CAREER DAY FOR KIDS

did it a couple of years ago.

it appears that you have the basic drift of it.

i went to Wally World and talked the manager into giving me a price break on all of the cheapo compasses that were in stock (around twenty or so) to pass out. i also took a poster board sized picture of Mount Rushmore and did the "three surveyors and another guy" bit and had them guess which was not a surveyor.

we had GPS, total station, and level for them to look through and gander at while the crew guarded them w/ their lives.

actually had fun and ran out of time before running out of material.

good luck and have fun w/ it.

Sounds like you have a good plan. We do career day at a local university (for young students, not college students) every year. One of the things we do is set up a robot and a target on 2 different walls; turn the laser pointer on the robot on and show them where the robot is pointing and let them guess the angle between the 2 points from where the robot is. The one with the closest guess gets a $25 iTunes card.

I've been doing this for a couple of years for both my kids (now 2nd & 4th grades). I can't use the 3 surveyors & some other guy line because pretty much all the kids know it.

Under the HOW DO YOU BECOME A LS

section (oops), you can stress the math/science thing for them. The teachers like that one. Also, make sure you lay down the no questions until the end rule otherwise you'll never get started. Leave like 5 min for questions and you should be fine.

guys- thanks for responding! - I think Frank had it right- "have fun with it"- thats what I will do-

I always start with: “Who likes chainsaws? Who likes history? Who likes machetes? Who likes math? Who likes 4-wheelers? Who likes puzzles? Who likes lasers? Who likes GPS? Well, so do I, and that is why I became a surveyor. We surveyors can use all of these things in our day to day activities.” It gets there attention.

Also, keep it simple. You don’t have to go into depth at all. Usually it is the simple things that they fixate on.

Last time I did a career fair (last month for my kids school), the kids really like the voice on the data collector, the tracking system of the robotic total station, and the laser pointer. They could have cared less when I handed them pencils with our company logo.

Miguel A. Escobar, LSLS, RPLS

I did this once and made a "map" of the classroom. Used the robot to shoot the four corners of the room and then handed the rod/data collector to each student at their desk (only 12 students). Let them hit the buttons and type their name in as the descriptor. We downloaded to my laptop and "LOOK KIDS, WE MADE A MAP". From there we could ask the CAD how far it is from Timmy to Suzy and how this relates to surveying buildings and property lines.
It was fun.

Show a picture of Mt Rushmore, you know the three surveyors and the other guy(ask them to identify all four and which one was not a surveyor)...Keep it real simple and fun....use the word map not plat (i.e. we make maps) and explain a few different types.... set up the total station and take a measurement across the room...show them the hand held computer (i.e. the data collector)...explain the different environments in which we work....stress what a cool job it is....be careful taking in a machete, as you don't want to get in trouble for bringing a "weapon" on campus.....

I've done a few, one good lesson is to set the instrument and a prism up and have all of the kids "guess" the distance between. Write them on the chalk board. Then take the shot and get the "real" distance. Most likely you'll get answers all over the place but it shows one reason we do surveys, to define actual points in the field.