A Potentially Exposive Career

You see these men and women on TV shows as they attempt to disarm a device that is perceived to be explosive in nature. As a bomb specialist they not only disarm bombs but they actually inv... See More

You see these men and women on TV shows as they attempt to disarm a device that is perceived to be explosive in nature. As a bomb specialist they not only disarm bombs but they actually investigate and apprehend the person or persons who created it. These dedicated people are forensic scientists who analyze evidence and use reasoning and logic to discover the nature of the bomb. After an undergraduate degree you need to become a police officer and then specialize in this area with further schooling. This would interest many adventurous students.

Motivational Reading Material

This article has proved very popular among my 8th Grade Career Research students. Many of them aspire to a career in medicine (I teach in a Medical Magnet school) but they also enjoy the id... See More

This article has proved very popular among my 8th Grade Career Research students. Many of them aspire to a career in medicine (I teach in a Medical Magnet school) but they also enjoy the idea of using forensics and critical thinking skills – modeling the bomb investigators they see in TV shows. This article was especially suitable for students who would like to be more proficient readers because it was a manageable length (just one page); students were motivated to read to the end of the article because the material was so engaging. This Career of The Month series of interviews from the NSTA publication "The Science Teacher" is special because the articles they tell you not only what the ‘job’ is like on a day to day basis, but they also explain the college/career path which the person took – not every path is what you would expect! My students read and made notes on several of these articles, then wrote a compare/contrast essay about the style of interview questions. They are now busy compiling a portfolio of Career Interviews by interviewing adult relations and friends, and writing up their findings in a similar format to the Career of the Month interviews. To encourage students to use their own words I asked students to submit the written text of their interviews to turnitin.com; so far only job titles have appeared in the Similarity Match. The Career of the Month Interviews inspired my students to think outside the box about their own career dreams, and to explore the careers of those around them in depth.