AN EMERGING OPPORTUNITY
I consider myself blessed to be able to teach at Vista Innovation and Design Academy (VIDA). We are a magnet school that specializes in Design Thinking, an engineering framework centered around finding problems and designing solutions for users. As a magnet, we offer a myriad of interesting hands-on electives which we call “design labs.” One of my three design labs that is always exceptionally popular with our kids is the VEX Robotics Competition Team. In the past, it has only been available to our 8th graders because of the level of rigor and background knowledge required. This year, however, I opened it up to my STEM6 class and I’ve already been incorporating Robotics Engineering into our Science program! The kids absolutely LOVE designing, building, and coding their bots, so this would be an easy career seed to continue planting in their minds. Munro and Elsom (2000) observed that “taking science and mathematics as part of a deliberate strategy to keep options open was not often promoted by teachers.” Being able to teach both Math and Science to the same group of kids gives me a fantastic opportunity to promote interest in both subjects simultaneously and keep that energy and excitement for learning alive.
A SYSTEMIC CHALLENGE
Around 60-70% of our population at VIDA is Latino and we still qualify as a Title 1 school with respect to poverty levels, very much representative of our local community. Vista currently has an issue with our high school graduates not pursuing higher level education, and the numbers are shockingly low with respect to our Latina graduates. So where and when is the problem starting? Are they perhaps becoming disengaged from or disenchanted with school (historically due to math and/or science) and therefore not motivated to continue their learning? Not according to Quinn (2011), who states that there is “very little meaningful difference between boys and girls’ overall enjoyment of science” (230). And yet Quinn reminds us that our “girls are still leaking out of the science pipeline at a far greater rate than boys.” (p. 232). Our local community colleges believe that the underlying reason for this gap is lack of awareness; students are not presented with sufficient choices and/or don’t understand the variety of options available to them after graduating. There are many affordable (even some FREE) options for our kids to earn a two-year Associate Degree at community college and then automatically transfer into a 4-year college or university.
MULTIPLE PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS
If a student is interested in becoming a Robotics Engineer, the requirements and skills are not that much different than those of a mechanical or electrical engineer. In fact, many have a 4-year Bachelor’s Degree in one of those two fields and elect to specialize in Robotics upon graduation. For this route, other skills and expertise that are highly desired by employers are software development, computer programming, and CAD for design. Of course I would advocate the best course for my students and encourage them to pursue the highest level of education possible, but an 11-year-old really doesn’t know what they’re going to be interested in or passionate about after high school.
An alternative career path that is attainable by ALL students is a Robotics Technician. They work closely with Robotics Engineers in the building, maintaining, testing, and repairing of robots. Techs only need a two-year degree and still earn much higher than our town’s median salary! Several high school Robotics programs are available that I naturally filter our middle school kids into. From there, they are encouraged to pursue engineering or take up a Robotics Tech program at one of our community colleges. The field itself is not growing substantially, yet it is a niche skill-set that not many have; these types of scientists will always be able to find jobs and, as robots continue to replace human labor, the demand for these types of scientists will increase. Check out this video called "Humans Need Not Apply" for a glimpse into how Robotics will be (and is now) affecting our labor markets!
I consider myself blessed to be able to teach at Vista Innovation and Design Academy (VIDA). We are a magnet school that specializes in Design Thinking, an engineering framework centered around finding problems and designing solutions for users. As a magnet, we offer a myriad of interesting hands-on electives which we call “design labs.” One of my three design labs that is always exceptionally popular with our kids is the VEX Robotics Competition Team. In the past, it has only been available to our 8th graders because of the level of rigor and background knowledge required. This year, however, I opened it up to my STEM6 class and I’ve already been incorporating Robotics Engineering into our Science program! The kids absolutely LOVE designing, building, and coding their bots, so this would be an easy career seed to continue planting in their minds. Munro and Elsom (2000) observed that “taking science and mathematics as part of a deliberate strategy to keep options open was not often promoted by teachers.” Being able to teach both Math and Science to the same group of kids gives me a fantastic opportunity to promote interest in both subjects simultaneously and keep that energy and excitement for learning alive.
A SYSTEMIC CHALLENGE
Around 60-70% of our population at VIDA is Latino and we still qualify as a Title 1 school with respect to poverty levels, very much representative of our local community. Vista currently has an issue with our high school graduates not pursuing higher level education, and the numbers are shockingly low with respect to our Latina graduates. So where and when is the problem starting? Are they perhaps becoming disengaged from or disenchanted with school (historically due to math and/or science) and therefore not motivated to continue their learning? Not according to Quinn (2011), who states that there is “very little meaningful difference between boys and girls’ overall enjoyment of science” (230). And yet Quinn reminds us that our “girls are still leaking out of the science pipeline at a far greater rate than boys.” (p. 232). Our local community colleges believe that the underlying reason for this gap is lack of awareness; students are not presented with sufficient choices and/or don’t understand the variety of options available to them after graduating. There are many affordable (even some FREE) options for our kids to earn a two-year Associate Degree at community college and then automatically transfer into a 4-year college or university.
MULTIPLE PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS
If a student is interested in becoming a Robotics Engineer, the requirements and skills are not that much different than those of a mechanical or electrical engineer. In fact, many have a 4-year Bachelor’s Degree in one of those two fields and elect to specialize in Robotics upon graduation. For this route, other skills and expertise that are highly desired by employers are software development, computer programming, and CAD for design. Of course I would advocate the best course for my students and encourage them to pursue the highest level of education possible, but an 11-year-old really doesn’t know what they’re going to be interested in or passionate about after high school.
An alternative career path that is attainable by ALL students is a Robotics Technician. They work closely with Robotics Engineers in the building, maintaining, testing, and repairing of robots. Techs only need a two-year degree and still earn much higher than our town’s median salary! Several high school Robotics programs are available that I naturally filter our middle school kids into. From there, they are encouraged to pursue engineering or take up a Robotics Tech program at one of our community colleges. The field itself is not growing substantially, yet it is a niche skill-set that not many have; these types of scientists will always be able to find jobs and, as robots continue to replace human labor, the demand for these types of scientists will increase. Check out this video called "Humans Need Not Apply" for a glimpse into how Robotics will be (and is now) affecting our labor markets!
RESOURCES
Munro, M., Elsom, D., Careers Research and Advisory Centre, C. )., & National Inst. for Careers Education and Counselling, C. ). (2000). Choosing Science at 16: The Influence of Science Teachers and Career Advisers on Students' Decisions about Science Subjects and Science and Technology Careers. NICEC Briefing.
Quinn, F., & Lyons, T. (2011). High School Students' Perceptions of School Science and Science Careers: A Critical Look at a Critical Issue. Science Education International, 22(4), 225-238.
Munro, M., Elsom, D., Careers Research and Advisory Centre, C. )., & National Inst. for Careers Education and Counselling, C. ). (2000). Choosing Science at 16: The Influence of Science Teachers and Career Advisers on Students' Decisions about Science Subjects and Science and Technology Careers. NICEC Briefing.
Quinn, F., & Lyons, T. (2011). High School Students' Perceptions of School Science and Science Careers: A Critical Look at a Critical Issue. Science Education International, 22(4), 225-238.
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