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8.5 Case study: The Teen Science Café experience in Malta

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8.5 Case study: The Teen Science Café experience in Malta

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I’ve found it very interesting. The fact that it can be done at school reduces logistic organization and cost. It’s also a warm approach because students are divided into small groups and placed in circles close to the STEM professional, not in front of him/her.

I knew about thematic coffees conducted by public institutions or privates companies, but always in a professional environment, not an educative one.

I consider this experience one of the most suitable for secondary students and very inspiring to do something similar.

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8.4 STEM careers fair organization. Strategies for success

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8.4 STEM careers fair organization. Strategies for success

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First of all, every task in each phase is important, but I would choose next:

-          Planning

Preparing a Budget and looking for potential sponsors. I think it’s the most important one because money is a restriction and no activity must be planned without an estimated cost. Taking money into account allows to let some activities out or redesign other to make them cheaper.

-          Implementation

Setting up a masterplan to include the place, logistics, setup, contacts, licenses and insurance.  In my opinion, a proper environment and logistic can make the difference in an event. A nice place, safe, easy to reach to every attendant is a key factor to success.

-          Post-event

Collecting and analyzing feedback. It’s the way to assess the work and improve for next activities.

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Probably the best option for my students is an ICT career fair. They are vocational students in their last year, and they will work for an ICT enterprise, so every company would likely be of interest and I believe networking and human contact is important.

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In Spain, every November takes place the Week of Science and Technology, where visits, talks, workshops, expositions, tours and other activities are organized. I’m not sure if this event includes some career and employability activities.

Regarding career events, most of them are aimed at last year university students and so they are arranged by Universities. Examples of events close to my school University of Burgos and University of Zaragoza

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7.4 Case study: Internship placement in Portugal

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7.4 Case study: Internship placement in Portugal

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One benefit of internship, maybe the obvious one, is that students have contact with real job and can apply the acquired knowledge to real situations.

One disadvantage that comes to my mind has to do with the way internship is developed. It can happen that students are considered by the company as “free workforce” and so they are not involved in interesting activities but confined to boring, routine tasks.

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I don’t know many training opportunities for students, especially for secondary school. Most of the activities are summer campus or visits to enterprises fostered by public institutions (Chambers of Commerce, Universities, etc).

In Spain, for vocational students, the Ministry of Education is developing a new program that could be translated as “Dual Vocational Program” in which students will complete their education in both school and enterprise simultaneously.

I know some big companies which have a training program, but mainly aimed at University graduates or last year students. For example, Adidas Young Talent Program

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I don’t know much about the community of the school I work for, but maybe it is a good idea to collaborate with the same companies where our students will complete their education at the end of the year (as I previously wrote, vocational training programs in Spain include a compulsory training in a real company) . In that way, students and companies can know each other in advance and curriculum content can be connected to real situation in real companies. Even some activities in the classroom can be somehow applicable to some companies, and of course some activities can be done in the companies.

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7.1 Business and education collaboration

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7.1 Business and education collaboration

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My students have a high desire for employability (this is their last year of vocational studies, so they are willing to find a job). In fact, we have kept many conversations about a future job, salaries, curriculum vitae, etc.

What I am not sure is that they have received much support in their path to employment. I would classify their access as medium/low, mainly because daily activity at school is focused on content (theoretical or practical, but mostly away from real job situation). Fortunately, in our vocational training program, students must complete their studies in a company during the last two months, so they can experience “job” by first-hand. Anyway, in order to improve their access I would have preferred to learn by project focus on real companies’ technologies.

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6.4 Bringing parents into career counseling

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6.4 Bringing parents into career counseling

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Well, I’ve not met the parents of any of my students. As it is vocational education and they are at their last year, they are already adults. Anyway, I will take this tips into account in the future, in case I have the chance to work with secondary students.

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As I have stated before, my students have already chosen an STEM path, so there is no need to encourage them in that way. Anyway, a local STEM professional will perfectly fit in my classroom but the reality is that I don’t know very much the IT companies of the city where my school is located, which is a disadvantage.

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Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find a superstar STEM role model in Spain. Anyway, although there were plenty of them, I would find more suitable another kind of STEM role models. Not famous but successful ones. For example, I would arrange a visit to the Advanced Computer Graphics Group at University of Zaragoza, where Diego Gutierrez works as a teacher. He is also considered one of the world experts in virtual reality. He has given advice to Disney, worked in projects with the MIT and the NASA. But he also loves his motorbike, and playing cards with his friends.

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6.1 Role of teachers in career counselling

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6.1 Role of teachers in career counselling

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Along my brief experience as teacher (less than a year), I’ve actively used tutorial roles, only because connecting subjects with careers and particular jobs have proved useful for me, and this examples had occasionally lead into discussions about jobs, salaries and labour market. Discussions had been always focused in ICT market, since I am a teacher of vocational studies and my students are in their last year.

I wouldn’t mind adopting teaching roles. Not the one included in the curriculum of vocational studies (there is an standalone subject regarding CEL), but maybe at an early stage of secondary school organizing professional visits, or drawing different job careers; not in vain I have a working experience of more than 10 years combining both public and private sector.

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5.4 Projects about gender equality in STEM

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5.4 Projects about gender equality in STEM

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In my region (Castilla y León, Spain) there is a project called STEM Talent Girl where 27 female students of secondary level share a workday with their mentor. Mentors are also female professionals of STEM area. Students can see how women perform in work environment, they can check if their abilities fits real world and can also make questions to their mentor. For instance, scientist and engineers of a robotics leading company (ASTI) mentored 8 students last 4th of April.

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My favorite female scientist is Ada Byron. Because she carried out what can be considered the first algorithm and she understood the computers (even though they didn’t exist yet) as programmable machines. And she did that at the early ninetieth century. Quite remarkable.

One of the things I love more about her history is that she was daughter of famous poet Lord Byron and Ana Isabella Millbanke (poet and mathematician). Her parents separated right after she was born, and her mother promoted Ada’s skills in mathematics and logic to prevent her from what she saw as the insanity of his father.   However, Ada defined her approach as “poetical science”.

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5.2 Gender equality in the job market and in the classroom

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5.2 Gender equality in the job market and in the classroom

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Unfortunately, I can’t apply any of the tips since my students are right now completing their education in a job center (vocational technical studies in Spain have a full quarter out of the educational center).

Nevertheless, along the year, gender gap has been present in my classroom, since there was only one female student (ICT reality). I wish I would have known this tips to put in practice.

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5.1 Gender equality and the gender gap in STEM

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5.1 Gender equality and the gender gap in STEM

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I think our culture do not encourage girls to choose STEM careers. In my classroom at University (Computer Engineering) we were about 85%-15% males-females, and unfortunately I don’t think situation has changed in the last years.

As teachers, we should be conscious of this reality and make our best to reduce the gender gap in STEM careers, but it’s a cultural issue, every society statement should make efforts in this direction.

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4.3 STEM career activities: teacher practices

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4.3 STEM career activities: teacher practices

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As I have a short experience as teacher I have not implemented any of the strategies consciously. Indeed, I work in vocational technical studies (ICT), so my students have already chosen STEM path, so there is no real need to foster STEM rather than to show them a clear picture of working reality.

I have shared my personal working experience with them, talking about job situations that connect lessons with real world. I have also sent them some real job offers and encouraged them to apply (this is their last year and they will be prepared to join labor market).

The practices I would like to consciously use in the future would be next:

-          Integrate experiential activities in the classroom

-          Invite guest speakers

-          Expose students to worksites and outside opportunities

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4.1 STEM career activities: how to use them?

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4.1 STEM career activities: how to use them?

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I would combine two strategies: help students to see scientist as real people and embed reflection. I would choose an ICT company, preferably one with a strong Software Development Team. I would organize a first visit to the company, where the students could know an ICT enterprise at first hand (different departments, what is the core business of the company, how they develop and release their products, etc). A second visit of a software developer to our school would be arranged. In that visit, the students could ask whatever they like and the guest would explain their particular job into the whole company.

After this two visits, I would ask every student to make an online portfolio in which they reflect about what we have learned during the course and what/how it could be somehow applied to the particular job of a software developer as we had known.

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3.5 STEM skills and STEM careers. Tools for match-matching

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3.5 STEM skills and STEM careers. Tools for match-matching

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They are all interesting, but if I had to choose one it would be Tech Future tool for students because is not so “professional oriented” as OPENSKIMR and E-competency benchmark and it’s not “ICT centered” as Skillage.

Very interesting tools, no matter the simplicity of the quiz (the entrepreneurial school is just a doc), because it makes the students reflect about their skills and likes, which is already a success. Unfortunately, I find them difficult to use because only Skillage can be followed in Spanish.  I don’t know any similar tool in Spanish, and a quick search on the internet leads to professional orientation and individual assessment. Next link includes a quiz in Spanish

http://www.educaweb.com/orientacion/intereses-profesionales/

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3.4 Classroom methodologies to promote STEM skills

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3.4 Classroom methodologies to promote STEM skills

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I’ve never used any tool as the ones suggested. In my current school we have an e-learning platform (Moodle) that I’ve been using as a document repository and activities schedule. I’ve tried my students to develop real software in teams, but I’m afraid I did not structure the team as I should have done. I’m interested in gamification, so I will try Kahoot.

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I think the 3 most important soft skills for STEM are good communication, strong problem-solving and be a team player. I would address them in the classroom working on collaborative projects, so that students need to work as part of the team, face problems derived from project goals, and make internal communication of their work as well as final presentation to the rest of the class.

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3.2 STEM skills of the future. In focus: ICT and digital skills

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3.2 STEM skills of the future. In focus: ICT and digital skills

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As a vocational technical teacher of IT branch, I do not only use technologies as a tool (course resources and activities in e-learning platform) but as a goal (Software Development Environments, databases, User Interfaces Design…).

If my subjects wouldn’t be so focused on IT, I would promote IT skills through collaborative activities that involves both creating and sharing content in digital format. Tools like Scratch can shape students mind into logic and programming, and can also be a valid way of promoting creativity.

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I would define STEM skills as those that primarily uses the rational part of our brain. My definition states in opposition to our emotional ego. I believe that deduction, observation, making hypothesis, logical and critical thinking are the basis of STEM skills and are also our rational mind.

Regarding non STEM jobs using STEM skills, there are plenty of examples. For instance, I can imagine a journalist writing an article for the online edition, who is probably using an electronic device to write it.

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I don’t really make any effort to get information about STEM jobs. I am subscribed to some alerts from job webpages and I also check professional networks as Linkedin. But I do it as a rule because I want to be updated about market offers related mainly with IT.

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2.4 Current STEM industries and professions

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2.4 Current STEM industries and professions

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My region is one of the less populated ones in Spain and in Europe. We have forests as natural resources and some wood industry, so I guess Forestry Engineering and Industrial Engineering can be one the STEM professions here. Sadly, most of our graduates have to go to bigger cities in more populated regions to develop their careers.

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We shouldn’t prepare our students for any particular job. We are not recruiters of a workforce army. Furthermore, even if we tried to do it, we wouldn’t be able. Almost every job need a training period, no matter the expertise of the worker. Companies should invest in their staff instead of expecting full productive graduates from minute one. Of course, we should prepare learning activities closer to the labor market, because it’s part of the real world and they will be more interesting and profitable for our students. But our main goal as teachers should be to help our students to acquire solid foundations so that they can in the future build the professional career they choose. And any solid foundation today has to include STEM skills.

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Machines will take over a part of our jobs, but I don’t think it affects mostly STEM related jobs. What is more, I would say that creating, maintaining and improving such machines will require STEM skills.

How can we prepare our students for jobs that today do not yet exist? What skills will be needed in the future? Of course STEM careers are full of opportunities, but in the same way we can’t turn our back to labor market, we shouldn’t focus only in jobs. As a teacher, I refuse to believe that my main purpose is to create a proper workforce to fill any gap. Our fight might be to promote good citizens who have a solid knowledge basement that allows them to grow by their own and to adapt themselves to a changing reality.

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I have hardly realized that the world had experienced a Third Industrial Revolution and here comes the Fourth!

I can imagine advancements such as energy supplies by waves instead of wires, or small devices embedded in human bodies substituting current external devices (mobile phones, for instance). It may look like science fiction, but who knows.

For sure our life is going to change even faster than It has changed in the last decades, but what I’m sure is that we will remain who we are: humans. Capable of the goodness and the evil.

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I have started recently to work as a teacher in Vocational Education and Training (VET) related with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). As VET teacher, my students are pretty close to labor market and have a good picture of themselves using their own STEM skills, so I think that they are fully aware of their future job (likely software developer) and they find themselves comfortable programming. However, the curriculum is quite theoretical and sometimes it is not easy to figure out some practical activity shorter enough to cover all the topics. Also ICT world move much faster than education curriculum, so I find some subjects outdated while other technologies at the forefront are unnamed. Thanks to my working experience I manage to connect the topics with real situations in real companies, but I don’t know how I would do it otherwise.

When substituting other teachers I’ve had the opportunity of talking to some Secondary School students, and it is disappointing how they barely know what an ICT professional can work at or even which skills are required. They are curious about what I have studied, but when I talk about Computer Science, I receive simplistic questions such as “Can you make videogames?” “Can you install Windows on my broken laptop?” “Why do you know English, then?”

Plenty of work for us to do!

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I think there is clearly lack of STEM skills in Europe. In my opinion, and in my country, STEM studies get a very bad press among the students. Only IT options are named among the favorites by a certain number of students, mainly boys (very few girls) who like videogames. But other studies, such as Physics or Mathematics are often perceived as difficult and theoretical. Students has no clear picture about which professional opportunities comes after but instead they strongly believe that any future job is going to be underpaid, so their effort may not be worth.

I would also say that in our education system, Math is one of the main barriers that discourage students from choosing STEM options. It is often the hardest subject with low pass rates, not only in Secondary, but also in Primary School, where aversion to Math often starts.

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STEM education is essential in our society. It’s the way for our students to acquire crucial skills, such as critical thinking, analytical reasoning and problem solving. Tools that will allow our students to use knowledge to analyze situations, make decisions and solve problems not only at workplace but also in life.