I'm running a summer workshop for teachers at Ranken Technical College this week. Every morning, they learn something from one of the Advanced Technology departments at Ranken, and then in the afternoon I show them activities they can do in their middle and high school classrooms to prepare students for this type of college. Yesterday was welding day. There are 12 women and 9 men in the workshop. Most were excited about the opportunity; some were a little cautious thinking they'd just watch someone else do it. But by lunchtime, everyone tried it at least once.
This was my favorite shot of a modern day "Rosie the Riveter." After everyone learned how to make a halfway decent MIG weld, the instructor divided them into teams and challenged them to build a bridge. Everyone started jumping on the bandwagon after he turned it into a competition. Their bridges held quite a bit more weight than the paper bridges I have my high school students build. He had to use a crane to lift the steel tubes onto the bridges.
