A student in an elementary school drops an egg wrapped tightly in paper straws and tape to test whether it can survive a high fall. Next door, students engineer a solar oven out of pizza boxes, construction paper and aluminum foil. In another classroom, students construct a “biosphere” using foam balls, fake grass and dollhouses.

These and similar scenes from public schools around the country are more than just young learners having fun with recycled materials. This is STEM education in action: Hands-on projects help students develop critical thinking skills while sparking interest in science, technology, engineering and math.

Research shows that exposing students to STEM between grades one and three provides them with a foundation to enter many STEM-related careers: as doctors, chemists, geologists, computer scientists and many more.

Introducing these fields in elementary school helps capture students’ imaginations and kindle their interest in STEM. Besides the fun, these hands-on learning experiences foster a mindset that embraces innovation, experimentation and collaboration. That foundation will support this generation throughout their lives as they face an increasingly complex, interconnected world.

STEM careers are among the nation’s highest-paying and fastest-growing jobs. Early exposure to STEM education primes students to take advantage of these career opportunities — and the economic benefits that come with them. Without it, we risk perpetuating an exclusionary cycle that alienates underrepresented communities from STEM careers and fuels lifelong opportunity gaps.

Related: As science denial grows, science museums fight back by teaching scientific literacy

As parents have become more involved in their children’s education, they deserve to know how and where STEM is coming to life in their schools — and, more importantly, how to make sure that their children can take advantage of opportunities.

This is especially important now, as inconsistent and inequitable access to these subjects continues to reinforce representation gaps in STEM careers. In today’s STEM workforce, Black and Hispanic adults represent just 8 and 9 percent of the field, respectively. And while women make up 50 percent of STEM workers, they are overrepresented in health-related occupations compared to other areas like engineering and architecture.

We can reduce representation gaps in STEM and prepare more students to join the STEM-related workforce — but we have to start young. Students need opportunities to develop the critical thinking skills that will allow them to succeed in these fields.

We can reduce representation gaps in STEM and prepare more students to join the STEM-related workforce — but we have to start young.

That’s why GreatSchools, the nonprofit school information site that helps parents navigate education, partnered with Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a nonprofit organization that encourages STEM-based careers for students through hands-on, project-based learning starting in pre-K.

Because of this new partnership, parents can now see whether a school offers STEM when browsing GreatSchools profiles. Families looking to specifically prioritize STEM programs in their school search can use GreatSchools’ enhanced search tool to display only schools offering these courses.

We believe that providing this information to families — especially those whose identities are underrepresented in STEM careers — will allow them to take advantage of these programs early on, potentially changing the trajectory of their child’s academic and professional lives.

Furthermore, in the wake of the pandemic, parents are asking for different, not just better. It’s not enough just to improve our schools — we also need to change the playbook from which they’ve been operating for decades.

Related: STUDENT VOICES: We need more women in STEM fields, and we have ideas for making that happen

It’s time to meet this moment with action. Here are some ideas I believe education leaders can and should be pursuing in terms of STEM:

• Make sure teachers have adequate resources. In addition to proper training,teachers need technological equipment — computers, internet access and software — to effectively teach STEM classes.
• Adopt a curriculum that exposes students to STEM early on. Infusing elementary school curricula with topics and skill development aligned with STEM careers opens students’ minds to a world of possibilities.
• Create mentoring programs that center underrepresented STEM professionals. Mentors can play a significant role in shaping students’ career trajectories by exposing them to different fields while helping them reach their goals. Giving students the opportunity to connect with professional STEM mentors — particularly Black, Hispanic and female mentors — can help them see themselves in those careers.

Now is our chance to reimagine public education to more equitably serve all students. Exposing students to STEM early in their education is a crucial investment for students, their families and society. Collectively, we all reap the benefits of a diverse, rich workforce representative of the best in our communities.

And yes, we can simply start with a pizza box, paper and foil.

Jon Deane is chief executive officer of GreatSchools.org, a national education nonprofit that supports parents through every stage of their child’s education. He has more than two decades of experience in K-12 education, previously serving as a math teacher and school administrator.

This story about STEM education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

The post OPINION: Starting earlier will create better student pipelines into STEM fields appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

In the heart of Louisville, Kentucky, Rikaiya Long recently stood at the front of the courtroom, presenting oral arguments from the law brief she’d authored a week prior. Legal scholars listened intently while she defended her position in the case of strict liability.

Rikaiya is not a lawyer, though — she’s a high school student. And the legal scholars were student teachers from the University of Louisville.

This mock courtroom occupies half of Rikaiya’s classroom at Central High School. She is enrolled in the school’s law magnet program — one of its many “pathways” that combine academics with exposure to careers in specific fields. These programs provide students with opportunities to take career and technical education (CTE) courses that offer real, work-based learning experiences.

Research has shown that exposure like this makes students not only more likely to complete high school, but also more likely to enroll in college. Despite promising evidence, however, there remains little information accessible to families about the availability and quality of CTE high school programs.

High school is supposed to be a place of academic discovery that positions students for lifelong success. Without knowing the true breadth of programs at their disposal, students are not able to take advantage of valuable, pre-career learning opportunities.

Related: The high school-college hybrid that jumpstarts careers

To determine if schools provide high-quality options for students to pursue college and career, states must publish school-level data that tell us two key metrics: How many students are completing pathways programs, and how many are subsequently enrolling in college?

While vitally important, providing robust data on CTE and pathways programs alone will not ensure that they are high quality or that all students are well served; we also need to define pathway quality and promote equitable access to these programs where they exist so that all students can take advantage.

That’s why GreatSchools, a national nonprofit, recently conducted a national landscape analysis of publicly available, career-specific data to determine if we could connect parents with that data through our school profiles. (It’s part of our effort to provide families with the most complete picture of school quality possible, including sharing information on schools’ resources, practices and outcomes — and whether they are equitably distributed.)

As it turns out, only two states — Kentucky and Michigan — provide data that attempts to capture the quality of these programs, including information on student participation and outcomes for career-specific programming.

High school is supposed to be a place of academic discovery that positions students for lifelong success.

This data, combined with information on college enrollment and persistence, could help families understand how well a school is preparing students for life after high school. For some students, the plan could be college; for others, it could be high-quality technical education, the military or another skill-based vocation.

Following our analysis, we partnered with the Kentucky Board of Education to add information on career pathway offerings to our Kentucky high school profiles — connecting families across the state to this vital information. We hope it will support Kentucky families in learning about the educational opportunities available to their teenagers, while also showing other states the importance of making such data public.

Indeed, families in all 50 states and the District of Columbia should have this opportunity. The more students can learn about — and take advantage of — CTE programs at their schools, the greater the chance that they will find their right path after high school.

By participating in the law magnet program, Rikaiya discovered that she actually didn’t want to be a lawyer after all. Now, she’s set on applying her business skills to a career in public relations. So far, she’s applied to programs at three historically Black institutions: Howard University, Florida A&M University and Xavier University of Louisiana.

To fulfill the promise of high-quality career preparation programming for all students, states must prioritize greater data collection, publication and transparency. As Kentucky and Michigan demonstrate, states can develop the infrastructure necessary to collect and report this valuable information.

Students rely on data about CTE programs to make decisions about their academic and professional futures; they deserve information on all the possibilities.

Jon Deane is chief executive officer of GreatSchools.org, a national education nonprofit that supports parents through every stage of their child’s education. He brings over two decades of experience in K-12 education, previously serving as a math teacher and school administrator.

This story about career and technical education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

The post <strong>OPINION: Parents and students need more information about pathways to college and careers</strong> appeared first on The Hechinger Report.