Some kids enjoyed a day full of learning, but not at school. They’re at Take Your Child to Work Day at Nalco Water, an Ecolab company.
“Our program is very unique in that we’re able to bring some of the technology that Nalco Water offers into a program to help teach the kids and they do it in a format where I don’t think they know they’re learning,” said Melissa Campbell, marketing manager with the Digital Solutions group at Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company. “So the idea is to make it fun.”
This year they welcomed 80 employee children ages eight to twelve, who spent the day learning through hands on experiments.
Attendee Will C. explains his favorite part, which was an experiment involving separating the water out of milk. “My favorite part was probably this because it was so cool when all the parts of the milk turned into a solid ball and came down,” said Will.
Groups of kids rotated through the demonstrations, learning ways water is purified, water conservation techniques and even about the critters contained within a drop of water.
“We see this program as giving them kind of a jumpstart and helping expose them to science and technology and helping them to see that it’s fun, it’s not scary, it’s definitely fun and there’s opportunities to have it as a career some day,” said Campbell.
The company runs this program in the summer so kids don’t have to miss school to participate.
Campbell adds, “Also, we like doing it right before school starts because we feel it helps them get back in the mode of thinking about school, thinking about science, thinking about math right before school starts.”
But even if they aren’t science inclined, it was still a chance to soak up some knowledge.
“I’m not really that interested in science, but my aunt works here and she was telling me how they use science to help some of the world’s problems and I thought that was pretty interesting,” said Aarushi K., a 12-year-old attendee.
Several of the experiments took place in the company’s new Water University training facility, which will have its official ribbon cutting in October.
Naperville News 17’s Evan Summers reports.