News
December 1, 2016GLOBALFOUNDRIES Partners with miSci to Provide Hands-On STEM Education Programs to Underserved Youth
GLOBALFOUNDRIES has partnered with miSci (museum of innovation and science) to provide STEM education to historically-underserved communities in the Capital Region. Through a $10,000 grant, GLOBALFOUNDRIES will enable 300 middle school-aged students from five regional Boys and Girls Clubs to experience the immersive science programs and interactive galleries at miSci during school break in February 2017. The students’ agenda for “GLOBALFOUNDRIES Week at miSci” will include a mission at the Challenger Leaning Center (CLC), a show in the Suits-Bueche Planetarium, and exploration of miSci’s hands-on galleries.
“Experiential learning engages students in critical thinking, problem solving and decision making,” said Dr. Thomas Caulfield, senior vice president and general manager of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 8. “The Challenger Learning Center program will provide each student the opportunity to become astronauts and engineers and work as a team to solve unexpected, real-world problems as they complete a simulated space mission.”
“At GLOBALFOUDNRIES, we are committed to making investments of time, money, technology, and volunteer expertise to help improve the quality of life in our communities” said Steven Grasso, Corporate Communications Manager. “The partnership with miSci is a natural fit as we both share the same desire to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.”
In year one, the GLOBALFOUNDRIES funding will provide admission, round-trip transportation and box lunches to sixty students from each of five regional Boys and Girls Clubs, including: Albany, Lansingburgh, Schenectady, Southern Rensselaer and Troy. miSci President William Sudduth, PhD and the Education team at miSci, have developed a customized agenda for the program, to include an advance workshop for the Boys and Girls Clubs’ leaders, and activities to be completed by the students prior to coming to the science center. Club leaders will work with selected students to assign roles for their CLC missions and design astronaut “patches” for their mission crews. The students’ missions will be tailored to their grade levels and will be complemented by planetarium shows with related subject matter. miSci educators will also provide lessons to extend learning from the museum’s current exhibits, which will include Discover Butterflies, The Living House, and Tinkering.
“miSci is thrilled about its new partnership with GLOBALFOUNDRIES,” said miSci President Dr. William Sudduth. “Corporate partners like GLOBALFOUNDRIES make it possible for miSci to deliver its mission, so we are grateful for their good citizenship and commitment to STEM education in our community. We are excited to work with the Fab 8 team and to host an ‘out-of-this-world’ February break for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Capital Region in 2017.”
GLOBALFOUNDRIES celebrated its new partnership with miSci at its annual FAB 8 Open House on November 10, 2016 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM. “GLOBALFOUNDRIES Week at miSci” will occur February 20-24, 2017, with one Boys and Girls Club visiting from 8:45 AM to 2:15 PM each day that week.
