National what? That's right, National Engineers Week is a real thing celebrating all things engineering. But what does that mean? What do engineers do, you might be asking yourself. All good questions we hope to answer here. Engineers can be found almost everywhere doing jobs from mechanical engineering (designing those cool parts in your cars) to bioengineering (working with viruses, DNA and other cool biology stuff). Engineers are changing the world all of the time. They dream up creative, practical solutions and work with other smart, inspiring people to invent, design, and create things that matter. Because they touch all parts of our lives, we have a special week to celebrate them, and to bring awareness to the often misunderstood professions.Who makes the best engineers? Anyone can be an engineer and it begins at home with curious minds, questions and some household materials. One can also visit PBS KIDSfor some awesome interactive engineering games.
A favorite game of ours is Kart Kingdom, which focuses on system science and critical thinking skills for kids ages 6-9 years old. Systems thinking means understanding how systems are interconnected and understanding the relationships among the dynamic components within those systems. A system refers to several different things that work together to create a whole, such as the pipes in the water system. Without the pipes, water cannot travel from the dam to your faucet at home. The idea of systems thinking is for an individual to understand what the system is and how it works.To be able to process using systems thinking is a crucial life skill for scientists, engineers, designers, basically everyone benefits from this. The game also helps children build collaboration skills as they work together to create gadgets and unlock rewards for the entire Kart Kingdom community. Plus you get to build a super cool Kart. How are you going to celebrate #NationalEngineersWeek? Share your photos with us on WSKG’s Instagram, twitter @WSKG or @NancyCoddington and we may give you a shout out. Happy Engineering!