The best way to introduce students to new career pathways is to give them the opportunity to explore careers in action! The STEM Careers Coalition offers student activities, family challenges, career activations and more to provide students with immersive STEM career exploration experiences.  

The Coalition is comprised of organizations across a wide variety of industries that have joined together with Discovery Education on a missing to impact the culture of STEM education in K – 12 schools nationwide. By empowering educators to teach STEM more effectively wherever learning is taking place and fostering equity and access to quality educational resources the Coalition aims to support building the next generation of STEM solution-seekers. 

One of benefits of this partnership is that the resources feature timely content that reflects the real experiences of STEM professionals. New resources developed in partnership with American Petroleum Institute (API), one of the Coalition anchor partners, give students the opportunity to explore innovation in the oil and gas industry.  

• In the Distillation of Crude Oil digital lesson bundle students get an opportunity to put the design engineering process into practice to create their own mixtures that will ultimately help them understand the process of distillation. As students collaborate, they are assigned roles of Manager, Designer, Evaluator and Researcher to give them the full experience of serving on an engineering team. The bundle comes complete with a ready-to-use PowerPoint presentation and educator guide featuring all of the necessary worksheets and detailed implementation instructions for the lesson. 
• The Farm to Table student activity provides students with insight into the roles of environmental, health and safety workers, and project managers. As students examine the process of getting food from the farm to the table, they have the opportunity to compare and contrast the efficiency of freight transportation for ships, trucks, trains, and airplanes, assess how the freight transportation choices differ regarding speed, cost, and environmental impact. This activity demonstrates the impact of STEM professionals on everyday life in our communities. 
• A Sweet Petroleum Polymer provides a fun way for students to explore different types of petroleum-based polymers, including those used to make chewing gum! Collaborating with their peers, students will investigate the amount of synthetic polymer in chewing gum by calculating and comparing the percentage of polymer remaining after chewing different types of gum. This activity is closely linked to the important roles of chemical engineers as they apply the principles of chemistry, biology, physics, and math to solve problems that involve the production or use of chemicals, fuel, drugs, food, and many other products. 

The activities explored here are specifically intended for students in grades 6-8, but the STEM Careers Coalition offers resources to introduce STEM careers to students of all grade levels! Educators can explore these resources and more at STEMCareersCoalition.org or subscribers to Discovery Education Experience can visit the STEM Careers Channel.