[MUSIC] [Title screen:] What is engineering? [00:10] [On screen text:] Tracy Drain Engineer NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Pasadena, California [Description:] Tracy is alone on screen, speaking in front of an image of a NASA satellite. [Tracy Drain:] My name is Tracy Drain and I am a systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Pasadena, California. [00:18] [Description:] A series of images of Tracy growing up with her family: Young Tracy in a canoe with two adults Young Tracy and her brother with their arms around each other Tracy and her mother on a boardwalk in front of a beach Very young Tracy and her brother on an amusement park ride [Tracy Drain:] When I was very, very young I was interested in a whole bunch of things. I thought I might want to be a lawyer because I'd love to argue with my brother. But my mom, she loves Star Trek and Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, and my brother and I watched all those things with her. [00:32] [Tracy Drain:] I wanted something to do with space exploration so I can help make the world look like it does on those shows, and engineering was the route that I chose to do that. [Description:] A series of NASA images Earth from space, showing a landmass and clouds Earth from space, focused on a hurricane Video of a rocket lifting off into space [00:41] [Tracy Drain:] When you think about engineering, it's really just people who are using known scientific principles in order to build things that are useful for people in the world. [00:51] [MUSIC] [Title screen:] Can children engineer? [00:52] [Tracy Drain:] Engineering, I think, is very valuable to introduce to children. [00:57] [Description:] Several young elementary aged students working in pairs in a classroom. Students are picking up papers and felt with clothes pins and other simple tools. [Tracy Drain:] When you look at kids and the way they run around and do things, they are already naturally little scientists and engineers. They pick up stuff, they poke it, they like it, like what is this? What does it do? What does it taste like? And what happens when I bang these two things together? [01:10] [Tracy Drain:] It's kind of a natural learning process. [01:11] [Description:] Video flows from in front of the entrance to Richard J. Murphy School to seeing Dana Romanczyk working with students in her classroom. As Ms. Romanczyk speaks, we are shown scenes from her classroom in which young elementary aged students are working together on simple engineering projects. [On screen text:] Dana Romanczyk, Teacher Richard J. Murphy School Dorchester, Massachusetts [Dana Romanczyk:] Engineering is an opportunity for those kids who might struggle with some of those other subjects to really shine. Engineering is a hands-on activity, it's a hands-on process. Kids are finding out information. It's teaching them life skills. They get to learn how to do critical thinking. They get to learn how to deal with failure. [01:30] [Description:] Dana is alone on screen, speaking in front of the bulletin board in her classroom. [Dana Romanczyk:] So we know kids are learning in school, but they're also learning in so many different environments. And I think one of the most important environments they learn is the home. So why not have these opportunities at home? Why not do these engineering activities at home? [01:46] [Title screen:] Can families engineer at home? [Description:] A mother and daughter working on a project with a straw sliding along string that has been attached to two chairs. A pipe cleaner, attached to a paper cup, is tied to the straw. The straw and cup can slide along the string between the two chairs. [Tracy Drain:] I think there are lots of benefits for families doing engineering activities together. I think it's really important for kids, when they're working with their parents and trying to figure something out, to see that their parents don't just automatically know the answer. That they have to do some experimentation and try some things and see what works and what doesn't work. [01:58] [Description:] A series of video images of adults and children working on different engineering activities] [Tracy Drain:] It's a great way to let kids have that experience. [02:06] [Description:] A series of images of children working on projects. One is a close up of three empty paper towel rolls attached by pipe cleaners. A small wooden rod is stuck perpendicularly through two of the rolls. In another, an adult and child have taped several straws to the outside of a paper cup. Several kids are shown sorting materials into small bowls and collecting the materials they want to use. [Dana Romanczyk:] One of the things I think that holds a lot of people back is just not knowing how to do it. I think the cool thing about engineering is that there is no right answer. There's tons of answers that can be completely different. So for families who are very nervous about doing it, I just want to say, don't be. [02:25] [Tracy Drain:] I think one of the other important things that parents can do, in general, not even just related to engineering is to foster their children's curiosity. Kids are naturally curious little beings. You can see they want to go around and see and touch everything. And somewhere along the line we kind of sort of squeeze that out of them because we put on top of them all these pressures and expectations. I think that keeping alive that engine of curiosity is a thing that will make whatever the kids decide to do a lot of fun for their lives and not just a job at the end of the day. When kids are introduced to engineering they're also introduced to the concept of failure, but in a good way. The failure is a fantastic teaching tool. It is the thing that gives you something to focus on and pull all the threads to figure out how the system actually works and what you need to do to make it better. [03:20] [Dana Romanczyk:] I always tell them engineers love it when things go wrong because then they get to figure out how to fix it. To get to figure out what it is that's wrong. So we get to problem-solve in a positive way. [MUSIC] [03:35] [On screen text:] Special thanks to Tracy Drain NASA Jet Propulsion Labratory Dana Romanczyk The Richard J. Murphy School Filmed and Edited by Richard Sutton Savannah Hubbard