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Health & Fitness

More than 300 children attended Take Our Children To Work Day at MITRE in McLean

Stomp rockets, flying robots, and colorful thermal imaging cameras were among the many thrills at The MITRE Corporation’s 15th annual “Take Our Children to Work Day” celebrated on April 24. Hundreds of youngsters descended on MITRE’s McLean, VA and Bedford, MA locations, taking a crack at science projects and interacting with technical experts. This year’s theme was “Plant a seed. Grow a future,” and coincided with the national “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.” More than 300 children in McLean and over 200 in Bedford participated in demonstrations, workshops, and hands-on activities designed to promote a motivating educational experience.

In McLean, employees from MITRE’s National Security Engineering Center , the federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Department of Defense, kicked off the day by dazzling young and old alike with their demonstration of quadcopter flying robots, which spinned, whirred, and hovered above the crowd assembled in the auditorium. Flying paper, Google Glass demos, coding with Angry Birds characters, learning about sustainable agriculture, biometrics, cybersecurity, and 3-D viewing technologies were highlights for the children aged 8 to 12.

Children also toured the aviation lab in the FAA-sponsored Center for Advanced Aviation System Development aviation lab, eagerly entering the cockpit simulator and seeing an airport through the vantage point of the pilot and air traffic controller. In addition to children and grandchildren of employees, students from Dranesville Elementary School also participated as part of MITRE’s efforts to excite local students about careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

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About The MITRE Corporation

The MITRE Corporation is a not-for-profit organization that operates research and development centers sponsored by the federal government. Our centers support our sponsors with scientific research and analysis, development and acquisition, and systems engineering and integration. We also have an independent research program that explores new and expanded uses of technologies to meet our sponsors’ needs. Our principal locations are in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va. Learn more about MITRE: http://mitre.org.

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