Integrating Career Exploration into Your Upper Elementary and Middle School STEM Classroom

As educators, we know that the decisions youth make today—from elective courses to extracurricular activities—can inform and shape their future pathways. Research shows that youth begin to form attitudes about careers as early as elementary school—attitudes that are predictive of the careers they eventually pursue. This means the time for impactful, meaningful career exploration is now.

YES Career Explorations are intentionally designed to address this need. They provide a critical mechanism for introducing youth to a broad spectrum of career options and helping them envision the possibilities ahead.

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What We Learned from Stakeholders

To develop career resources that truly meet today’s needs, the YES team at the Museum of Science engaged with educators, school administrators, industry professionals, and youth via surveys, interviews, focus groups, and classroom testing. Their insights were fundamental to shaping our approach. Here is what we heard:

• Educators stressed the importance of integrating career exploration with existing curricula because of limited instructional time. They noted that  affordable, easy-to-implement resources are scarce. At the same time, too many