WWTBAM Bored

Mr. Kelley, all politics aside, I would like to pick your brain on the Spocklette over time. My recent bored activity aside, I don't have a lot of time right now. She is finishing her sophomore year and absolutely loves math. This year we were finally able to get her advanced to higher math classes where she belonged and felt (slightly) challenged.

As of right now, she has aeronautical/aerospace engineering at the top of her list. My sister and B-i-L are in hat field so she knows a little about it.

While Space X and so forth are fascinating at this time and she has to make up her own mind, I kind of encourage her to keep an open mind for Civil and Mechanical Engineering as you could get a job in those fields anywhere that life takes you. Plus, a mechanical engineer could easily find a place at Space X-Hey it worked for Howard.-LOL.

Anyway, I would like to use you long-term for the Spocklette. If the Bored collapses, my wife is on Facebook as "Lori Ritari Wrolson." I creep on her account and we do no politics there.

Spock wrote:Mr. Kelley, all politics aside, I would like to pick your brain on the Spocklette over time. My recent bored activity aside, I don't have a lot of time right now. She is finishing her sophomore year and absolutely loves math. This year we were finally able to get her advanced to higher math classes where she belonged and felt (slightly) challenged.

As of right now, she has aeronautical/aerospace engineering at the top of her list. My sister and B-i-L are in hat field so she knows a little about it.

While Space X and so forth are fascinating at this time and she has to make up her own mind, I kind of encourage her to keep an open mind for Civil and Mechanical Engineering as you could get a job in those fields anywhere that life takes you. Plus, a mechanical engineer could easily find a place at Space X-Hey it worked for Howard.-LOL.

Anyway, I would like to use you long-term for the Spocklette. If the Bored collapses, my wife is on Facebook as "Lori Ritari Wrolson." I creep on her account and we do no politics there.

That's a great idea. And if she hasn't already checked it out, there are lots of MOOCs out there, including some from MIT, that are outstanding for the math/science person who isn't challenged or is otherwise underserved by their high school. All free for now. I recommend the physics ones from MIT, don't know about the math ones.

Spock wrote:Mr. Kelley, all politics aside, I would like to pick your brain on the Spocklette over time. My recent bored activity aside, I don't have a lot of time right now. She is finishing her sophomore year and absolutely loves math. This year we were finally able to get her advanced to higher math classes where she belonged and felt (slightly) challenged.

As of right now, she has aeronautical/aerospace engineering at the top of her list. My sister and B-i-L are in hat field so she knows a little about it.

While Space X and so forth are fascinating at this time and she has to make up her own mind, I kind of encourage her to keep an open mind for Civil and Mechanical Engineering as you could get a job in those fields anywhere that life takes you. Plus, a mechanical engineer could easily find a place at Space X-Hey it worked for Howard.-LOL.

Anyway, I would like to use you long-term for the Spocklette. If the Bored collapses, my wife is on Facebook as "Lori Ritari Wrolson." I creep on her account and we do no politics there.

Spock,

We've faced similar challenges with our son, Sparky. He's a junior in high school and is currently taking multivariable calculus (not available through our school system). My degrees (other than my law degree) are in mathematics, from Caltech and UCLA, and I spent several years as a TA in mathematics before and during grad school, so I can also help with the substance if she's having trouble understanding something and it's beyond what you know. I'll even promise not to try (or at least not to try hard) to inculcate her with California liberalism.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me as well. My e-mail is my Bored name at yahoo. --Bob

Thanks, Guys.

Littlest Spock (8th Grade) has attorney written all over him and Li'l Spock should be a basketball coach. The Spocklette is the most interesting as far as what direction she will go and might need more guidance and thought in the process.

Spock wrote:Thanks, Guys.

Littlest Spock (8th Grade) has attorney written all over him and Li'l Spock should be a basketball coach. The Spocklette is the most interesting as far as what direction she will go and might need more guidance and thought in the process.

That Li'l Spock would be a basketball coach was evident from the time he first hugged John Chaney Owl.

The Mooc's are a good idea. I will dig into that. Our school is moving in a good direction right now and they might have that available..

I fully recognize that she is a big fish (academically) in a very small pond-so we need to broaden her some. Multivariable calculus is a ways down the road yet.

Kids who like math, seem to get automatically directed to engineering, but what other mathy things are out there that we should think about? We know of people in Actuarial Science-what else exists that is not intense academic research type stuff.

The maid of honor from our wedding has 20 plus years in Electrical Engineering with her name on some patents-most recently, in the San Diego area- and she is very adamant to avoid EE as the competition in that field has gotten so intense.

Spock wrote:The Mooc's are a good idea. I will dig into that. Our school is moving in a good direction right now and they might have that available..

I fully recognize that she is a big fish (academically) in a very small pond-so we need to broaden her some. Multivariable calculus is a ways down the road yet.

Kids who like math, seem to get automatically directed to engineering, but what other mathy things are out there that we should think about? We know of people in Actuarial Science-what else exists that is not intense academic research type stuff.

The maid of honor from our wedding has 20 plus years in Electrical Engineering with her name on some patents-most recently, in the San Diego area- and she is very adamant to avoid EE as the competition in that field has gotten so intense.

Actually, from what I hear, financial firms are starting to hire people with pure math degrees. And I understand that federal agencies, particularly those in law enforcement and security, covet those degrees in recruits.

She probably hasn't had much exposure to it yet, but computer security is very strongly related to mathematics, so that might be an applied field for her. It's certainly a growth industry for the foreseeable future.

mrkelley23 wrote:Actually, from what I hear, financial firms are starting to hire people with pure math degrees. And I understand that federal agencies, particularly those in law enforcement and security, covet those degrees in recruits.

She probably hasn't had much exposure to it yet, but computer security is very strongly related to mathematics, so that might be an applied field for her. It's certainly a growth industry for the foreseeable future.

I concur on computer security. Fields and sub-fields such as cybersecurity for the power grid and such are growing and will continue to grow.

One of the young engineers at work suggested mechanical engineering. Of course, she IS a mechanical engineer.

If you would like, I could ask some of the young women engineers at work what their interests were at her age.

She likes puzzles and Mrs. S (as an accountant) has mentioned Forensic Accounting.

Of all the engineering fields, mechanical seems like you could go so many ways with it and also civil.

Yeah, that damn Owl!!!!!!!

Littlest Spock (8th Grade) always manages to land on his feet. He and a friend got sent to the principal's office yesterday for goofing off in band. The principal was gone and the 2 secretaries made them write an apology letter to the teacher. Then, because there was cake in the office, they had cake.

Spock wrote:She likes puzzles and Mrs. S (as an accountant) has mentioned Forensic Accounting.

Of all the engineering fields, mechanical seems like you could go so many ways with it and also civil.

Yeah, that damn Owl!!!!!!!

Littlest Spock (8th Grade) always manages to land on his feet. He and a friend got sent to the principal's office yesterday for goofing off in band. The principal was gone and the 2 secretaries made them write an apology letter to the teacher. Then, because there was cake in the office, they had cake.

Where you are a mechanical engineer can probably find work easily.

My younger stepson wanted to go into civil engineering but got some government job that so top secret he not only can't talk about it in the most general terms but had to delete all of his social media accounts. Whatever he's doing, I'm sure it's not civil engineering.

Spock wrote:She likes puzzles and Mrs. S (as an accountant) has mentioned Forensic Accounting.

Of all the engineering fields, mechanical seems like you could go so many ways with it and also civil.

Yeah, that damn Owl!!!!!!!

Littlest Spock (8th Grade) always manages to land on his feet. He and a friend got sent to the principal's office yesterday for goofing off in band. The principal was gone and the 2 secretaries made them write an apology letter to the teacher. Then, because there was cake in the office, they had cake.

Mechanical is the most widely used, but also the least mathematical (or most practical is a better way of putting it). It's also lowest on the totem pole in terms of on-campus respect (not very important) and starting salary (somewhat more important.)

mrkelley23 wrote:

Spock wrote:She likes puzzles and Mrs. S (as an accountant) has mentioned Forensic Accounting.

Of all the engineering fields, mechanical seems like you could go so many ways with it and also civil.

Yeah, that damn Owl!!!!!!!

Littlest Spock (8th Grade) always manages to land on his feet. He and a friend got sent to the principal's office yesterday for goofing off in band. The principal was gone and the 2 secretaries made them write an apology letter to the teacher. Then, because there was cake in the office, they had cake.

Mechanical is the most widely used, but also the least mathematical (or most practical is a better way of putting it). It's also lowest on the totem pole in terms of on-campus respect (not very important) and starting salary (somewhat more important.)

Do you have a link for the Moocs at MIT? There are a lot of stuff that comes up in a Google search and I am not sure where I want to end up.

Just out of curiosity-do you see more interest in Physics and so forth with the popularity of Big Bang Theory? 12 years ago, there was a spurt of interest in CSI-type stuff, just wondering if Big Bang has had a similar cultural impact.

Spock wrote:

mrkelley23 wrote:

Spock wrote:She likes puzzles and Mrs. S (as an accountant) has mentioned Forensic Accounting.

Of all the engineering fields, mechanical seems like you could go so many ways with it and also civil.

Yeah, that damn Owl!!!!!!!

Littlest Spock (8th Grade) always manages to land on his feet. He and a friend got sent to the principal's office yesterday for goofing off in band. The principal was gone and the 2 secretaries made them write an apology letter to the teacher. Then, because there was cake in the office, they had cake.

Mechanical is the most widely used, but also the least mathematical (or most practical is a better way of putting it). It's also lowest on the totem pole in terms of on-campus respect (not very important) and starting salary (somewhat more important.)

Do you have a link for the Moocs at MIT? There are a lot of stuff that comes up in a Google search and I am not sure where I want to end up.

Just out of curiosity-do you see more interest in Physics and so forth with the popularity of Big Bang Theory? 12 years ago, there was a spurt of interest in CSI-type stuff, just wondering if Big Bang has had a similar cultural impact.

Apparently, MIT has archived the mechanics review course now, but it's still accessible at this link.

EdX has become kind of a clearinghouse for MOOCs now, so that may be a good resource to bookmark.

Dont' know about your BBT question. I'll have to ask the college folks next time I run into any of them.

Yesterday I signed her up for one of South Dakota School of Mines youth camps. I have mentioned them here before. They are the ones with (among others) the Mining and Explosives camp.

http://www.sdsmt.edu/SummerCamps/

I have had my eye on those camps for the Spocklette for years, but I never pulled the trigger. This year I was late and most of the camps are full. We ended up with the Entrepeneur/Industrial Engineering camp.

It is about 8/9 hours away, but I absolutely love driving distances, so I am just as excited because I will get to drive across the Dakotas 4 times in a week (Seriously). It will be a challenge to find ways that I haven't gone before.

Spock wrote:Yesterday I signed her up for one of South Dakota School of Mines youth camps. I have mentioned them here before. They are the ones with (among others) the Mining and Explosives camp.

http://www.sdsmt.edu/SummerCamps/

I have had my eye on those camps for the Spocklette for years, but I never pulled the trigger. This year I was late and most of the camps are full. We ended up with the Entrepeneur/Industrial Engineering camp.

It is about 8/9 hours away, but I absolutely love driving distances, so I am just as excited because I will get to drive across the Dakotas 4 times in a week (Seriously). It will be a challenge to find ways that I haven't gone before.

That looks awesome. Tell her the 3-D printer is NOT to be used to create fidget spinners.

Get her on the wait list for the Mining camp for next year. Heck, I'd like to do that one. The little bit I got to see at the strip mines around here was cool as all get out.

Spock wrote:Yesterday I signed her up for one of South Dakota School of Mines youth camps. I have mentioned them here before. They are the ones with (among others) the Mining and Explosives camp.

http://www.sdsmt.edu/SummerCamps/

I have had my eye on those camps for the Spocklette for years, but I never pulled the trigger. This year I was late and most of the camps are full. We ended up with the Entrepreneur/Industrial Engineering camp.

It is about 8/9 hours away, but I absolutely love driving distances, so I am just as excited because I will get to drive across the Dakotas 4 times in a week (Seriously). It will be a challenge to find ways that I haven't gone before.

Cool! I'm taking Josie and Linda to Bisbee next weekend; we're going to do the Queen Mine tour. My 2nd great uncle Andrew Y. Smith was a mining engineer there before he moved to Pearce to become the manager of the Commonwealth mine. Later he leased it.

My great-great-grandfather Juch was a mining engineer in Julian, California as well.

We visited 2 schools with her last week.

1)University of North Dakota (UND)

2) North Dakota State University (NDSU)

They are arch-rivals and my NDSU son gave us a lot of guff for UND. However, I have always felt in my gut that UND will be "Her" school. Obviously, her choice, but I still think that after the visits.

We were unfamiliar with UND and had a better set-up with a long meeting with an engineering admissions person. However, the highlight of the visit was that we got to meet, totally unplanned, a VERY, VERY enthusiastic Chemical Engineering professor. He was a hoot.

Mrs. S, kind of had Chem Engineering as #1 on her list for the Spocklette to consider and I am more comfortable with it now.

It is no secret that I am an unpaid schill for the oil industry and UND has very modern Petroleum and Geologic Engineering programs.

Our chemical engineering prof said that petroleum engineers get the oil out of the ground, however, from that point on it falls into the domain of chemical engineers-He kind of had me at that point (LOL).

Spock wrote:We visited 2 schools with her last week.

1)University of North Dakota (UND)

2) North Dakota State University (NDSU)

They are arch-rivals and my NDSU son gave us a lot of guff for UND. However, I have always felt in my gut that UND will be "Her" school. Obviously, her choice, but I still think that after the visits.

We were unfamiliar with UND and had a better set-up with a long meeting with an engineering admissions person. However, the highlight of the visit was that we got to meet, totally unplanned, a VERY, VERY enthusiastic Chemical Engineering professor. He was a hoot.

Mrs. S, kind of had Chem Engineering as #1 on her list for the Spocklette to consider and I am more comfortable with it now.

It is no secret that I am an unpaid schill for the oil industry and UND has very modern Petroleum and Geologic Engineering programs.

Our chemical engineering prof said that petroleum engineers get the oil out of the ground, however, from that point on it falls into the domain of chemical engineers-He kind of had me at that point (LOL).

Don't take it personally, but I hope she has a short career.

>>>Don't take it personally, but I hope she has a short career.<<<

None taken. That is one reason, I won't push to hard for Petroleum.

Lots of paths for "Chemmies" as our enthusiastic Chemical Engineering professor went on about.

Obviously, the future is more in acid mining for rare earth minerals in pristine wilderness areas, worldwide. Rare earth minerals are needed in large quantities for batteries/solar/ wind etc.

So maybe Mining Engineer might not be the dying field that it might first appear to be. Depending on how the South Dakota School of Mines camp goes next week-she wants to go to the Mining Engineer camp next year.

The Spocklette got the tingles in the Aeronautical department at UND, as befitting her top choice of Aerospace Engineering.

Grand Forks, the home of UND, has an area core competency in Drones. The Air Force Base is big on that and there is a drone research park and so forth.

We talked after the visit about looking at Air Force ROTC and so forth. Heck, she is young enough to look at the academies (Air Force and Navy).

While there are a host of civilian apps for drones, if you go in that direction, you might as well see the secret(fun) stuff and open the door to contracting after the service and so forth.

Oddly enough, that night in the Fargo hotel, she and I talked to a prosecutor from Compton (of all places) who had been visiting his brother who was working for a drone company in the Grand Forks drone research park at a very high level after a 26-year career in the Marines.

I threw out Navy to her as something to think about, because while everybody knows about the flying drones, there is probably a lot of activity in navy drones but it is much less known and there might be more room to carve out a niche in that area.

Spock wrote:>>>Don't take it personally, but I hope she has a short career.<<<

None taken. That is one reason, I won't push to hard for Petroleum.

Lots of paths for "Chemmies" as our enthusiastic Chemical Engineering professor went on about.

Obviously, the future is more in acid mining for rare earth minerals in pristine wilderness areas, worldwide. Rare earth minerals are needed in large quantities for batteries/solar/ wind etc.

So maybe Mining Engineer might not be the dying field that it might first appear to be. Depending on how the South Dakota School of Mines camp goes next week-she wants to go to the Mining Engineer camp next year.

My great-grandfather, Arthur Earnest Juch, "went east" to train as a mining engineer. He came back and worked the deep shaft gold and silver mines in Julian, California.

My great-grand uncle, Andrew Young Smith, was a mining engineer in Bisbee, Arizona then Pearce, Arizona and wound up leasing and running the Commonwealth mine.