Sullivan Park's Technology Community Women's Forum (TCWN) recently hosted 400 students for its annual Bring Your Child to Work Day event. TCWN has hosted and organized this event within the technology community for more than 20 years for employees who have children ages nine to 16.
"It's one of the longest running programs that the TCWN has been involved with," said Lisa, the TCWN lead for this event. "In addition, more than 200 Sullivan Park employees volunteer their time to assist with lab tours, experiments, and other activities for the students throughout the day. We couldn't run an event this large without the volunteers."
One of the highlights from the day included a magic show demonstration and live experiments with Corporate Fellow Dr. Dana Bookbinder.
"We've created a super-fun chemistry magic show for science education resulting in 400 screaming happy kids and their parents... what more could you ask for?" he said.
The students also enjoyed the robotics demonstration managed by Sam, a Corning employee, and a team of local students who has recently competed in a National Robotics competition.
"It's all worth it when you see a smile on a child when he or she as a part of a team programs the Lego-robot for the first time and they accomplish the task at hand," he said.
For the hands-on activity, the kids were able create a polymer using warm milk and acetic acid (vinegar) and cookie cutters to create the final shape.
"This is a great opportunity for the students to take the excitement and energy around science they've learned throughout the day into a project they can manage and create on their own," Lisa said.
"My favorite part of the event is seeing how proud the Corning employees are to show their children where they work and what the history of Corning is within in Innovation Hall," Lisa said. "It's really a special opportunity and gives the kids a chance to understand what their parents do when they're going to work each day and also introduces them to the cool innovations that are going on right in their back yard at Sullivan Park."
