fandomhigh | Achievements In Engineering #1, Period 2 Monday

The forecast for Monday called for sunshine with a high of 83° (or 28° C) and a light breeze, so Mike ~~handwavily~~ e-mailed his students the night before and informed them that their first class would be held outside on the school lawns. When the students arrived, they would find that Mike had set up a picnic table in an open area, far from any shade.

"Good morning, students! My name is Mike Cannon and I'll be your instructor for Greatest Achievements in Engineering. Today, I thought it would be fun to start out with a picnic lunch," said Mike with a grin. "Grab yourself a copy of the syllabus and help yourself to something to eat and drink, and then we'll get started with introductions before talking about today's subject."

There was the typical spread of picnic foods: potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, and a cold cuts tray with the fixings for sandwiches. Mike had also thought ahead and provided pitchers of lemonade and soda as well as bottled water. But there was a catch -- the food and drinks had not been chilled, and they had been left out overnight. By now, the perishable foods were starting to smell a little funny, and the warm drinks would not provide much refreshment in the hot sun.

Even Mike looked like he was sweltering in his dark suit, but he pressed on. "So, if you haven't figured it out yet, today we're looking at the importance of air conditioning and refrigeration, neither of which we have at this moment," he said. "I would ask if you can imagine what it's like to live without them, but I'm pretty sure you're getting the idea. The first air-conditioning system wasn't installed until 1902, and the first self-contained refrigerator was displayed at the World's Fair in 1904. A century later, there's no way we could function in the summer without them. Because these cooling systems have become so essential to modern life, they're a prime example of engineering making a serious contribution to our standard of living."

"Oh, and now that we've covered all that, the real picnic should be here shortly," Mike added, checking his watch. Sure enough, an ~~NPC~~ delivery guy arrived with fresh food and cold drinks. "Enjoy! And Naomi, could you stay after class for a moment? Thanks."

[OOC: ~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up!]

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Hot, hot, hot!

Naomi Wildman

Bender

Jen Scotts

Ami Mizuno

You know the drill! Who you are, where (and when) are you from, and why you're taking this class.

"I'm Naomi Wildman," Naomi said, "I'm most recently from San Francisco, California, 2382. I'm taking this class because I find engineering fascinating and I'm interested in learning it from a different time period,"

"It's always good to get a different perspective," said Mike. "What would you say is the greatest engineering achievement of your time period?"

"I'd say Warp Flight," Naomi said, "the ability to travel faster than light, in my time Zefram Cochrane was able to achieve it in 2063,"

"I'm Bender, from New New York," said Bender. "In the thirty-first century. I'm here because my DVD-R won't talk to me since I insulted its mother."

"Yeah, I'm sure they can be tricky that way," said Mike, raising an eyebrow. "So, you're a robot? What's that like?"

"Being a robot's great," gloated Bender. "Easy repairs, plenty of refueling and a completely logical sense of superiority against any of those other jerks."

"What would you say is the greatest engineering achievement from your time?" asked Mike.

"Jen Scotts. Millennium City, the year 3000." She glanced at Bender. "I'm guessing it's a different thirty-first century from his, though. And I'm here because I kind of want to know a little bit more about stuff that's ancient technology to me than just 'wow, that's ancient.'"

Mike was starting to wonder if he needed to rethink his syllabus with all these future kids in his class.

"What kind of technology do you see around this time period that seems ancient to you?" he asked.

"All of it?" Jen replied with a sheepish laugh. "Cars haven't really changed much ~~thanks to lack of budget~~. Well . . . appearance-wise, anyway. The propulsion systems and everything, that's a different story."

"Well, one of the things I'd like to cover this semester is how a creative innovation can change our lives for the better," said Mike. "We'll not only be looking at the cars of today, for example, but how cars changed the way we travel today, and we could even talk about how the cars of the future changed life even further. I think we could have some pretty interesting discussions."

Jen glanced at the rest of the class. "Ordinarily I'd say that could be dangerous, talking about the future, but in present company . . ."

The picnic food may not look very appetizing after sitting out for so long, and warm drinks aren't that great either.

The food might not be normally appealing, but Bender picked up some warm bread, softening apples and dropped them into a glass of lemonade.

He sat, staring at the mixture for any sign of fermentation. Maybe if he added some potato...

Naomi was not touching the food that hadn't been chilled, even Neelix's food had never been that bad.

He's waiting for Naomi, but he'll hang around to chat with anyone else.

Like she had been asked to, Naomi stayed after class. "You wanted to see me Professor?"

"Yes, I did," said Mike. "I was happy to see you taking the class this fall and was wondering if you'd like to be my TA."

Naomi smiled, "I'd be happy to be your TA," she said.

"Great!" said Mike. "Thank you so much, Naomi."

"You're welcome," Naomi said with a smile.

Normally I'm around most of the day Monday, but today I actually have to go into work to cover for someone. I'll be back by 5 PM (EST) to pick up pings.

Achievements In Engineering #1, Period 2 Monday

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Introductions [Class #1]

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Picnic and Discussion [Class #1]

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