“Take Our Children” returns

What do mommy and daddy do at Caltech all day? The perfect opportunity to show our children exactly what we do is coming up on Thursday, April 22, during this year’s Take Our Children to Work Day.

Caltech staff, faculty, and postdocs are encouraged to bring their boys and girls to the Institute for a day of activities and discovery. The children who visit the campus will get to see up close exactly what goes on in modern research laboratories, and hear researchers explain the purpose of their experiments. They will also visit the shops and auxiliary services—support systems that make research possible as well as make the Institute run smoothly.

“We have a unique opportunity to introduce our children to the exciting things that go on here and to interest them in careers that will be important to their future and that of our nation,” says Dlorah Gonzales, director of the Employment Office.

This year’s list of participating offices, labs, and divisions includes the Seismo Lab, biology (Professor Kai Zinn), chemistry (Professors James Heath and David MacMillan), the aeronautics shop, and Facilities Management, which includes the carpentry and paint shops, transportation, and shipping and receiving.

In addition to these tours, Take Our Children to Work Day includes a free lunch, a science-related learning activity led by Caltech Precollege Science Initiative staff, and a presentation by the Caltech Credit Union. After lunch, the children will be able to burn some calories during physical activities sponsored by Athletics, and cool down in Beckman Auditorium during a screening of an episode from the Discovery Channel series Weird Nature. The
activities will end at 3 p.m.

Preregistration materials and authorization/medical release forms will be distributed as the date approaches. Parents and staff members are needed to volunteer as group chaperones and may call ext. 8095 to sign up. Caltech’s Take Our Children to Work program is cosponsored by Human Resources and Public Relations.
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