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All,
I have been listening to this presentation on college and career readiness
What Does It Really Mean to Be College and Work Ready?
The Mathematics and English Literacy Required of First Year Community College Students
The study was done by the national center on education and the economy
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Carolyn
One of the points made in the presentations is that math and science are cumulative. If a child falls behind by grade 8 he or she is unlikely to be ready to pursue a STEM career. If students were exposed to STEM career options early and understood the skills required, perhaps this would provide motivation. Having a goal can support persistence and resilience in the face of challenge.
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In an effort to support states as they work to help local education agencies increase the participation and completion of students in nontraditional career and technical education programs, the NAPE Education Foundation, in partnership with Career Communications, Inc., develops a Parent Edition of the American Careers Magazine each year. This edition is focused on nontraditional careers, highlighting nontraditional role models, sharing information about nontraditional careers, wage earning potential, and economic self-sufficiency.
[url=http://www.napequity.org/nape-content/uploads/American-Careers-2013-Highlight-and-Order-Form.pdf]
The publication is available in Spanish and can be ordered here [/url]
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I recently came across this blogpost where author Kenneth Hardman has creates stories about various careers in engineering. These can be downloaded free in adobe acrobat. He has also assembled them into a Kindle compatible ebook
[url=http://stemstories.wordpress.com/?goback=.gde_1146517_member_271701730#!]
Engineering Stories[/url]
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I also think that students should be exposed to STEM career options at an early age, but as they approach college I think it is imperative that you stress the importance of internships within their field. If students choose to pursue a STEM career they need to realize just how competitive the job market is today. I chose to obtain my bachelors in biology. When I graduated I realized jobs in my field were extremely competitive. I chose to do a nine month unpaid internship just to make myself marketable. I love to encourage my students to pursue a STEM related career, but I make sure they know what it takes to land a job after graduation.
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Good question. I know that I was not college ready when I left High School. I was work ready, but not of a career that involved Science. While my retail and sales experiences were great, if students are not aware of the jobs that exist, they won’t be motivated to obtain them. I lacked a goal and motivation.
As it pertains to Science careers, Science cannot serve only as a fun class that you dissect a frog in. The connections to “real” applications NEED to be made. I think, to often students fail to realize that the process of looking at a pig’s organs is similar to the process a doctor may use to perform a surgery. Educators need to make these connections better careers and the skills students are learning. The weather person on TV is not the ONLY weather person working at a TV network to deliver the weather. There are teams of weather people doing a multitude of jobs that are Science related.
I feel that if we bring the real applications of our lessons to students, they will extend our lessons past the classroom and look to apply them in their future careers.
Here is a good read, not Science specific but interesting…
http://www.ncee.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/NCEE_ExecutiveSummary_May2013.pdf
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