STUDENT PATHS OUTCOMES:
1-1: Students understand their choices of post-secondary options and careers.
IN THIS LESSON, STUDENTS WILL:
Develop a better understanding of careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Read the Student Paths article, “What’s the big deal about STEM?”
MATERIALS:
Reproducible Activity Handout for “Why? Questions”
Access to:
LESSON PROCEDURE:
1. Read article, “What’s the big deal about STEM?” and complete activities on handout (15 minutes).
Distribute Student Paths Publication and give students a few minutes to browse through the publication.
Distribute the Activity Handout and direct student attention to “What’s the big deal about STEM?” article.
Explain the following to students:
The Why? questions in this Handout are designed for critical thinking about figures, data, and how we use evidence to make predictions about the future. We each try to answer these questions to the best of our ability to better develop our own critical thinking skills.
After you complete the 10 questions about the article, it is time to ask your own Why? questions.
What have you always wondered about in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics?
This will be your time to write those questions you always wondered about, and if nothing comes to mind, the task is to start writing all the questions that pique your curiosity.
Provide students time to complete the questions and write their own questions.
This is a challenging task, and the group may need encouragement. Suggest that students skip the most difficult questions and finish them last.
Encourage every student to write their own questions, whatever they may be, because this is a useful way to discover your own interests. A scientist, software developer, and mathematician all have interesting questions to answer. Many of the Why? questions will remain open for interpretation, but most importantly, the questions motivate our actions to find an answer.
Segue into activity to explore STEM-related careers by suggesting that every field and profession has overarching questions.
Conclude the lesson by instructing the students to properly close down their computers.
Encourage students to answer a few of their own questions for homework.
Reproducible Activity Handout
Why? Questions about STEM-related careers
Why? is a fundamental question for learning because it piques curiosity and critical understanding. A good student asks good questions.
How could we know if the answer is correct? What answers are better than others?
Read the article, “What’s the big deal about STEM?” and answer these 10 critical questions:
1) Why would only 5.6% of college graduates in the U.S. have a STEM-related degree?
Why would the author choose to make the comparison to Germany, South Korea, and China?
2) Why would the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predict that the demand for STEM-related jobs will increase significantly?
How would an expert make such a prediction about job growth?
What evidence could suggest that the demand for STEM-related professionals will increase?
3) Why would the fastest growing jobs in the U.S. require math and science skills?
How could all jobs in the future require more math and science skills?
4) In the past, why would fewer women tend to work in STEM-related fields?
Why would women tend to aspire toward STEM-related careers in healthcare and education?
Do you think more women will have STEM-related careers in the future? Why or why not?
5) These 10 questions were provided to pique curiosity and critical thought. Now it is time to ask your own 10 questions that pique your curiosity. The article asks questions and provides other interesting information; you could write a question about these. These 10 questions may be STEM-related or not, the important part is that the question motivates you to continue to search for answers after class.
6) Write 10 questions that pique your curiosity in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, or life in general: