How do you inspire future scientists and engineers? Do your students know what careers are STEM careers and what it means to have a career in STEM? You can answer these questions and more with this multi-day STEM career project!
STEM Career Research Project
In this project, students will choose an engineering career to research. They will discover the job roles and responsibilities, possible work environments, education requirements, average salaries, helpful skills and traits, and projected job growth in that field. Then students will imagine a company that is looking to hire a person in that career field. They’ll examine real-world job postings and then design and create a “help wanted” poster for their chosen career. Next, students will present their work and learn about other careers in a gallery walk activity. Finally, they’ll complete an independent reflection activity.
This STEM career research project is independent and low-prep. Grab this resource today! You will save your prep time, and know your students will be engaged and inspired while learning about STEM careers.
What’s included in the STEM Careers Research Project?
This no-prep project includes everything you need for 3-5 days of engaging STEM activities, including:
- Printable PDF, Google, and Easel versions of the student activities and worksheets
- A webquest that guides students to choose and research a STEM career
- Detailed guidelines and templates for the “Help Wanted” job advertisement project
- A graphic organizer for capturing student learning during the Gallery Walk activity
- An independent reflection worksheet to be completed at the end of the project
- Embedded links to quality background research websites
- Detailed teacher notes for easy facilitation
- An easy-to-use grading rubric
What materials do you need?
You only need to provide printed or digital copies of the student worksheets and devices with internet access for research.
How can you use the STEM career project in your classroom?
You can use the research project as a week-long study of STEM careers. You will open your students’ eyes to career options that they may have never before considered. This is a great introductory activity for your STEM class, and it can be used to celebrate National Engineering Week in February.
This STEM career project is also perfect for giving yourself a bit of a break when you are feeling burnt out or feeling frustrated with challenging student behaviors. For example, you could use the project to keep students engaged before a school holiday. You can also use the project to keep students learning when you have unusual schedules or low attendance due to field trips, testing, assemblies, or other interruptions. Or, you can leave the low-prep project as a multi-day STEM sub plan.
Looking for other STEM Career activities?
If you’d like more ideas for inspiring your students and teaching them about STEM careers, check out this blog post on exploring STEM careers!
