WATERLOO, Ont. (Tuesday, March 1, 2011) - More than 60 girl guides are expected to qualify for science and technology engineering badges during the first annual Ontario Girl Guide Badge Day event to be held at the University of Waterloo campus during National Engineering Month.
On Saturday, March 5, girl guides and their leaders will visit Waterloo Engineering and meet with women engineers while learning firsthand about engineering careers. They will also take part in hands-on activities to meet the requirements for earning their engineering badge.
Waterloo's event is part of a provincial initiative offered through the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering (ONWiE) and Girl Guides Ontario to provide badge day programs at six locations across the province. Organizers expect more than 350 guides and their leaders to participate this year.
"Many children do not understand what engineers do and the wide variety of ways they help make the world a better place," said Mary Wells, associate dean of Waterloo Engineering’s outreach program. "This event will showcase the engineering profession and grow awareness at an early age of the exciting career opportunities engineering offers."
At Waterloo, girl guides will participate in age-appropriate group activities, solving a fun but complex engineering task, learning about engineering careers and touring some engineering labs.
The event begins at 9 a.m. with registration in the J.R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall, followed by opening remarks from Wells. At the end of the day, engineering badges will be presented to the Girl Guides by Adel Sedra, Waterloo’s dean of engineering.
Participants must pre-register. More information can be found at: weconnect.uwaterloo.ca/guides.html.
About Waterloo Engineering
The faculty of engineering at the University of Waterloo is a multi-faceted engineering school with eight academic units, home to about 270 faculty members, more than 1,840 graduate students and 6,340 undergraduate students. More than 33,000 alumni have made their mark in industry, academe and the public sector, in Canada and around the world. For further information, go to www.engineering.uwaterloo.ca.
About Waterloo
The University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's Technology Triangle, is one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities. Waterloo is home to 30,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students who are dedicated to making the future better and brighter. Waterloo, known for the largest post-secondary co-operative education program in the world, supports enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. For more information about Waterloo, visit www.uwaterloo.ca.
