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9th Grade  Project 20 weeks

STEM to Self: Career Quest

Ivy H
Updated
HS-ETS1-2
9-12.AF.3.3
HS-ETS1-1
9-12.AF.6.5
HS-ETS1-2
+ 11 more
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Purpose

Students investigate what counts as STEM, who works in these fields, and how their own interests, identities, and experiences connect to possible futures in STEM. Through career exploration, empathy interviews with STEM professionals, and a class study of STEM identity and access, they learn to ask strong questions, analyze evidence, and communicate findings to authentic audiences. The experience helps students connect current classwork in robotics and design to real careers, build a realistic high school course plan with counselors, and create public-facing products that broaden understanding of STEM pathways in their school community.

Learning goals

Students will investigate a range of STEM pathways, including commonly overlooked fields, and explain what people in those roles do, what skills they use, and how engineering design connects to real-world problems and constraints. They will conduct ethical empathy interviews and a small class research study, using strong questions, listening skills, survey design, and evidence analysis to explore how access and identity shape students’ relationships to STEM. Students will create and revise career infographics, research findings, and a public information campaign for the school showcase, communicating clearly to varied audiences and using feedback to improve their work. They will also develop a personal high school plan that connects their interests, strengths, and mentor insights to future courses, skill-building, and goals in STEM.

Standards
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] HS-ETS1-2 - Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 9-12.AF.3.3 - Plan and conduct an investigation or test a design solution in a safe and ethical manner including considerations of environmental, social, and personal impacts.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] HS-ETS1-1 - Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 9-12.AF.6.5 - Design, evaluate, and/or refine a solution to a complex real-world problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] HS-ETS1-2 - Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] HS-ETS1-1 - Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] HS-ETS1-3 - Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] HS-ETS1-3 - Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 9-12.AF.1.2 - Evaluate a question to determine if it is testable and relevant. (a) Ask questions that can be investigated within the scope of the school laboratory, research facilities, or field (e.g., outdoor environment) with available resources and, when appropriate, frame a hypothesis based on a model or theory. (b) Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of a design. (c) Define a design problem that involves the development of a process or system with interacting components and criteria and constraints that may include social, technical, and/or environmental considerations.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 9-12.AF.3.1 - Plan an investigation or test a design individually and collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence as part of building and revising models, supporting explanations for phenomena, or testing solutions to problems. Consider possible confounding variables or effects and evaluate the investigation's design to ensure variables are controlled.
Competencies
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Products

Students will create a STEM career exploration set that includes quick research notes across Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math careers and one polished infographic on a career of interest, revised after peer and teacher feedback. They will also produce empathy interview materials with a mentor, a short reflection on how middle school access and identity factors have shaped their view of STEM, and a class-designed survey or research tool about STEM identity in their community. By the end, teams will share a research findings display on STEM identity and representation, a class informational campaign for the school showcase that broadens understanding of STEM careers including less-visible fields, and an individual high school pathway plan connecting future courses, skills, and career interests.

Launch

Open with a fast-paced “STEM Paths Challenge” using career trading cards that feature a wide range of STEM roles, including engineering, healthcare, computer science, environmental science, manufacturing, and skilled trades like HVAC. In teams, students sort cards by the daily tasks, skills, identity factors, and school experiences they think connect to each role, then play a short round of “Life”-style decision making where they choose courses, interests, and opportunities that shape possible pathways. Follow with a gallery walk of surprising career facts and demographic data about who is represented in different STEM fields, then have students write a brief reflection on where they have or have not seen STEM in their own lives and middle school experiences. Close by introducing the driving questions and the challenge to investigate who does STEM, what STEM workers actually do, and how students can design their own path through high school.

Exhibition

Create a “STEM Identity Gallery” for the school’s March showcase where students display career infographics, key findings from their STEM identity research, and personal high school pathway plans as a wall of possible futures. Add interactive elements such as QR codes linking to short audio clips from mentor empathy interviews, survey data visuals about STEM access and representation, and a class-created campaign highlighting the wide range of STEM careers, including fields like HVAC and advanced manufacturing. Have students present in small teams to families, counselors, mentors, and younger students, explaining what people in different STEM roles do each day, what skills matter, and how identity and access shape participation. Include a feedback station where visitors respond to the questions “What is a STEM career and who does them?” and “How can our school widen access to STEM?” so the exhibition also generates community input.