Take Our Kids to Work is an annual program in which Grade 9, students spend the day in the workplace of a parent, relative, friend or volunteer experiencing and learning about the world of work. Held on the first Wednesday of November, the program supports career exploration and career readiness among Canadian public school students. Experiencing a “day in the life” of a professional within a workplace allows students to explore the world of work and helps them make informed educational decisions.

Quanser has always enjoyed taking part in this annual event, and this year we had two students BethanyMadill from Royal City Baptist Academy and Ching Zhang from White Oak Secondary School join us for the day. They’ve written a blog post about their experience at Quanser:

Take Your Kids to Work Day 2017. Many may think that learning about engineering is boring, but today, we got to participate in many hands-on activities. We learned about marketing, sales, and blogging; and we got to build a structure with sticks and connectors and tested to see how long they would survive on a shake table (a table designed to act like an earthquake which shakes an object back and forth to see how long it will hold). Through a shake table, we learned about many important applications such as architecture and geography. We also got to fly a drone which may be harder to fly than you may expect!  We controlled a robot hand that could pick up blocks and move around in almost any direction, and learned how the mechanics inside it worked. We also got to assemble a QUBE-Servo 2 which can balance a metal pole by vibrating very quickly to steady it. We also got to see a special robot which allows one to move around the office and participate in meetings “live” even though they may be in another country thousands of kilometers away. Overall, we had a good day and many learning experiences.