Community

Barry site's support for education

We have an active program of working with students and teachers in schools close to our site to help support science, math and technology. We also work to encourage pupils to develop skills that they will need in their future careers. Our employees are regularly involved in working with students either here at the site or in the classroom.

National Science and Engineering Week at Dow Corning, Barry

National Science and Engineering Week aims to promote science subjects in school children across the UK. It is run by the British Science Association. The week runs each year in mid-March and since 1997 Dow Corning has been involved by inviting primary school children from local schools to visit the site for hands-on experiments. Experiments are linked to Dow Corning and our products so the children get to handle real silicone materials and they can see how science has an application to the wider world.

Dressed in aprons, gloves and safety glasses, the children are challenged to imagine they are Dow Corning scientists working on a project to help one of our customers. The children work through a worksheet on an experiment that is designed to support the National Curriculum and demonstrate that science can be relevant, interesting and fun. Experiments laid on at Dow Corning can often give teachers some new ideas that they can use in their classrooms

Many Dow Corning employees help out during the week-long program giving up their time to guide students through their tasks. Working on a one-to-two ratio allows all children to be on-task regardless of ability.

In 2012, children were asked to use chromatography to separate colors in hard sugar-shelled sweets. Using water and paint brushes, color was extracted and a dabbed onto special chromatography paper. By dipping this into water, as water soaks up the paper it drags the color components apart and the children were able to identify the constituent 'E' numbers making that color for the sweet coating. Class results were compared and discussed.  

Extracting colors of sweets is all part of our Science Week activities in 2012

Examples of our school link activities:

Math Mentoring

Our 2012 Math Mentoring scheme developed what we did in 2011. Various schools from the local area brought their young students on day release to the Barry site's education center. Led by our education officer, they covered math topics such as multiplication, fractions and mental arithmetic. Using the accompanying nature area the students then took time to find practical ways of applying what they had just learned. The day long programme has proved very successful and more than 70 children were able to participate. Students were in Year 7 (11 year olds).

Other school activities

Throughout the year we are actively involved in other school activities. Activities we support include:

• Interview experience - where our employees provide mock interviews for students to gain experience in this area
• Work experience preparation - employees will often provide presentations to young students heading out on work experience on what employers expect and what the world of work is like.
• Work experience - Dow Corning Barry site will provide many placements for young students (14 years old) to help them appreciate the different job roles in an industrial company
• Industry Days - we will support activities at schools where the students learn about big business and the expectations of large employers
• Young Enterprise - Dow Corning employees have taken part in guiding fledgling enterprise companies at a local school. The scheme helps young people understand how a business runs - making a product and selling it developing their marketing skills, IT skills, teamwork skills and organizational skills. 

Education Center

Our nature area and education center is being well used by school groups. Wildlife and nature studies play an important role in the school curriculum and an early age and local schools value having the nature reserve close to their school. We regularly host nature days for employees' children during school vacations too.  Look out for community events at the education center where we will put on events for local residents. These will be advertised in our newsletters .Our education officer would be happy to discuss activities at the center tailored to your needs.