Create A VB Application That Allows Engineers To Sign Out Equipment?

I'm a fairly new programmer so you'll have to bear with me on this. Basically, I have a database with 3 tables, Engineers, Equipment and Signouts. I want to create a VB application that allows engineers to sign out equipment. I have all of the forms setup the way I want, and have followed a tutorial online for how to connect to the database with the MySQL .NET Connector. I have 3 forms, and have a class with all of my global variables in it. All I have managed to thus far, is define connStr as a global variable, and use it to run a connection test when the main form starts up.

My next job is to query for information about an engineer based on their ID. I have a text input box, and a button to click, and then way to display the retreived information on the next page. I have setup variables for the returned values to be put against, so they can be displayed on the form.

My question is, when the button is clicked, how do I make the application query the database based on the ID, and then use the information it returns (Engineers ID, Name and Telephone Number) to assign those values to the variables? Also, on a side note, instead of using forms, I want to use panels, is there a sub routine similar to form_load for using panels when they are shown/hidden?