Community School Boosts Students’ STEM Confidence with Couragion
It can be challenging to integrate real-world context and relevance into student coursework in the midst of a pandemic. We thought we'd share a case study from one of our partner schools who has worked with Couragion on career exploration and virtual work-based learning experiences over the past 4 years. Their story can serve as a model for how you can infuse meaningful engagement with industry when in person guest speakers, onsite job shadows, internships, and field trips aren't always an option.
Problem
Our partner school’s mission is to prepare students to thrive in the future workforce by helping them to think critically, solve complex problems, and drive advancements in science and technology. The school is STEM-focused and located in a small, agriculturally dominant community. The team was struggling to bring real-world context into the classroom via meaningful engagement with industry employers and wanted to help students develop their career interests and confidence to pursue STEM pathways.
Solution
Couragion exposes students to careers and role models beyond those available locally - thus overcoming some of the challenges of being located in remote areas. Couragion facilitates connections to employers and industry without the overhead of finding in person guest speakers or organizing onsite field trips. Instead the school facilitates monthly sessions during which students experience careers through videos and interactive quizzes to gain a firsthand look at a typical workday, the workplace, the required skills, and the potential postsecondary pathways. Couragion builds a students’ understanding of how to critically assess if a given career is a best fit for their own interests, values, and desired work characteristics.
Results
Students built their career literacy and are better poised to make more informed career and educational pathway decisions. Below are a few critical impact metrics realized by our partner:
91% of students found at least one best fit career.
Student intentions to pursue STEM careers increased between 16 and 21 points with higher increases being associated with more exposure to the programming.
75% of students reported being more confident in their ability to pursue STEM pathways.
69% said they planned to sign up for a new STEM class or activity.
74% cited being motivated to do better in a STEM class.
Student's Self Reflection
In open-ended post surveys, students expressed appreciation for having the option to think about their futures and to explore STEM careers and pathways. Below are some of the student quotes shared:
“I would love to protect the planet, and marine biology is something that sounds amazing!” – Career: Climate Dynamics Researcher
“I think the Welder career would be a good fit for me.” – Career: Welder
“I think the Park Ranger job is the one for me because I love to be outside and to help people.” – Career: Park Ranger
“It sounds cool to work on the mission to bring a spacecraft to Jupiter! Building spacecrafts sound like a great fit for me.” – Career: Spacecraft Flight Software Engineer
“This seems like an amazing job! Still would rather be a vet.” – Career: Animal Nutritionist
“I love the idea of designing.” – Career: Graphic Designer
“I like this job and I want to try it.” – Career: Water Engineer
Reach out to info@couragion.com if you’d like to learn more about how we can help support your virtual work-based learning initiatives.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1660021. 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.