Bring Our Children to Work Day gets imaginations (and paper planes) soaring

Many said it was the best Bring Our Children to Work Day yet. On Aug. 13, more than 800 kids—or shall we say future space professionals—joined Johnson Space Center team members at Space Center Houston to learn, engage and explore.

Some highlights included a rousing welcome by JSC’s Jamian Lattin-Sims, an intriguing talk about the wonders of exploration and our International Space Station by spaceflight veteran Mike Fincke and exhibits representing a plethora of human exploration activities and programs. New for the year—a paper-plane fly-by and competition hosted by a group of paper-plane experts that came all the way from Japan—got kids pumped for aeronautics through the crafting of their own elite (albeit paper) flying machines. Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata volunteered his time, too, interacting with eager participants and posing for pictures.

If you missed this year’s event, don’t wait too long to get on the list next year. Your kids will thank you for it.

Catherine Ragin Williams

NASA Johnson Space Center