NSF International Focuses on Science and the Environment on “Bring Your Child to Work Day”

Posted: Apr 29, 2011 at 11:55 AM [Apr 29, 2011]

A group of 8 and 9-year-olds pose in front of the NSF Scrub Club characters at NSF’s Bring Your Kid to Work Day event: http://bit.ly/mPyfkF.

 

NSF International, an Ann Arbor-based organization committed to protecting public health and the environment, hosted a special event yesterday in honor of Bring Your Child to Work Day. More than 100 kids participated in this year’s event, which featured hands-on lab experiments conducted by NSF International’s own microbiologists, chemists, toxicologists and engineers to get kids interested in science and emphasize why it’s important to protect public health and the environment.

 

Activities included:

- Chemistry Lab: NSF chemists demonstrated how to chemically separate the rainbow of colors in black ink.

 

- Micro Lab: NSF microbiologists showed the children Petri dishes containing bacteria from a dog's mouth and a cat's tongue to explain the importance of proper handwashing in preventing the spread of germs. 

 

- Drinking water treatment testing lab: NSF scientists demonstrated how they test drinking water filters.

 

- Food equipment lab: NSF engineers demonstrated how refrigerators, dishwashers and other equipment are tested to ensure safer food such as ice cream, which the kids also sampled.

 

- Pressure testing lab: NSF engineers showed how they test plumbing pipes used in homes to ensure they can withstand typical water pressures. They do this by filling a pipe with water until it explodes!

 

- Calibration Lab: NSF’s laboratory calibration officer demonstrated how special lasers measure surface temperature. 

 

- Mechanical plumbing lab: NSF engineers demonstrated how they use a special robotic sink to test faucets and valves.

 

- Toy Lab: NSF engineers demonstrated how they conduct physical (e.g. flammability, choking hazards) and chemical (e.g. heavy metal) testing on toys.

 

- ScrubClub.org Station:  The kids took a picture with the Scrub Club® characters and played fun handwashing games on scrubclub.org.

 

For more information about NSF International, visit nsf.org/consumer.