Workforce Development

Student engagement is strongest when learning is experiential - when it takes place in an applied setting and involves real-world problem-solving. Design challenges, wherein students work on teams to propose, design, build and test solutions to community, societal, or industry problems are great contexts for experiential learning. As well, they provide an opportunity for students to learn empathy, as they interact with stakeholders in the design process.

From Kindergarten through PhD

We know that if we are going to affect the career trajectories of the next generation, we will have to engage early – when students are forming likes and dislikes  – as well as often – across the age/grade continuum - so that there is a “next step” available for each learner.

Formal AND Informal

For STEM outreach to succeed in bringing new youth participants onboard to become the “creative problem solvers” of the next generation, efforts need to span both their lives and their livelihoods. While formal (K-12) education may comprise a significant portion of the time and engagement of youth, it does not necessarily extend into the home, family and civic lives of these students. Successful STEM learning needs to be reinforced in informal environments of home and community and engage different leaders and mentoring relationships in these spheres.

Awareness AND Preparation

STEM outreach initiatives can be broadly categorized as those that build awareness and those that accomplish preparation. To achieve STEM outcomes that eventually affect career trajectories, awareness-building activities need to be followed up by deeper preparation activities that build skillsets. In other words, we need to do BOTH!

We know that the closer we connect youth to those who can give feedback, encouragement and support in the context of continuing relationships, the more we foster a sense of self-efficacy and identity in STEM. These characteristics give the best chance of successfully setting students on STEM pathways. Such relationships can be in a formal context, e.g., a mentor, or an informal context, e.g., someone who provides feedback or answers questions. Intentionally connecting experts and career professionals with students in a natural learning context, such as a design challenge, creates powerful, career-motivating experiences.