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This article lists some free online resources 8th gradel students can use to learn about college and careers

"Every young person will continue to need basic knowledge, of course," he said. "But they will need skills and motivation even more. Of these three education goals, motivation is the most critical. Young people who are intrinsically motivated - curious, persistent, and willing to take risks - will learn new knowledge and skills continuously. They will be able to find new opportunities or create their own - a disposition that will be increasingly important as many traditional careers disappear."

An effort to engage kids in coding by getting tech and non-tech celebraties to discuss coding in an accessible way. Also, attempts to motivate  them to get into a career where they can work in a really cool office...

This is an inspring slide-show from an MIT professor on "elements of a successful career of a graduate student". Interestingly, tenacity (or something of a similar kind) has been mentioned multiple times as a desirable quality. 

This Kickstarter project aims to fund a standards-aligned history board game that engages students. The free companion web application will track students' progress, allowing for differentiated instruction while making the game "fun to play again and again: as players answer question cards, they earn badges and can unlock new careers and powers. The game becomes a story, a competition, and a World History simulation with limitless possibilities."

Also as a follow-up to our conversation on Monday. Although more women are in STEM careers, there is still a lag in those considered "hard sciences." Most people look at mathematics as the core difference, these authors look at creativity. "For instance, three factors that are widely accepted as being positively correlated with creativity are playfulness, curiosity, and willingness to take risks. Studies have found that boys and men are generally more playful than girls and women, and are more curious and more willing to take risks, which could help explain why men are more creatively productive than women in general, and in particular, in the hard sciences."

DigiGirlz is an event that promotes STEM careers for middle school girls, in which students experimented with Microsoft Kodu and robotics.

I think vocational schools give students the means for making time spent in school relevant and useful to them. They pursue an interest and see it connected to a relevant future. In the current age where interdisciplinary work is the norm, jobs are mutable, and careers are evolutionary, vocational education is no longer preparing students for a job or career; just their first one.

I completely agree! I have a good friend who dropped out of high school, earned his GED the same week, and went on to a technical vocational school to study IT/systems management. Turned out that once he got to the vocational school, he became the top student in most of his classes, and well-known for staying after class to engage instructors in intellectual debate. I find it disappointing that our society tends to devalue vocational schools; it seems to me that we should instead be focusing on what fits each student best.

Those of you working on TESLA may be interested in this article! (Or anybody interested in the gender gap in students following STEM careers.

UPS uses games to improve driver training

The 2012 Digital Learning Report Card, funded by Jeb Bush's Digital Learning Now organization, was profiled in this week's EdSurge e-newsletter. The Digital Learning Report Card grades significant policy decisions (on a state-by-state basis) which "are advancing student-centric reforms, reducing barriers to blended learning, and encouraging the use of technology to offer a more personalized college- and career-ready education."

How to keep students engaged in STEM while in high school

"When students transition to college, they're shocked to find that instructors don't spoon-feed them information. Instead, teachers ask them to motivate themselves as they grapple with concepts and problems, said Zach Widbin, physics teacher and engineering course instructor at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix." [not a] Surprise: rigorous hands-on project-based learning (supported by University of Arizona) engages kids. I wonder how many collaborative projects there are like this, with a local School of Ed actively working with neighboring schools beyond traditional student teaching and observation?

I met this woman this morning and her story made me think of a project based curriculum design. She created her own major in college around issues of equity in communities around the world. She combined that with an interest in ecological sustainability and she proceeded into a career with the question: How are all of these things related and how can we approach social issues with systemic interventions? Her work in New Bedford is as promising as initiatives like Geoffrey Canada's.

As we students become graduates, Christensen's article is interesting both for perspective on career advice as well as it's broad references to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in the workplace. As an HBS professor, he takes a very Business School approach to motivation.

Greenlight for Girls uses various 2.0 tools to engage girls in informal learning to promote girls toward STEM careers. They compliment online work with on the ground, face-to-face conferences so that the online conversation has correlation with face-to-face experiences and interactions, making the online engagement more visceral.

Big state investment in online (old school) testing- new ways to test old models.

Thanks for sharing this, Chris. It's both interesting and relevant to my project for this course. A comment at the bottom suggested that really the companies need to change their unrealistic minimum criteria for job candidates. I've heard that argument before, and sometimes I do wonder when I see complaints from companies looking only for people with 5+ years of STEM work experience railing on the state of STEM education. What do you think?

Thanks for sharing Chris! I can totally relate to this. I remember having to sit through those "weed out" intro biology and chemistry courses in undergrad. They were the antithesis of motivating but I pushed through because I knew without them I couldn't do the "cool science" I wanted to. I remember at the time thinking these courses were weeding out people who were entertaining the idea of a STEM career but just didn't want to put up with the cut throat nature of these courses. It seemed to me the classes were more concerned about weeding out people than by providing an environment that really fostered learning.

Interesting Discussion on different typs of motivators. Not necessarily academically rigorous. But something to consider

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.