At nVent, supporting our communities is part of our culture and values. Through the nVent Foundation and our broader nVent in Action program, we empower our employees to give to the causes they care about. As part of Global Volunteerism Month in May, we will be spotlighting some of our community partners.
The final philanthropic partner we are highlighting is Science from Scientists. nVent has recently started partnering with this organization. Science from Scientists (SciSci) provides engaging science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs to schools and organizations.
To address the STEM workforce gap, Dr. Erika Ebbel Angle, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a doctorate in biochemistry from Boston University School of Medicine, founded SciSci in 2002.
SciSci’s mission is to teach and inspire the next generation to identify and solve real-world problems by improving STEM literacy. The organization delivers STEM programming across California, Massachusetts and Minnesota.
SciSci’s goal is to ensure our nation’s youth is competitive globally in STEM fields through exciting, informative and engaging lessons taught by practicing scientists. Its lesson topics address many standards within the new Next Generation Science Standards and other state standards. SciSci Educators are real scientists who serve as positive role models. They deliver hands-on, minds-on STEM lessons in schools every other week during the school year. Roughly 80% of its partner teachers reported their students more strongly believe they could work in STEM someday due to SciSci programming.
Recently, nVent employees volunteered alongside SciSci to build 250 STEM kits for Twin Cities elementary and middle school students. Youth engaging with the kit will have the opportunity to see the rainbow by exploring chromatography, a technique for the separation, purification and testing of compounds. Students collect and interpret data that will show them the variety of food dyes present in brightly-colored candy. These take-home kits include a small booklet with instructions and a featured Scientist Spotlight—an actual scientist who uses chromatography in their work. The instructions also include a QR code to scan to watch a video of one of our Scientist Educators explaining how to do the chromatography lesson.
“We are so thankful for nVent’s incredible support of Science from Scientists' work in underserved Twin Cities and Bay Area elementary and middle school classrooms as well as their amazing staff participating in volunteer events like the STEM kit build.” said Samantha Nienow, CDO at SciSci. “These efforts make a difference in improving students’ attitudes and aptitudes towards STEM and spark curiosity and interest for more young people to pursue STEM careers.”
Learn more about our partner: https://www.sciencefromscientists.org.