Building Stem Career Interest Through Curriculum Treatments

Watson and McMahon’s (2005) work identified a need for research to examine the what and how of children’s career development learning; this research is a start to answering that call, specifically focusing on STEM career interest as a precursor to development due to the current needs nationally for an increase in the STEM pipeline. This study examined the impacts of design-based learning and scientific inquiry curriculum treatments with embedded career content on the career interest of fifth-grade students as compared to traditional classroom methods. Findings show an upward trend in interest with the use of these curriculum treatments, though the change is not significant in most career areas, likely due to the short time period of the unit and/or small n.