Eat some of UC Davis' tastiest inventions. Build a DNA model out of Legos. Learn how to fix a flat tire on your bicycle. Visit the Dairy Barn.

All of this and more await our children on Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, April 24. Academic units and other departments all across campus are organizing free programs for children 8 to 12, so, when they accompany us to work that day, there will be plenty for them to see and do.

Registration is still under way, with organizers expecting sign-ups to meet or exceed the 200 boys and girls who participated last year.

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work — called TODS for short at UC Davis — is a national event aimed at exposing children to career opportunities, and showing children how their parents can successfully integrate their work lives and other interests, including family and community.

"This is why WorkLife runs TODS," said Paula Driver Shimada, coordinator of Human Resources' WorkLife unit. WorkLife provides referrals, outreach, education and programming to help employees merge the work and nonwork halves of their lives.

For example, among the scheduled TODS activities is Meet the Artist, with Angela Oates, events planner for the Department of Plant Sciences.

"She has a day job, and she loves that," Shimada said. "But she is an artist, too, and she will give her perspective on the importance of having interests outside the workplace."

Oates plans to be available to visit with children from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, where she is exhibiting some of her artwork.

Shimada also gave the example of Dawn Capp, whose day job is assistant director of employee and labor relations. Outside of work, she trains service dogs — canines that assist people with disabilities. For TODS, Capp has organized a dog demonstration from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the area between the Silo and the Bike Barn.

TODS activities are divided into four categories: Arts and Culture, Science, Nature and Campus Life. Finally, toward the end of the day, TODS offers a general program called At a Crossroads: Choices After High School, presented by Panna Putnam, a college admissions counselor with UC Davis Extension.

The TODS schedule describes Putnam's 4 to 5 p.m. program as follows: "There are many choices after high school — going directly to college is just one of them. … Come and participate in a fun, interactive activity to identify your interests that can be pursued in various ways after high school."

To read about more TODS activities, click here.