Kevin realized he had forgotten something important at home, so I offered to bring it into work.
We decided on a quick field trip into his office complex. He works in an engineering complex at a local military base.
Our older children have gone into work with Kevin a few times, but not the younger ones.
I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the labs, but here are a couple in his office.
The 2nd picture was a demonstration of what Kevin does all day :-). He has a PhD. in Materials Science and Engineering (and so do I.) I am sure many people wonder how engineers spend their time. Long ago, I visualized engineers standing on top of dams or bridges, or hunched over chemicals in a laboratory.
Kevin and I have never worked on bridges, but both of us have toiled away with chemicals and complex instrumentation in laboratories. Kevin, however, discovered he enjoys administration more than most hands-on work, so right now he is supervising a group of people. He spends much of his time on the computer and at meetings. And he is very good at it.
Our second son seems to have a scientific/engineering bent. He kept asking, "Where is a lab with lots of dangerous chemicals?" Hmmm, that's intimidating when coming from a little guy! We did open a door to show him some dangerous chemicals but obviously didn't let him get near them!
The highlight of the trip for most of the children was a giant freight elevator, the size of a medium sized room. It is used for hauling large and heavy equipment from ground level to the laboratories, but people can ride in it as well. The children were enthralled and impressed.
It was a fun, and valuable, trip. We want our children to see people working in a variety of environments. As a child, I didn't know what most people did in their jobs. I hope we can have our children "job shadow" a number of people during their school years.
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