Record attendance for 2019 Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

In lieu of school on April 25, ESF employees and students brought 44 8–11 yr olds from 30 area schools to try their hands at a variety of ESF-fostered careers during the college's 26th annual Take our Kids to Work Day program (AKA Kids' Day).

Over the course of the day, kids built terrariums with Linda McGuigan, Allison Oakes and Hannah Pilkey, who work on the Chestnut Project.  They explored a few chemical reactions on paper prior to activating self-inflating balloons with Chemistry’s Kate Bailie.  They developed storyboards with Sarah Grabman of the new Digital Storytelling Studio.    

Teams, each given the same materials and coached by a member of either Engineering for a Sustainable Society or Engineers without Borders, competed to most effectively remove particulates through Water Filtration (staff support provided by Karen Karker, Instructional Support Specialist, Environmental Resources Engineering).  Following a quick lesson on bird anatomy and habit, EFB graduate students Laine McCall and Ravyn Neville took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and lead a Bird Walk across campus and into Oakwood Cemetary.  Because life is more than work, we also featured an art session!  Kids upcycled materials that Maura Stefl, Office of Experiential Learning and Outreach, waylaid from the wastestreams from campus (curtains and cardboard), homes (fence posts), and a small business (mitten scraps) into a succulent plantscape.  Cool lessons:  art flowers don’t need to look like any that exist in real life!  Take inspiration from the colors and textures of the materials, and add dimension. (Thank you: Mark Poupore for cutting fenceposts to size; Lauren Gibbs, Laura Crandall, Julie Fishman, Brad Fierke, for their help with glue guns.) The day concluded with Heather Engelman, Forest and Natural Resource Management and We All Need Trees, a rapid examination of a number of household products and foods that make use of tree products for strength, flavor, and texture, and some ties to ESF’s programs of study.

After the formal program, kids reunited with their adults and headed to a few Earth Week programs, including perennial favorites Birds of Prey and Tie Dye.

We also thank:  

• Group Guides Brad Fierke, Julie Fishman, Laura Crandall, Amy McGuigan, Malika Carter, Jackie Whitehead, Lenny Leonard, and Linda McGuigan, with the assistance of Philippe Vidon, Erin Tochelli, Katherina Searing and Sarah Houck. 
• Lunch team: Mark Bremer, Linda McGuigan, Katherina Searing, Andy Marshall, Josh Arnold, Kathy Lang, Lena Randall.  
• Photographers: Heather Engelman and Julie Fishman.  
  
• Offices that contributed stuff for kids to carry out activities: 
• ALUMNI RELATIONS and the ESF CAMPUS BOOKSTORE, pencils and magnets; Communications, sunglasses; 
• SU BOOKSTORE, pencils; 
• PROVOST’s OFFICE and ESF WOMEN’S CAUCUS, lunch, snacks, color printing, notebooks, some terrarium supplies; 
•  CHESTNUT PROJECT, plants, potting media, distilled water, and other components for the terrariums; 
•  PHYSICAL PLANT and MORRISVILLE AUXILLIARY SERVICES, set & clean up;
• COPY CENTER, B/W printing.    
• Office of Research Programs, Janice O'Mara, and Tom LeRoy for their assistance with program compliance with SUNY’s Child Protection Policy

For more photos, please visit our album.

Sexual Harassment can cost NAS membership

The National Academy of Sciences now has a way to expel harassers, as well as perpetrators of scientific misconduct, reported Megan Theilking of Statnews  “Under the new amendment announced [June 3, 2019], NAS will allow people to present evidence that a member of the prestigious scientific organization has violated its code of conduct, which prohibits discrimination, harassment, and scientific misconduct. The 17-person governing council will then vote on whether to expel that member. Up until now, there hasn’t been a way to revoke lifetime membership.”

NAS itself reports “the amendment was approved by a large margin, with 84% voting for the amendment.”