A STEM Day organized by one of TechnipFMC’s employee resource groups in Houston, Texas, was bigger than ever – even after going virtual to stay safe from COVID-19.

Now in its fourth year, the event sets out to encourage schoolchildren to think about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

BOLD – Black Organization for Leadership and Development – is one of our employee resource groups and the STEM Day is one of its big annual events.

By taking it online in an interactive event platform, the BOLD team was able to reach a record number of young people, with 396 registered attendees, up from 265 last year.

Virtual sessions were split into four age groups, from kindergarten to high school, with four 45-minute activities for each.

Members of our team, as well as external experts including Hip Hop Scientist Maynard Okereke, were the presenters and conducted experiments. And every participant was supplied with a STEM kit so they could join in at home.

James Marshall, HSE Manager Umbilicals & REMS Programs/Surface, is a vice president of BOLD and one of the organizers. His experiment involved making polymer marbles “disappear”.
James said, “The first experiment of the day was a chef making ice cream using dry ice. Instant ice cream really grabs the attention!

“It’s really important to get kids interested in science at a young age, so we designed a program of engaging, safe experiments that they can join in at home.

“We also took the opportunity to show off what STEM can achieve, so there was a live demo of our Gemini® ROV in action, courtesy of our colleagues at Schilling Robotics.

“And we were joined by students from the University of Houston who talked about opportunities for careers in STEM.”

Tai Prince, Senior QHSES Programs Specialist and President of BOLD, is the creator of the event and also an organizer. She said, “This year was the first year we’ve extended the event further than Houston and that’s because of the virtual environment. The beauty of going virtual is that the whole program is recorded and will be available for a year, so anyone, anywhere in the company has 12 months to get their kids involved.”

BOLD STEM Day is one part of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts, and helps us make a difference in our communities while promoting STEM careers.