WEST BETHESDA, Md. –
Over 160 children came to Naval
Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division April 28 to learn about
the work their parents do to support the fleet.
On the 23rd anniversary of the Take Our
Daughters and Sons to Work Day program’s founding, Carderock opened its doors
to its employees’ children for a day of learning and entertainment around the base.
“We want to educate the kids on what
we do here at Carderock and make it fun for them,” said Jennifer Brewster, who
leads the Events Branch (Code 103).
The day began with a scavenger hunt
with the children solving math problems for clues to their next objective. When
they arrived at each location, a subject-matter expert showed the children an
example of Carderock’s capabilities, as when Dr. Nick Jones, a materials
engineer with the Metallurgy and Fasteners Branch (Code 612), demonstrated how
transductive materials can be used to both harvest and output energy. He did
this through technical demonstrations, one of which showed them how to
experience music in a new way.
“One demo vibrated the table and turned
it into a speaker. We then applied the same concept to the children’s bone
structure,” Jones said. “By vibrating their teeth, we are able to create music
in the brain, while wearing hearing protection. The brain created music for
something it didn’t ‘hear.’ We’ve just bypassed the normal mechanism!”
Jay del Rosario, a materials engineer with
the Rubber Lab (Code 617), also served as one of these subject matter experts,
using rubber balls and submarine models made at Carderock to demonstrate properties
of density, gravity and buoyancy, which are all relevant to Carderock’s work with
submarines. This was the second visit to Carderock on Take Our Daughters and Sons
to Work Day for his children Zack,16, and Jade, 11.
“There’s a lot of cool things we do at
Carderock and it’s one thing to hear someone talk about it, but to give the
kids a chance to actually see what their parents do is really neat,” said
Rosario. “Hopefully it inspires kids to go into science and engineering,
because I think that’s always a good thing.”
Rosario said Jade helped him make
rubber submarine models during her visit last year and was “a very good
helper,” and Zack said he likes knowing more about his father’s work, as well.
“I’m very interested in submarines and
how they use science and engineering to make them and improve on them,” Zack
said. “I like getting to come here and see it, along with everything else they
do here. It’s all really cool.”
The children also played Credit Union Bingo,
operated the remote-controlled SeaPerch boat and conducted experiments using
Bernoulli’s Law, among other activities during their visit.