[Music]
I am a science teacher and I love my job
I got into this 13 years ago for the
chance to inspire the next generation to
become scientists but sadly at the
beginning of my career very few of the
high school students I taught who went
to college chose anything to do with
science and quite frankly even from that
small number fewer of them persisted
long enough to earn those degrees and
this perplexed me this saddened me even
though it seemed to match what was
happening elsewhere let me show you this
graph if this pie chart represents all
of the high school students in America
then only this portion represents the
high school students who are deemed
proficient in science and math by the
time they graduate and the question then
becomes how many of them are even
interested in the Korean science and
math well it goes down to this
proportion by the time high school
students graduate only 17% of them are
both proficient and interested in a
career in science so it’s no wonder that
we see outcomes like this which comes
from the National Center for Education
Statistics it says that 48% of the
college students who chose a stem major
between 2003 and 2009 just a few years
later had either switched to something
non stem or had dropped out completely
this bothered me and honestly it haunted
me as a teacher until I stumbled on what
I think is a part of the answer one day
in my classroom imagined me for a moment
standing in front of my AP physics class
18 of the smartest students at my school
and at the end of the lesson one day I
asked them hey guys what careers are you
thinking about for when school is over
it’s a physics class so not surprisingly
more than half of them said some kind of
engineering and I don’t remember what
led me to ask the next question but I
was indelibly changed by the outcome
I asked them sure you guys want to be
engineers how many of you have ever met
an engineer zero hands in fact let’s do
this test for those of you that are here
how many of you actually know an
engineer just like I thought less than
half of you and then even for those of
you who know an engineer ask yourself
this question do you know what they
actually do
I’ll admit one of my closest friends has
been an engineer for almost 15 years and
even as an adult even as a science
teacher I had no clue what he did until
like a year ago sadly this is the
reality for many of the students who sit
in our classrooms and we see the same
thing for science students tell me they
want to be scientists because of some
romanticized the idea of what scientists
do but they have no clue if we want to
see education improve then we have to
fix this that day I realized this is a
glaring weakness in the way we do
education and I’m Jeff I was just as
guilty as everybody else I told my
students if you study hard enough and if
you learn this science if you learn this
math you can become an engineer but
that’s the world you can’t see until you
get there if you study hard enough if
you pay attention you can become a
scientist but don’t worry about what
scientists do you’ll see that when you
get there we try to convince our
students to prepare themselves for
careers with very little information
about what they’re what they’re
preparing themselves for if there’s any
possibility that this is the barrier
that separates our students from their
careers we cannot sit idly by and allow
this to happen
we need to be able to build a bridge for
our students from the classrooms they
sit in to the careers they want to
achieve now I think art and music
teachers are doing a better job of this
for instance
this picture from one of my best
friend’s she’s an art teacher in
Maryland
when she’s had her students display
their artwork in the local gallery or we
often read about the music teacher who
gets his best students connected and
playing along with the local symphony in
those ways those students get a real
taste for what it’s like to function in
those professions but what does this
look like for core teachers like science
and math in English I think the answer
lies in harnessing the power of
meaningful school University and
Industry partnerships we need more of
these stakeholders working together to
bridge that gap there are at least three
ways that partnerships like these can
help universities and industries can
provide advice they can give direct
guidance on curriculum decisions helping
us as teachers refine our focus and
ensuring that we’re addressing the work
skills and the content to prepare
students for simps for STEM careers a
good example of this is the widening
focus on coding in America which came
directly from industry recommendations
industry said we need more students who
can code schools heard this and have
responded the second way is resources
almost always universities and
industries have the resources that it
takes to make learning difficult
concepts more relevant for students I’ll
let you in on a secret
middle school students and high school
students don’t really care about sales
but they’re more apt to learn about
sales when they get a window into what
cancer research looks like even my
students aren’t that interested in
physics but their excitement increases
when I explain to them
that football collisions can generate
enough force to be brutally dangerous
and yet mechanical engineers are working
now to design better helmets that are
more protective but the best part of
this is that universities and industries
have the ability to offer exposure they
can explore
our students to these careers in very
meaningful ways and that’s my story
I was unsatisfied with this in my
classroom and I searched for ways how
can I tear down this veil for my
students until I landed in the gift
program at Georgia Tech the gift program
partners teachers with university
researchers and industry professionals I
was connected with dr. Raquel Lieberman
a biochemist and I work in her lab where
we where we use protein crystallography
to study the molecular details of
important proteins involved in
Alzheimer’s in glaucoma I’ve learned a
ton about proteins like Maya saline and
signal peptide peptidase or about
experiments like high-performance liquid
chromatography but the true magic
happens when I return to my classroom
every time I come back to my classroom
from my own experience I am now equipped
with those connections that can make
learning meaningful for my students I
can point to experiments in the textbook
and say hey look guys I did this and I
know why scientists do it and this is
why they do it and in enough time my
passion becomes my students passions
even better in the more recent years I
get to bring teams of my students with
me for the summer they spend five weeks
in the lab actually involved in the
process designing the experiments using
sophisticated million-dollar equipment
collecting the results discussing the
conclusions this picture is of Jose Jose
was one of the first students that came
along with me and I’m proud to tell you
now that Jose as a student at Emory
University studying forensic
anthropology I am supremely confident
that his experience that summer
solidified what he thought about a
career in science and helped to bolster
his confidence to pursue that career
I’ve kept this going now for six years
and ever since I’ve started it I’ve been
able to see the number of my students
who choose STEM careers increased
drastically
just like I explained in the very
beginning almost none of them shows
anything to do with stem and out of all
my classes I teach about sixty seniors a
year I’ve seen the number of them
increase every year until last year
almost a third of my students have
chosen stem as their major in fact some
of them have already earned those
degrees and have moved on to those
careers now there are other ways to get
involved at places like to think Academy
in LaGrange Georgia or like our very own
Career Academy in Douglasville the
industry partners band together to fund
innovative classrooms with industry
relevant equipment and beyond that
experienced professionals lend their
expertise to teach unique classes
designed to increase workforce skills
and prepare students for advanced
careers like manufacturing these
programs have been shown to have an
overwhelmingly positive effect on
helping students know what careers
they’re getting into listen I know I’m
not the only one I am not the only
teacher interning in a lab I’m not the
only one doing something unique to
connect my students to their careers and
career academies aren’t the only way
that industries can get involved but
what I hope is by telling these stories
they might motivate others who are not
yet involved to become engaged make no
mistake this is a call to action I’m
sending out a charge for every
University researcher every industry
professional out there to find just one
classroom that you can partner with in a
meaningful way visit their school on
more than just career day and then open
the door so that they can come and visit
you in your place of work to actually
see what you do when that happens we
will see our students step out on a much
firmer foundation on sure footing as
they make career decisions we will see
them much more enthusiastic about their
learning and we can see them have that
confidence to pursue these careers and
as I close
I want to share with you that I think
this model can impact every subject not
just em what would it look like if the
local newspaper reached out to the
eighth-grade English teacher and said
we’re going to reserve a weekly column
for nonfiction articles from your
students how many of those students will
get the experience of what it feels like
to be a journalist to organize my
thoughts to get my point across
succinctly to edit my article
appropriately even to get my article in
on time and then how many of those same
students will grow up thinking wow I
want to be a journalist we need more of
this and not less so promise me that you
will help us harness the potential of
meaningful school University industry
partnerships that you will help us build
a bridge for our students from the
classrooms they sit in to the careers
they want to join thank you
[Applause]
I am a science teacher and I love my job
I got into this 13 years ago for the
chance to inspire the next generation to
become scientists but sadly at the
beginning of my career very few of the
high school students I taught who went
to college chose anything to do with
science and quite frankly even from that
small number fewer of them persisted
long enough to earn those degrees and
this perplexed me this saddened me even
though it seemed to match what was
happening elsewhere let me show you this
graph if this pie chart represents all
of the high school students in America
then only this portion represents the
high school students who are deemed
proficient in science and math by the
time they graduate and the question then
becomes how many of them are even
interested in the Korean science and
math well it goes down to this
proportion by the time high school
students graduate only 17% of them are
both proficient and interested in a
career in science so it’s no wonder that
we see outcomes like this which comes
from the National Center for Education
Statistics it says that 48% of the
college students who chose a stem major
between 2003 and 2009 just a few years
later had either switched to something
non stem or had dropped out completely
this bothered me and honestly it haunted
me as a teacher until I stumbled on what
I think is a part of the answer one day
in my classroom imagined me for a moment
standing in front of my AP physics class
18 of the smartest students at my school
and at the end of the lesson one day I
asked them hey guys what careers are you
thinking about for when school is over
it’s a physics class so not surprisingly
more than half of them said some kind of
engineering and I don’t remember what
led me to ask the next question but I
was indelibly changed by the outcome
I asked them sure you guys want to be
engineers how many of you have ever met
an engineer zero hands in fact let’s do
this test for those of you that are here
how many of you actually know an
engineer just like I thought less than
half of you and then even for those of
you who know an engineer ask yourself
this question do you know what they
actually do
I’ll admit one of my closest friends has
been an engineer for almost 15 years and
even as an adult even as a science
teacher I had no clue what he did until
like a year ago sadly this is the
reality for many of the students who sit
in our classrooms and we see the same
thing for science students tell me they
want to be scientists because of some
romanticized the idea of what scientists
do but they have no clue if we want to
see education improve then we have to
fix this that day I realized this is a
glaring weakness in the way we do
education and I’m Jeff I was just as
guilty as everybody else I told my
students if you study hard enough and if
you learn this science if you learn this
math you can become an engineer but
that’s the world you can’t see until you
get there if you study hard enough if
you pay attention you can become a
scientist but don’t worry about what
scientists do you’ll see that when you
get there we try to convince our
students to prepare themselves for
careers with very little information
about what they’re what they’re
preparing themselves for if there’s any
possibility that this is the barrier
that separates our students from their
careers we cannot sit idly by and allow
this to happen
we need to be able to build a bridge for
our students from the classrooms they
sit in to the careers they want to
achieve now I think art and music
teachers are doing a better job of this
for instance
this picture from one of my best
friend’s she’s an art teacher in
Maryland
when she’s had her students display
their artwork in the local gallery or we
often read about the music teacher who
gets his best students connected and
playing along with the local symphony in
those ways those students get a real
taste for what it’s like to function in
those professions but what does this
look like for core teachers like science
and math in English I think the answer
lies in harnessing the power of
meaningful school University and
Industry partnerships we need more of
these stakeholders working together to
bridge that gap there are at least three
ways that partnerships like these can
help universities and industries can
provide advice they can give direct
guidance on curriculum decisions helping
us as teachers refine our focus and
ensuring that we’re addressing the work
skills and the content to prepare
students for simps for STEM careers a
good example of this is the widening
focus on coding in America which came
directly from industry recommendations
industry said we need more students who
can code schools heard this and have
responded the second way is resources
almost always universities and
industries have the resources that it
takes to make learning difficult
concepts more relevant for students I’ll
let you in on a secret
middle school students and high school
students don’t really care about sales
but they’re more apt to learn about
sales when they get a window into what
cancer research looks like even my
students aren’t that interested in
physics but their excitement increases
when I explain to them
that football collisions can generate
enough force to be brutally dangerous
and yet mechanical engineers are working
now to design better helmets that are
more protective but the best part of
this is that universities and industries
have the ability to offer exposure they
can explore
our students to these careers in very
meaningful ways and that’s my story
I was unsatisfied with this in my
classroom and I searched for ways how
can I tear down this veil for my
students until I landed in the gift
program at Georgia Tech the gift program
partners teachers with university
researchers and industry professionals I
was connected with dr. Raquel Lieberman
a biochemist and I work in her lab where
we where we use protein crystallography
to study the molecular details of
important proteins involved in
Alzheimer’s in glaucoma I’ve learned a
ton about proteins like Maya saline and
signal peptide peptidase or about
experiments like high-performance liquid
chromatography but the true magic
happens when I return to my classroom
every time I come back to my classroom
from my own experience I am now equipped
with those connections that can make
learning meaningful for my students I
can point to experiments in the textbook
and say hey look guys I did this and I
know why scientists do it and this is
why they do it and in enough time my
passion becomes my students passions
even better in the more recent years I
get to bring teams of my students with
me for the summer they spend five weeks
in the lab actually involved in the
process designing the experiments using
sophisticated million-dollar equipment
collecting the results discussing the
conclusions this picture is of Jose Jose
was one of the first students that came
along with me and I’m proud to tell you
now that Jose as a student at Emory
University studying forensic
anthropology I am supremely confident
that his experience that summer
solidified what he thought about a
career in science and helped to bolster
his confidence to pursue that career
I’ve kept this going now for six years
and ever since I’ve started it I’ve been
able to see the number of my students
who choose STEM careers increased
drastically
just like I explained in the very
beginning almost none of them shows
anything to do with stem and out of all
my classes I teach about sixty seniors a
year I’ve seen the number of them
increase every year until last year
almost a third of my students have
chosen stem as their major in fact some
of them have already earned those
degrees and have moved on to those
careers now there are other ways to get
involved at places like to think Academy
in LaGrange Georgia or like our very own
Career Academy in Douglasville the
industry partners band together to fund
innovative classrooms with industry
relevant equipment and beyond that
experienced professionals lend their
expertise to teach unique classes
designed to increase workforce skills
and prepare students for advanced
careers like manufacturing these
programs have been shown to have an
overwhelmingly positive effect on
helping students know what careers
they’re getting into listen I know I’m
not the only one I am not the only
teacher interning in a lab I’m not the
only one doing something unique to
connect my students to their careers and
career academies aren’t the only way
that industries can get involved but
what I hope is by telling these stories
they might motivate others who are not
yet involved to become engaged make no
mistake this is a call to action I’m
sending out a charge for every
University researcher every industry
professional out there to find just one
classroom that you can partner with in a
meaningful way visit their school on
more than just career day and then open
the door so that they can come and visit
you in your place of work to actually
see what you do when that happens we
will see our students step out on a much
firmer foundation on sure footing as
they make career decisions we will see
them much more enthusiastic about their
learning and we can see them have that
confidence to pursue these careers and
as I close
I want to share with you that I think
this model can impact every subject not
just em what would it look like if the
local newspaper reached out to the
eighth-grade English teacher and said
we’re going to reserve a weekly column
for nonfiction articles from your
students how many of those students will
get the experience of what it feels like
to be a journalist to organize my
thoughts to get my point across
succinctly to edit my article
appropriately even to get my article in
on time and then how many of those same
students will grow up thinking wow I
want to be a journalist we need more of
this and not less so promise me that you
will help us harness the potential of
meaningful school University industry
partnerships that you will help us build
a bridge for our students from the
classrooms they sit in to the careers
they want to join thank you
[Applause]
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