engineers in 2009. EWeek organizers are challenging engineers throughout the country to log one million volunteer hours of outreach in promoting science, technology, engineering and math education in the United States. They have created a Million Hours Campaign site linked to the EWeek home page that allows engineers to record the hours spent doing such activities as visiting classrooms to talk about their work, hosting Design Squad events, or attending career fairs.
“The Million Hours Campaign is a way for engineers to show children how engineering is really an imaginative profession that takes ideas and uses science to make them reality,” said Davy McDowell, P.E., NCEES director of Professional Services. “I’m confi dent that P.E.’s will play a major part in reaching the one million mark because we are a group that tends to be very enthusiastic about our careers,” he added.
National Engineers Week is scheduled for February 15–21, 2009, but has grown to include year-round activities designed to introduce elementary, middle, and high school students to careers in engineering and applied science while promoting math and science literacy in U.S. schools. NCEES is a longtime sponsor of the EWeek foundation and is a major sponsor of Design Squad, an initiative that brings applied science projects into elementary and middle school classrooms and includes a reality-based public television program.
Other EWeek events include the Future City Competition, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, and Discover Engineering Family Day at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the Million Hours Campaign and other information about EWeek, visit www.eweek.org.
