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"How can we come up with practical solutions to a societal problem?

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https://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/usa-needs-1-5m-more-homes-to-ease-crisis-housing-shortage-freddie-mac/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/2024/02/21/the-growing-discontent-with-american-education/?sh=10fce528303e

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The Defense Department's acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness and senior manpower officials today testified about shortfalls in Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting in the fiscal year that ended in September at a hearing of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Ashish Vazirani said that during fiscal year 2023, the military services collectively missed recruiting goals by about 41,000 recruits.

"That number understates the challenge before us as the services lowered [their] end-strength goals in recent years, in part because of the difficult recruiting environment," he said.

"The all-volunteer force faces one of its greatest challenges since inception," he said. It was created in 1973 after the draft ended.

The causes of the recruiting challenges "are complex and multifaceted," Vazirani said. They include:

A strong economy, which has resulted in many more options for young people.

A smaller eligible population.

Generation Z, the generation born from 1997 to 2012, generally has a low trust in institutions.

Generation Z has decreasingly followed traditional life and career paths.

Young people have fewer family members who served, which decreases the propensity to serve.

In 1995, 40% of young people had a parent who served in the military, Vazirani said. By 2022, just 12% had a parent who had served. "This has led to a disconnect between the military and a large share of society," he said.

About 20 years ago, just over 25% of youths had never thought about serving in the military. In recent years, more than half of youths have never thought about serving in the military, he said.

"Youth of today are not saying no to what the military has to offer. They simply don't know much about military service," he said.

The military is not alone in navigating these challenges. Other national service programs - for example, AmeriCorps and Peace Corps - have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, he said.

"While the picture of the current recruiting environment is acutely difficult, the Defense Department and the military services are working together to resolve issues, improve processes, and expand awareness of the many opportunities military service offers," Vazirani said.

Benefits of joining the military, he said, include:

Competitive pay and benefits.

Career training.

A meaningful and motivating mission.

"We must reach today's youth where they are with a message that resonates with them and motivates them to act," he said.

Military marketing campaigns are more complex than in the past, he said. "We're constantly refining to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape across different media and social media platforms."

The military needs the help of leaders across the nation, including members of Congress, to make a "national call to service," especially for military service, but also for other public service, he said.

"We need leaders to talk about military service with youth in their communities and ask them to learn about and consider serving in the military. Overcoming our recruiting challenges requires a national response with contributions from across government and the private sector," he said.

"Over the last 50 years, the all-volunteer force has proven itself to be the best way to maintain a force capable of defending our nation; and, with our combined efforts, I am confident we will remain as such for the foreseeable future," he said.

The Marine Corps and Space Force made their recruiting goals.

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DOD Addresses Recruiting Shortfall Challenges

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Shortfalls in some of the military services' recruiting goals for fiscal year 2023 demonstrate the challenges that lie ahead for the all-volunteer force, the Defense Department's acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness said. ,

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-7 groups were formed with 4-5 students in each group

-There was an NFL-style draft for the groups to choose one of the topics from the list that I provided:

Topics

1. Starving Countries

2. Decline in Military Enlistment

3. High cost of College

4. Decline in U.S. Education

5. High Gas Prices

6. Inflation

7. Housing Shortage

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Observation Stage - Rubric for Written Paper and Class Presentation

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Observation Stage - Rubric for Written Paper and Class Presentation

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Empathy Map

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Students had to draw a person from the topic that they chose and write what they are "Thinking, Feeling, and Saying

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Students had to draw a person from the topic that they chose and write what they are "Thinking, Feeling, and Saying

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Need To Know List - Students had to make a "Need to Know List" of all the types of things they would need to research to answer the Driving Question in all of the required areas

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-Students did research on the area they chose to learn about the background of the problem they are trying to solve

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-Students must see how many ideas they can come up with in 5 minutes - aiming for 30 and trying to go beyond that

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The students write all of their possible solutions on sticky notes. Then - without speaking - they put them in groups with similar themes. This helps them identify common themes - and it lets them identify redundancy so they can reduce the number of solutions that they have.

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Solution Stage - Poster Session Protocol

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Solution Stage - Poster Session Protocol

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Students make a poster with their solutions that is displayed in public. There will be a discussion led by the teacher or by students about similarities and differences.

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-Students were graded on eye contact, voice strength, organization, slides, content, and fitting in the time frame

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Validation Stage - Pitch to Peers and Authentic Audience

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Validation Stage - Pitch to Peers and Authentic Audience

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-I went over each Presentation grade with the groups individually

-Students received their graded formal typed papers

-Students had to do a self-evaluation and reflect on what went well and what could have been better