Getting STEM education right in our own back yard...

JOIN THE PITTSBURGH STEM JOBS CHALLENGE

Students love science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)…they really do. They rely on technology every day and they appreciate the impact STEM professionals have on music, sports, and entertainment. In fact, there is almost nothing that excites students that can’t be tied back to the science, technology, engineering, or math that made it possible in the first place. With the majority (67%) of all jobs requiring STEM literacy, the motivation to engage in STEM learning should be a slam dunk).   

Why then do 77% of STEM-proficient students abandon STEM education after high school? It’s a perplexing issue that cannot be addressed by piling on more content or implementing more sophisticated curricula.  In fact, when you evaluate the majority of STEM program development efforts, STEM is often synonymous with huge investments in technology, equipment, and training outside the reach of most school budgets or teacher expertise. The truth is that effective approaches to STEM education have existed for decades and can be implemented within current curriculum tomorrow.

The problem lies in how STEM is defined and how the STEM curriculum is presented. Academic and workforce definitions need to be on the same page, because the perpetual divide in definitions between both communities is a real threat to the economy. As a whole, the academic community defines STEM by academic subjects.  Employers, on the other hand, define STEM by work activities or job tasks. Directly relating a classroom subject to a work activity can be a nightmare—and it is something that has frustrated both curriculum developers and workforce managers alike.  

Workforce managers for the past 20 years have known that job knowledge is a better predictor of future job performance than prior experience with specific work activities. Knowing the “why” behind a work activity allows a worker to adjust to changing technologies and to acquire new skills more rapidly than counterparts who merely follow a defined set of instructions. Competence is the degree to which a professional understands a task and the “why” behind it.  Any job description should include a list of fundamental “competencies” required to perform the job.  In fact, a job is really just a group of competencies.

Competencies are defined with statements like “evaluate reports based on data, analyze decisions and strategies using probability concepts or define appropriate quantities for the purpose of descriptive modeling.” As it happens, all of these competencies are found in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In fact, the NGSS was designed specifically to create a bridge between academic subjects and careers by both integrating science and engineering design “competencies” and by defining how subject concepts can be applied across subjects and to real world applications. The NGSS, by defining how core ideas connect to practices and cross-cutting concepts in common language has created a bridge that correlates to the language employers use to define and establish job requirements. 

The real challenge teachers face is answering the question, “why do we have to learn this.” Students, parents and employers all ask this question and traditional explanations of student performance fail to address this fundamental question. If students can’t make the connection between their STEM learning and the world around them, it’s unlikely that more than 20% of the class will be motivated to do the hard work. Worse, if employers don’t understand how STEM education applies to job competencies, they will continue to disregard the value of secondary education. On your own, you can begin to address this in your next parent-teacher discussion by relating student performance to the common language

Many students love sports but hate math. They love music but think sound waves are lame. Most likely, they are aware of how numbers are used when playing sports or how an equalizer shapes sound and worst case they’ll at least engage in that discussion.

What kinds of problems do numbers help to solve in a sports context? Who is in charge of solving those problems? What other kinds of problems do these professionals solve? Simple questions like these lead us to an occupation and to the competencies that define that occupation. Write the competencies down (or pull up a position description from a job board). Take your list of standards, compare, contrast, and group them together with their related job competencies. This gives you a map from the real world to your curriculum, to testing outcomes, and to the subjects that you teach. And it won’t take millions of dollars to make it possible.

When workers know the “why” behind the job, they perform better. Job knowledge has proven to be a better predictor of future performance than simply asking if someone has held a similar job title before. Likewise, when students know the “why” behind the processes and equations they must master, they perform better.  And when students connect what they learn in the classroom to the real world, they not only engage more readily, but they are more prepared for the world that awaits.

To this end we're launching a concerted effort, right here in the Pittsburgh area.  How are we doing?  We have dozens of high schools already committed ... already raising their hands, but they can't do it alone.  They need their community.  Follow our progress at: https://stemjobs.com/help-them  and if you're interested in launching something similar in your neck of the woods leave me a comment below!