Welcome to Wednesday Wonderings, Down Home readers! Today’s post comes from our Social Media Manager, Jeannett Gibson, who’s sharing about a recent WONDER-filled trip. And a quick reminder that if you didn’t get a chance to enter the FREE SLOCA SWEATSHIRT drawing yet, make sure to reach out to us by this Friday!
Jeannett’s post below is an example of one of the ways you can share your wonder story this summer! Let’s read on…
Last week, my son, a Track A 6th grader, and I tagged along on a business trip to Chicago with my husband. While Dad was busy working, we explored the city, walked miles in the bitter cold, and took in every touristy thing Chicago had to offer. On our final day, we were able to walk the trade show floor and go booth to booth, ooohing and ahhhing over the cutting edge technology. To give you some idea of what type of conference this was, this is how AUVSI describes themselves:
“The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the world’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of unmanned systems and robotics, represents corporations and professionals from more than 60 countries involved in the industry, government, and academia. AUVSI members work in the defense, civil and commercial markets.”
In laymen’s terms, it’s all about drones. Big ones, little ones, every color of the rainbow, ranging from uses in agriculture, first response, military, personal transport, and a whole bunch of other ways you would never have thought possible. To be frank, I was in way over my head, but my son was living his best life as he wandered the unending aisles and asking really thoughtful and shockingly astute questions of industry professionals. I often asked him “How did you know that? Did it say it somewhere?” “No mom. You can tell just by looking at it.” Right. Of course.
I will admit that I balked and faltered a bit when the NASA booth asked him if he was in a STEM program at school. He paused, looked at me and then said: “I don’t know what that is”. I nervously laughed and said “Oh. Yeah. He goes to a school that specializes in the humanities.” The good folks at NASA did not appear impressed by this. A trite “oh.” was the response.
Mom mental note: explain the STEM acronym to kids.
Moving along, we come to a giant booth/exhibit for Boeing. At the forefront was a large scale model of an aircraft called Odysseus.
“Mom, why is it called Odysseus? That seems like a weird choice. He wasn’t really efficient.”
“I don’t know. Ask them.”
When he asked the young women at the info desk area, they said they didn’t know the answer, but would get someone who would know. After a few minutes of waiting, an older woman (who, in retrospect, was probably high within the organization) came over. She explained that the owner of the company loved mythology and that many of their projects were named after gods/goddesses. Daedalus…Aurora…Odysseus…
“Okay. I get that. But does this plane fly for a long time or something? Because it took Odysseus like ten years to get home…so is that why it’s named that?”
::blink blink::
She paused, mouth agape.
“Yes. As a matter of fact, that is EXACTLY why it’s named that. It can fly for up to five months straight. Wow. I am VERY impressed.”
So there ya go. Humanities can, in fact, support STEM in a very real way. Just in case you wondered. (I’m looking at you, NASA.)
Ha. We just love this, Jeannett! Thank you so much for sharing!
And for those of you interested in learning more about the Odysseus, here’s a short video clip:
2 thoughts on “Humanities + STEM = a great story”
I showed this to Henry and he said “Oh that’s cool! So you told SLOCA about it so they know they are doing a good job!” 🙂
I love hearing how our kids learning and connections play out in the ‘real world’. Thank you so much for sharing!