On March 11, 2016 the 3rd grade went to Underwriters Laboratories. When we got there we went to the pool first. The pool is were they test all the water equipment. They first talked about about life jackets they told us three rules; wear them,wear the right size, and stay afloat. Then they they showed us what would happen if you don’t wear the right size  and how they made this life jacket that would flip you over if your head was in the water. Then learned a little more about PFD. Later Mrs. Connor’s class got a special surprise Ms. Gibson came in wearing a survival suite and jumped in the water from the second tallest diving board.

Next we walked to the Anechioc Chamber. When you went in it looked like you were inside a rubix  cube. There Mr. Richards taught us about RF and he used Bluetooth to control a little thing that looked like a hover  board and we saw on the device that whenever Mr. Richards moved the control it would change the line on the device. He said that UL was trying to fix radio frequencies because they were interfering with each other. Then he closed the doors and the radio he had on suddenly had no signal and every phone in the Anechioc Chamber had no signal.

Then we walked to were Mrs. Connor worked and they had a earthquake table and were testing some things. Then we went inside and watched then drop a fire helmet and they dropped a bolt on it. Next they shot a bullet at safety glasses and it didn’t break but the reading glasses did. Then we went to the lighting department and saw the engineers testing products. While we were in there  we had to be very quiet so the engineers could focus on their work.

After the lighting department we walked over to Underwriters Laboratories University and ate our lunch. Last we went to a board room and we learned about standards and without them we would be really confused. For example if there were no traffic lights then the cars would hit each other and someone could get hurt. Next we walked around the room and went to try different stuff on. First we went to try on life jackets and who could get one on the fastest. I won my group with getting it on in 15 seconds. Then we went to try on fire fighter gloves and we put them on and tried to pick up these wooden pegs. Last we put on different suits and I put on a Coast Gaurd suit. It was not comfortable and was very heavy. One question I still have is how does UL make standards for different products? I loved going to UL and can’t wait to go another time.

By, Charlie Price