March 7 & 13, 1942: Open House Engineering

Diary Entry from Herb Michael, Opa's Roommate

Transcription:

Saturday, March 7, 1942

66th Day - 299 Day to Follow

This afternoon's work on Open House was quite satisfactory to me. We had a slow start because Blum wasn't around to get supplies, and nails were hard to find.

Small was there, and Hewson, and Tom. Tom got an oil pump for an irrigation system. Hewson about finished our power plant building.

I'm beginning to get enthusiastic again.

Diary Entry from Herb Michael, Opa's Roommate

Transcription:

Friday, March 13, 1942

72nd Day - 293 Days to Follow

Bed looks so good. From 8:30 this morning until 11:00 tonight I've been at the Engine building working or looking at Open House.

We wired our farm and power plant, put up our apparent transmission line, finished our power house and transformers, rigged up our pump system.

Tom, Kenney Johnson, and I were putting on the last touches when the opening whistle blew. It's quite a thrill.

Well this is adorable. I'm guessing what we're seeing here is some sort of giant model/construction project for the engineering students. It's a team effort and there is a whistle at the end, signaling that the time to build is done! What a brilliant way to create a fun learning environment that also stimulates some of the real-world realities of timelines and functioning in a group to accomplish a task. 

I hope their Open House was a success! It's nice to see Opa get to learn some of the engineering skills that he wanted to go to school for in the first place. This skill set will set the stage for his future opportunities, and it seems that Kansas State was a good choice.