Discover STEM Careers

Background Information for Teachers

STEM occupations are projected to grow more than twice as fast (8%) as all non-STEM occupations (3.4%) by 2029,¹ and by 2025, there will be an estimated 3.5 million STEM jobs that need to be filled in the U.S. As of 2019, STEM jobs had a median annual wage of $86,980, more than double that of non-STEM jobs at $38,160.² But a small share of students, especially in lower-income schools, will be ready for future high-paying opportunities available with STEM degrees.³

Many students don't know about the potential of even aiming for STEM degrees. A challenge is that economic opportunities are changing faster than young people can learn about them on their own:

• 50% of students surveyed in an OECD PISA study expect to work in one of 10 popular jobs by the age of 30 (similar to results in 2000) despite vast economic, scientific, and technological change. Young people are not reacting to labor market signaling.
• A top-ten popular career in the U.S. is doctor. But there are accessible, high-growth jobs with similar qualities (like Cardiovascular Technologists) that students can also consider.

Many of these high-demand careers are available with two-year degrees or certifications. So, how can teachers seize this opportunity to spark students' interest in achievable pathways to pursuing a variety of interesting STEM careers?

First, to get students interested in STEM in a way that lasts, start in middle school. In a study of STEM college majors, those who expected to pursue a STEM career in middle school were 1.9 times more likely to actually pursue a STEM career.⁴ And "...developmental and brain research confirms that by middle grades, students are capable of making connections between their academic work, their personal interests and career aptitudes."⁵

Second, since middle school students are developmentally ready, using a tool like the Career Discovery Tool can be vital in broadening students' perceptions that STEM opportunities connect to their interests and potential educational pathways. The program may surprise some students that STEM careers do connect to their own interests. Other students may realize at a deeper level why a certain STEM career has always appealed to them. And teachers guide them in this discovery.

Additional Background Links

• Career and Technical Education: Support your teen's STEM future, Our Children, National PTA's Unique Voice for Parents
• Dream Jobs? Teenagers' Career Aspirations and the Future of Work, OECD
• A Step in the Right Direction: Career Exploration in Middle School, New America
• Employment Projections, Bureau of Labor Statistics
• 50% of Undergraduates Aren't Earning Bachelor's Degrees; Here's What They're Studying Instead, CNBC

Prep Work (30 minutes)

• Register for your own Career Discovery account. Take the quick science interest survey. Review your own career suggestions. Click into several Career Profiles. Pick up to three favorite careers. These steps will help you feel more comfortable presenting the tool to the class.
• Decide which lesson components you would like to implement.
• Print out a Student worksheet for each student or share the pdf with all your students in Google Drive for each hour that you are teaching.

Engage (5 minutes)

The Mystery Ice Cream

1. Explore with students the difficulty of setting or choosing a career goal when they don't know the meaning of the career by looking at a fun analogy of an ice cream store.

   Imagine you aren't picking a career but you are picking a flavor of ice cream! Let's visit an Ice Cream store with a funny menu. On this menu, would you like to order the third item, the Walaba flavor?

   
   
   

   But, what if I told you, "Walaba flavor=mint chocolate chip?" Who likes mint chocolate chip? Now who likes Walaba? Have a poll or show of hands. Who likes Walaba and who doesn't? You have to figure out that mint chocolate chip = Walaba to know that you like it.

2. Make a connection with careers. If a career has an odd name, it's impossible to know if it fits with your interests. In this lesson, tell the students they will take an online survey that finds their interests and matches them to careers, even those with odd names, like Walaba. And the program will tap into 162 careers but find personalized matches for each student.

Explore (35 minutes)

1. Tell students that the goal of this lesson is for them to find a group of STEM careers that interest them.
2. Introduce the Career Discovery Tool to your students and explain that while using the tool, they will answer easy questions about their interests, find out careers that match what they like to do, decide which of those careers they like best, and become inspired to learn more about them.
3. Provide each student with an electronic device that has access to the Career Discovery Tool.
   1. The tool will automatically ask students to register to get an account. If they have an account with Science Buddies, they will need to answer a few more questions.
   2. All students will need to rate a few statements about their knowledge of STEM careers—this will help Science Buddies improve the program.
   3. Then, the tool will automatically take them into a survey of their interests. Remind them to consider each question carefully.
4. Students will see results arranged in three bands based on educational investment.
   1. Two years and below: AA and below
      • Point out that there are many well-paying, in-demand STEM careers that require certifications or two-year degrees. It is not necessary to get a four-year degree to have an exciting career in STEM. Fully 50% of talent recruiters at Fortune 1,000 companies find it difficult to fill the openings they have for STEM jobs requiring two-year degrees, according to a survey by Bayer Corporation.¹ These are the types of jobs that students who are interested in STEM now may be able to fill in the future.
      • Students will find out more about educational options in this category when they read about individual careers. In general, this category might include a full AA degree, courses at a community college to get a certificate, apprenticeships, or on-the-job training after getting a high-school diploma.
   2. Four years: Usually, a Bachelor's degree, which takes four years for a student studying full-time
   3. More than 4 years: Master of Arts or Master of Science, typically two years after a Bachelor's degree for a student studying full-time; Doctoral degree (Ph.D.), typically four years after a Bachelor's degree for a student studying full-time; or a professional degree, which can include an M.D. or law degree.
5. Prompt students to narrow down choices by completing the Pick and Rate Your Favorite Careers portion of the Student Worksheet. Give students the goal of favoriting at least three careers.
   1. Ask students to click into careers they like and look at the "What do they do?" photos and captions and "Overview and Key Facts" sections at the top of the page for each career.
   2. For each of their favorited careers: Challenge students to write one sentence (see the worksheet for a template), "I want to be a _________, because I ________________." They should be able to do this quick assessment just from information in the "Overview and Key Facts" section of each Career Profile.

   Have you favorited careers that are surprising to you? What are they? Why are they surprising? Name some examples.

   Did you favorite some "Walaba" careers? Careers with names that you didn't know before?

   If possible, ask students to write one of their careers on the whiteboard and even challenge them to come up with an icon to represent it.
6. For each of their favorited careers:
   1. Complete the rest of the worksheet sections. Let students know that they can find quick facts, like Fit, Salary, and In Demand, on the cards from their My Careers page. (These also appear in the "Overview and Key Facts" section).
      • Great Fit and Good Fit: The Career Discovery Tool suggests careers based on a combination of the way that a student responds to the science interest survey questions. A Great Fit is a stronger match. The My Careers are just a starting point for students in their career discovery process as they choose their favorites and research further.
      • In Demand careers: The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the total number of jobs that will be available in each occupation in ten years. The percentage increase (or decrease) between that number and the current number of jobs is the growth rate (or reduction rate) for the occupation. If the career's growth rate is faster than average, it is in demand.
   2. If the class is continuing with research, this is a great time to think of questions about their careers.

Reflect (10 minutes)

Discuss as a class what careers students found and how they feel about them.

For those interested in Walaba careers with mysterious names, why do you like them? What is your "I want to... because..." sentence?

Who is interested in a career they've heard of before (which is great, too)? Why? What is your "I want to... because..." sentence?

How many of you feel more interested in STEM careers than before today?

Assess

• Ask students to take the post-survey available with the Career Discovery Tool.
• Have all students log out.
• Get students' feedback about the Career Discovery program in general (especially if you are concluding at this point): software ease-of-use, reading level, whether career suggestions seemed like a good fit, whether the process was fun, etc.
• Review students' worksheets.