Quick Take on ... Exploring Careers in Mathematics
Even though the potential connection between today’s math classroom and the
jobs of the future is frequently cited in speeches, reports, and news
headlines, busy middle school students may not be paying attention. Here are
five online resources that can help you make the connection more relevant, and
a lot more engaging, to preteens. In some cases, the connection appears in the
words of young people who recognize that math and science were the keys to jobs
they love.
Math at the Movies
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/mathline/concepts/movies.shtm
These lesson plans examine the math involved in creating stunts, show how those
who work with film must understand measurement, multiplication, division, and
fractions, and explain the geometry of photography. In one segment, a young
employee of a movie studio says: "I would not be a computer graphics artist at
all without a solid grasp of all kinds of math. My advice to students would be,
find ways to make math relevant to your life. Encourage your teachers to help
you identify the math behind everyday activities. When you see its relevance
outside of a textbook, you'll be able to understand and apply it in surprising
ways."
BLS Career Information
http://www.bls.gov/k12/index.htm
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has adapted career information from its Occupational
Outlook Handbook on a web site just for students in grades 4-8. By
clicking on a job characteristic—building and fixing things, managing money,
helping people—or a subject area--math, social studies, science—the
student is taken to a page with five or six occupations and links to related
jobs. On the page titled "If you’re good at math, then look at these possible
careers," the jobs listed are statistician, electrical engineer, surveyor,
physicist, cost estimator, and actuary.
Role Model Project for Girls: Professional Women’s Careers
http://womenswork.org/girls/about.html
Computer professionals created this web site at which women share descriptions
of their work and the paths that led them there. Clicking on a career will take
students randomly to a contributor’s brief statement. Not all contributors
mention math or science, but many do. A project engineer advises: "Take as much
math and science as possible even if you aren't sure what you want to do after
high school. That is the best way to keep all of your options open while you
explore various career options."
The Fun Works...for Careers You Never Knew Existed.
http://thefunworks.org/?downloadURL=true&loId=F959CCF9-46BB-420B-A14D-F293D969809F
This site funded by the National Science Foundation is designed for students in
grades 6-9 and focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics
careers. Students can take a quiz on their interests and strengths to help
pinpoint career areas. Or they can go directly to math careers, where they’ll
find more than 20 occupations. A teacher’s page lists resources for classroom
activities.
Discover Engineering.org
http://www.discoverengineering.org/home.asp
At this web site designed for young people, engineers offer a menu of career
explorations, including contests, games, activities from the PBS shows
Cyberchase and Zoom, and biographies of engineers who are just two to five
years out of school.
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Copyright
September 2004-2008 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Science Foundation.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
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