Texas Tech University Center for Engineering Outreach
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February 22, 2006

Pink Engineering Day

Red Raiders Blush Pink in Support of Women Engineers

Celebrating Women in Engineering

Texas Tech University – As a rule, college students aren't bashful about showing their school's colors. At Texas Tech, it's no different, and caps, T-shirts and, yes, even flip-flops create an ever present sea of red and black across the university's Lubbock campus.

Today, however, students regular wardrobe of red and black faded to pink as engineering students wore pink to support Pink Engineering Day.

The inaugural event, organized by the College of Engineering in partnership with the Center for Engineering Outreach and the Society for Women in Engineering, celebrated the accomplishments of women in engineering fields.

And with events that focused on women engineers literally from sunrise to sunset, students from junior high school to college learned just a little bit more about the opportunities that exist for women in engineering.

A Pink Sunrise

Arriving sleepy but wide-eyed, 6th grade girls from Dunbar Middle School helped kick off Pink Engineering Day at 5 am by appearing on Lubbock morning show Daybreak Today.

Students joined Texas Tech researchers and the Dean of the College of Engineering for a live television broadcast from the environmental engineering lab of Associate Professor Audra Morse.

Morse's lab conducts wastewater recovery research for NASA. By developing methods for recovering and recycling water in space, Morse and her team of graduate students hope to enable astronauts to fly on longer missions – perhaps to Mars.

Led by Morse, the students conducted a simple experiment in filtration that illustrated how common household materials like shredded paper, coffee filters and cotton could turn dirty water into clear water that could be treated for human consumption.

The easy experiment showed how research at the university level could be simplified so that students from Kindergarten to high school could learn how to do engineering in their classrooms.

An Event for Girls Only

Later in the day, pink T-shirts and teenage chatter filled the Student Union Building as 120 girls from Lubbock-area junior high and middle schools, came to Texas Tech to participate in Pink Engineering Day.

At the contest, students created folding chairs out of cardboard that had to fold and support at least half a pound.

Dunbar sixth-grader Celeste Sanchez enjoyed the contest partly because she got to experiment.

“It's cool cause you get to learn and get to do experiments,” she said.

For Arla Anderton, a ninth-grade integrated physics and chemistry teacher at Mackenzie Junior High, the competition and time out of the classroom made engineering special and exciting for the girls - which made the boys jealous.

“The funny thing is the guys were left at home,” Anderton said. “They made chairs, too.”

The ‘for girls only’ event was judged by students from the university's chapter of the Society for Women Engineers and athletes from the Red Raider soccer and volleyball teams.

“It's good to see young girls involved with science and be excited,” said Texas Tech volleyball player Amy Charlebois.

Her teammate, Robyn Bucy, agreed.

“It's a really neat event. the girls are having a lot of fun,” she said. “I speak for all of us. I'm glad we got to participate.”

Following the engineering design challenge, girls traveled to the United Spirit Arena to watch the Lady Raiders basketball team take on the University of Kansas as guests of Lady Raider's coach Marsha Sharp.

The basketball game was a fun way for the girls to wrap up their activities and provided a chance to take in the impressive engineering features of one of the premier sports facilities in West Texas.

And as the girls stood up to be recognized during halftime, a sea of pink T-shirts flashed across the arena's big screen televisions hung from cables above the court – rigging that was probably designed by an engineer.

The final tribute to women and engineering was the perfect end to the Pink Engineering Day celebration.

- Alexis Acosta

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