Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

New Resource Helps Elementary School Students Explore STEM Careers

  • 11/17/15

SkillsUSA has announced the release of a new resource that encourages high-school students to mentor younger students on possible career paths. Its Jump Into STEM! program provides tools and activities for SkillsUSA members to help elementary-age participants take part in interactive career experiences. Whether a younger student wants to be an architect or an electrician, a social media specialist or a computer programmer, an industrial designer or an airline pilot, there is information on a possible career for the future. With this groundbreaking new program, SkillsUSA members are bridging the gap between elementary-age students and careers related to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The Jump Into STEM! curriculum provides 22 interactive sessions — two for each of 11 different career clusters — which identify the knowledge and training needed to pursue a specific career goal. During the sessions, SkillsUSA members introduce themselves, present an activity and share information on career clusters and occupations. Jump into STEM! is organized to make facilitation simple, with information that will engage participants in intentional learning, a persistent, continual process of making learning a goal in itself.

 “We are excited to bring this new resource into elementary schools because it helps shine a light on career and technical education in the community,” says Tim Lawrence, SkillsUSA executive director. “Jump Into STEM! allows students to begin having career conversations, and it could spark their interest in a specific career sooner. The program also gives our SkillsUSA members the opportunity to practice public speaking and facilitation skills, which helps in the development of both personal and workplace skills.”

The new program, sponsored by State Farm Insurance Companies, is launching through SkillsUSA’s 4,000 chapters nationwide. Any SkillsUSA chapter can use the resource, which has been provided to chapter advisors as part of membership. Elementary schools can contact their local SkillsUSA chapter to ask that the program be presented, either as a STEM career festival with rotating sessions, or as a series of sessions held on several different days.

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Spaces4Learning Announces 2026 Product Award Winners

    Spaces4Learning has just announced the winners of the 2026 Product Awards! The award program spotlights outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products or services are considered to be particularly noteworthy in their ability to enhance K–12 and higher-education learning environments.

  • Wold Completes Geothermal Projects at Two Minnesota Schools

    Wold Architects & Engineers recently announced that it has completed two geothermal expansion projects for Mounds View Public Schools in Shoreview, Minn., according to a news release. The work at Highview Middle School and Irondale High School serves the district’s long-term goal of reducing energy costs and dependency on non-renewable fuel sources, as well as improving building performance.

  • Cal Poly Humboldt Starts Construction on Healthcare Education Hub

    California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, Calif., recently announced that work has begun on a renovation project that will turn the Stewart Building into a new Healthcare Education Hub, according to a news release. The university is partnering with Sundt Construction Inc. for construction services.