Unlocking Curiosity in St. Louis With MilliporeSigma’s Curiosity Cube
With more than 2,000 employees and eight facilities in St. Louis, MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is committed to inspiring the STEM talent of the future. To help increase interest in STEM for students across St. Louis, MilliporeSigma enhanced its Curiosity Cube, which resides at the company’s Laclede facility, with an updated look and new lessons, and hosted an unveiling ceremony with local students.
Pictures of three future scientists, who are children of MilliporeSigma employees, adorn the Curiosity Cube’s exterior. Margarett Wolf, St. Louis employee and parent of a child featured on the Curiosity Cube, is proud to see her daughter as one of the faces of the Cube. As Margarett stated during the ceremony, “It’s hard to be what you can’t see. Letting other kids know that anyone can be a scientist can help push more people from a diverse background into these careers.”
The unveiling was part of Camp Leaders of Color (LOC), a half-day summer camp comprised of children or grandchildren of employees organized by the company’s LOC resource group. During the event, campers stepped inside the Curiosity Cube and learned about sustainability through the lens of the lifecycle of a t-shirt from MilliporeSigma scientists who led the experiments.
Jeffrey Whitford, Vice President of Sustainability and Social Business Innovation, shared similar sentiments about the importance of representation in filling tomorrow’s STEM jobs in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed. “We need to do a better job at making sure students see themselves as scientists now and in the future. If we can do this, we can drive more students into the STEM workforce pipeline to fill tomorrow’s jobs and solve tomorrow’s problems.” Continue reading Jeffrey’s thoughts on the need to expand the educational pipeline to STEM careers in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
To learn more about the Curiosity Cube mobile science lab and view the 2024 tour schedule, visit TheCuriosityCube.com and follow the Curiosity Cube on Instagram @curiositycube_milliporesigma.
