Tools of the trade

Tom (Dominic's dad) is an engineer.  He came in this week to showed us some of the tools he uses in his work.

There were so many interesting devices he uses to check cars.

The children got to try them all.  One gadget tested humidity.  Each child blew on it to see how much humidity was in their breath.  

The highlight was when Tom showed us the small microscope he uses.  It was no ordinary microscope.  It not only enlarges an item but it takes a picture of it and puts it on Tom's computer so he can study it later.  

Tom used the microscope to take a picture of everyone's nail.  It was a bit scary to see the nails magnified to this degree.  No speck of dirt went undetected.  

Tom printed out the nail photos for us. The next day the class tried to determine whose nail was whose.  I was surprised how quickly they came to a consensus on the identifications.

Thank you Thomas for coming in and Jennifer (Dominic's mom), his trusty assistant,  who help shlep the gear and take photos.  We all had a great time.