West Bethesda, Md. –
It was quite a different scene to see all the kids milling around the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division West Bethesda, Maryland, site on April 27, National Take Your Child to Work Day.
Carderock’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) team, led by Charlotte George, STEM and Outreach Program Director, with the help of Jennifer Brewster, an administrative technician in the Congressional and Public Affairs Office, and Ashlee Floyd, an engineer in the Materials and Manufacturing Technology Division, organized an exciting day of laboratory tours and hands-on activities designed to get kids excited about what their parents (or relatives) do on a daily basis, and show them the many career opportunities available in the STEM fields.
The tours included peaks into the Magnetic Fields Laboratory, the Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin (MASK) the Additive Manufacturing Research Lab, the Robotic Welding Lab and the David Taylor Model Basin. An expert in each lab described how their branch helps design and test different parts of ships and submarines for the U.S. Navy.
In the huge, cavernous rooms of the Magnetic Fields Laboratory, students were impressed when Stephanie Ferrone, Program Management Branch Head, explained that the building was constructed to be essentially non-magnetic so that it can be used to replicate any of the Earth’s magnetic fields. Because ships and submarines magnetic field signatures change when they are in different locations, it is imperative that scientists know what their magnetic signatures are at all locations around the globe to keep Sailors safe from enemy attack. The students gasped when Ferrone told them to take out their phones and use the compass app. The compasses simply spun. That was because of the triaxle coil system inside the building that creates an electromagnet. The students learned that the current in those coils is changing nearly continuously so that the magnetic field being produced is changing by a few degrees every second.
In the MASK, kids and their parents were given rides in the carriage of the rotating arm, giving the visitors a neat experience, since most Carderock employees have never done that. Kyle Corfman, a test engineer in the Hydrodynamics and Maneuvering Testing Branch, explained that the arm spins in a perfect circular turning motion, and when scale models of ships and submarines are attached, it helps simulate how they react during a steady turn at sea. The data is used to evaluate different ship designs and design changes.
In the Additive Manufacturing Research Lab, kids were enthusiastic and full of questions when they saw the different parts that could be 3D printed for use aboard ships and submarines. Scott Ziv, a mechanical engineer in the Additive Manufacturing Branch, ran the demonstration and explained that if “you can’t get it, make it, or find it on a ship, using specific software codes, the printers will print out whatever is needed.” Questions about the different computer aided design programs, the materials used, environmental issues relating to the materials, and machine costs were fielded by Ziv, Keegan Muller, an engineer in the Corrosion and Coatings Engineering Branch, and Adam Gershen, an engineer in the Additive Manufacturing Branch, who were all involved in the demonstration.
Just down the hall, the students were treated to something that might have looked like it came out of a science fiction movie but is a reality at Carderock — the robotic arm in the Robotic Welding lab. The arm appears lifelike in the way its hulking figure moves to maneuver the welding torch it contains. It has six joints to be able to reach in and grab things robotically. It was so lifelike that one student exclaimed that the robot should have a name. All the students chimed in with answers when welding engineer Adam Braff in the Welding, Processing and Nondestructive Evaluation Branch asked about what kinds of metals might be used for welding, how many types of welding processes there are and what welding entails as part of his demonstration of the robotic arm.
Everyone took a ride on the carriage in the David Taylor Model Basin.
Then it was time for the hands-on activities, including a demonstration from the Navy’s historic ship collection about how the hand-made models are maintained to ensure that they can last hundreds of years. Kids were wowed by a demonstration of magnetic materials that showed how magnetic fluid can be manipulated to pull it to locations where you can’t move it by gravity. Everyone enjoyed capturing pool rings with the underwater robotics machines known as the Sea Perch. And, in a demonstration of a high-speed camera that can record at 300,000 frames per second, students were filmed popping water balloons over a bucket at a fraction of the camera’s capacity of just 500 frames per second. When the recording was played back in slow motion at 20 frames per second, they could see the bubble of water standing still before gravity pulled it down. In real life, this technology is used for everything from recording explosives to crack propagation.
Overall, the day was quite successful. It was perhaps summed up best by 16-year-old Ariella Weiss, who was visiting Carderock with her mother, Rachel Jacobs Weiss, a chemical engineer in the Environmental Engineering, Science and Technology Branch.
“I really enjoy STEM,” Weiss said, who is currently a tenth grader in the STEM magnet program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. “This is an opportunity to see how the different sciences I’ve been learning in school applied to real life in actual professions that I could pursue. As a tenth grader, I have to think beyond high school. This gives me an opportunity to see the different fields that exist within science and try to figure out what I would be interested in doing for school and for a career.”
Overall, the day was quite successful. It was perhaps summed up best by 16-year-old Ariella Weiss, who was visiting Carderock with her mother, Rachel Jacobs Weiss, a chemical engineer in the Environmental Engineering, Science and Technology Branch.
“I really enjoy STEM,” Weiss said, who is currently a tenth grader in the STEM magnet program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. “This is an opportunity to see how the different sciences I’ve been learning in school applied to real life in actual professions that I could pursue. As a tenth grader, I have to think beyond high school. This gives me an opportunity to see the different fields that exist within science and try to figure out what I would be interested in doing for school and for a career.”