Prospective engineering students from around Tucson toured the University of Arizona campus yesterday, beginning National Engineers' Week.

Forty-eight students from 10 area schools went to classes, heard speakers and toured engineering labs with Tau Beta Pi engineering honors society mentors for "Adopt-an-Engineer" day.

High school teachers sometimes make engineering sound like an impossible major, which deters students from choosing engineering, said Tau Beta Pi President William Ekial.

"They get very contradicting messages from their high school teachers about college," he said. "It's not as tough as the rumors go."

The visiting students said college classrooms were different from what they had anticipated.

"It's a lot different than I expected," said Elizabeth Partida, a Sahuaro High School junior. "Especially the teachers. They're a lot younger than I thought and the classes are smaller."

A lot of the mentors are in upper division classes, which are not as crowded, said Mary Hamm, Tau Beta Pi outreach chairman.

As for the age of the professors, students always expect them to be old, Hamm said. "A lot of (the visiting students) expect the professor to be at least 50."

The visiting students, all of whom expressed a prior interest in engineering, attended an average of two lectures and toured the UA campus.

Salpointe High School senior Peter Scaramella, who attended the event because of his interest in chemical engineering, said he was surprised by the small class size.

Lisa Mather, also a Salpointe senior, said she had not expected to understand the lecture she attended.

"I got most of it, though," she said.

Aron Banquet, freshman at Desert Christian High School, said he knew some of the lectures would be too boring to handle.

"I fell asleep in the second class," he said, "But the first one was cool."

Tau Beta Pi's "Adopt-an-Engineer" day marks the beginning of National Engineers' Week activities at the UA.

Today the Engineering Student Council will host dinner with recruiters from companies such as Honeywell and Motorola, and career workshops will be held in the Harshbarger Building. The same companies will be accepting resumes on the UA Mall Wednesday.

Tours of the UA engineering labs will be given Thursday, and Friday, Engineers' Week ends with events on the UA Mall, including the annual rock-drilling competition on the northeast corner of Old Main. All contests are open to non-engineering students and some offer cash prizes.

For more information, call the ESC at 621-3683 or e-mail uaesc@bigdog.engr. arizona.edu.