REGION — To help expose students to STEM, MilliporeSigma—the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, with facilities in Carlsbad and Temecula — created the Curiosity Cube—a 22-foot-by-10-foot retrofitted shipping container turned mobile science lab.
From March 4 through March 10, the Curiosity Cube will be in the San Diego area, bringing hands-on learning experiences to local schools. Students will use virtual reality, digital microscopes and other scientific instruments to learn about different types of contamination through three interactive experiments.
The Curiosity Cube will bring learning experiences—led by real-life MilliporeSigma scientists—to students through more than 220 events in communities across the U.S., Canada and Europe this year.
The cube will be open to the public at the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 4 at PETCO Park, 100 Park Blvd., San Diego.
It will visit area schools including Calavera Hills Middle School in Carlsbad; Jefferson Middle School in Oceanside and T.H.E. Leadership Academy in Oceanside.
The interactive mobile science lab aims to help close the gap in Title 1 schools, where more than half (53%) of students miss out on the opportunity to experience hands-on science. In 2022, 89% of the schools the Curiosity Cube visited in the U.S. are classified as Title 1—schools where many students are on free or reduced lunch programs and receive other federal support because the student population comes from low-income backgrounds.
