STEM careers are everywhere. Do we take the time needed to instruct our students about STEM careers or any other career enough? Teachers focus on standard instruction daily. I find that standards are missing the connection to career education although their aim is to prepare students for the “beyond the classroom” life. So what do we do?
What are STEM Careers?
Each and every day, teachers have the opportunity to make connections to STEM careers. Every time they pick up a pencil, an opportunity is missed. Who made this pencil? Who designed it? What features were focused on during the design? Who marketed it? Where is it sold? How did it get here? See what I mean? The opportunities are there, constantly. Make everyday an opportunity to deliver instruction on STEM careers or careers in general. What would be even better? Create students who ask these questions. They will become STEMolgists themselves. Nifty little word there that refers to all STEM careers.
STEM Careers List
In my classroom, I have what many call a Morning Meeting area. STEAM Corner is the name I use. Integrating the arts within STEM is very important to me. This anchor chart lives there with a set of questions on a ring that remind my students and myself of questions that scientists, tech experts, engineers, artists, and mathematicians may ask when they make observations. Our students aren’t aware of how STEAM experts see the world, or how they think. We take the time each day to view something and analyze it as a STEM expert. Throughout this post, I may use the words STEM and STEAM interchangeably. They are one entity. STEAM is STEM with arts enhancement. The main focus in my classroom is STEAM.
STEM Careers Quiz
This is an example of a visual my classroom has observed. It is a roll cloud. This phenomena happens when different air flows quickly roll a front moving in. Limitless questions are available that a scientists may ask. How did this happen? What does it mean? How would the other STEAMologists see this visual? What would an artist notice and think of? A mathematician? A tech expert? An engineer? This discussion would take place over a week. This time during the day is much anticipated by students because well… they get to talk. They do love to talk! My job is to record their discussions. I have a nifty addition to my bulletin board that helps me do this. Enter the old jeans pocket.
STEM Careers List for Students
It takes quite a few weeks to prepare students to share the perspectives of scientists, engineers, tech experts, artists, and mathematicians. I take about one week at the beginning of each year to give focused instruction on each one for a total of five weeks. Within that week we read books about them, complete similar tasks as they would, make multiple observations, and go on many school walks to find more things to observe. They create a portfolio just for all these careers that can be accessed during our daily STEAM corner talks. We get active with each career, as well. During tech expert week, we participate in unplugged coding. During scientist week, we use Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning and experiment. You get the point. Each challenge is heavily anticipated during this time.
STEM Careers in Science
If you have a STEM/STEAM based classroom, STEM journals are a must. This is a place for students to put their thoughts, not copy me. I model charting their thoughts as they discuss during STEAM corner time. At the end of each week, we use the STEM/STEAM journals to put in what the STEAM Corner has explained to use throughout the week. I ask students to choose the STEM/STEAM career that they reflected on the most. They usually sketch the visual from the STEAM Corner, and then add their thoughts, questions, and a-ha moments. Yes, we have a-ha moments. Students love to say a-ha, but this has to be modeled for them, too. I don’t want to give too much influence into the STEAM journal entry other than the topic. I often choose exemplar journal entries to post in the classroom.
STEM Careers Poster
Taking the time to teach specifically about each career, and then bringing it back to discussion each day makes my life in the STEAM classroom easy. I don’t have to have painfully long wait times for students to tell me their thoughts. I don’t even have to remember this routine. They do it all for me. Sometimes, I believe they could run the classroom without me. I can’t let them have all the fun, though.
I have additional information about the STEAM Corner here. It truly is a must do for the classroom. It’s very easy to add this to Morning Meeting time which I am a firm believer in, no matter the grade level! Do you need some resources for teaching about STEM careers? Check out what I use!
What makes you feel good when students have discussions? What is your main goal? Read about a few of my goals in Student Led Discussions.
Check out my ultimate guide for starting a STEM/STEAM classroom: 9 Steps to turning your classroom into STEM/STEAM classroom in any subject!
