I was in an elementary school where scientists from a nearby university visited the schools periodically to work with the students on a variety of activities and to describe their own research. The students were impressed with meeting “real” scientists and learning about their work. (One little girl asked if the scientist would autograph her notebook!) These students were learning about careers first-hand.
If there is a shortage of career role models in your community, we often have students could do “reports” on careers in science, looking at educational requirements, salary projections, etc. But I wonder how middleschoolers really relate to this activity? The Internet can bring people from around the world into our classrooms. For example, NOAA’s Ocean Explorers has archives of webcasts that include videos of scientists at work.
And I just got a recommendation from the Math-Science Partnerships’ Learning Network about the No Boundaries project from NASA. In this project, students explore STEM careers (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) within the context of NASA programs. It appears to be well designed, with rubrics, graphic organizers, cooperative learning suggestions, and other guidelines. Students can submit their projects later this year in a national competition.
If you’re not affiliated with a Math-Science Partnership project, you can sign up to join the Math Science Partnerships’ Learning Network which has a guest newsletter that is a great source of information and suggestions.