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Next time you're wondering why more kids don't go into STEM in this age of wondrous scientific and technological progress; virtually any bright 10 year old know

Next time you're wondering why more kids don't go into STEM in this age of wondrous scientific and technological progress; virtually any bright 10 year old knows the story of how and why Archimedes leapt out of his bathtub shouting "Eureka!", but none of them would have the foggiest notion of what a real scientist does at work on a day-to-day basis. Neither would their parents, unless they are scientists themselves. Even students halfway through college on course to become such scientists often have only a vague notion of what their careers would actually look like- they just know they like the coursework. Its a leap of faith. Same goes for most kinds of engineering, and mathematics, and a bunch of other disciplines that are inexplicably underrepresented in children's career aspirations. (I suppose software engineers are the exception, since the popular notion "they just sit at computers all day typing arcane things" is actually true. : ) )

dalke 11y ago
What you're saying doesn't really seem specific to the so-called STEM fields. Do these same 10 year olds know what a movie actor does at work on a day-to-day basis? Or a politician? Do art students halfway through college have more than a vague notion of what their career will look like? What about English majors? History?
- maxander 11y ago
  You can get some idea of what its like to be in politics through watching C-SPAN or reading news accounts of high-profile political struggles or watching fictional accounts like the West Wing. The life of actors is often meticulously charted out by the public consciousness just because many people have such tremendous interest in celebrity actors. I'm not saying that its only STEM fields to which this applies, but it certainly doesn't apply to everything.
  - modfodder 11y ago
    You really don't get a good idea about any of those professions through the media. Watching C-SPAN or even the West Wing only gives you a minute glimpse. Same with actors (most of the actors time on set is spent waiting or doing nothing). 90% of a director's job is done before the 1st day the camera's start rolling (and the majority of a director's career is spent emailing or meeting about prospective jobs, not actually on set directing actors).
  - dalke 11y ago
    How many 10 year olds do you think watch the West Wing or C-SPAN? And you do realize that most politics is local. You need to watch local access cable of town meetings, not C-SPAN, to get an idea of what most politics is like. Bartlet never walked in the local city parade, mingled at the 4th of July town pancake breakfast, nor had to listen to the local kook make a complaint. Watching West Wing for an idea of how politics works is like watching a documentary on Einstein. Even if completely accurate, it's still a very unusual example. Similarly, most actors are not celebrity actors. Wil Wheaton's blog, for example, doesn't match what little I've read from the tabloids, and Wheaton is one of the more well known actors.
weinzierl 11y ago
I suppose software engineers are the exception, since the popular notion "they just sit at computers all day typing arcane things" is actually true. : ) I know you are joking, but it has to be said. In my experience most software engineers spend considerable time in (formal or informal) meetings. According to "Mythical Man Month" the average productivity is 10 lines per developer per day.
- minot 11y ago
  I wouldn't mind spending 40 hours a week in these inane meetings if business didn't want me to get stuff done.
- SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
  Yeah, but MMM also mentioned a 10x productivity range between average and exceptional programmers. 100 lines per day isn't too shabby. I just try to work with exceptional programmers. :)
  - jes5199 11y ago
    I try to be LOC neutral. A good day on a healthy team lets me delete at least as much code as I write.
    - forrestthewoods 11y ago
      The best days are when you delete more code than you write. If the only thing I did was delete code I'd be soooooo happy!
    - SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
      I agree that LOC isn't an ideal metric. But there isn't really an ideal simplistic metric. Out of curiosity, I thought I'd look at a recent productive day. In actual numbers, my 42 check-ins totaled 409 new lines of code compared with 213 lines deleted, so close to 50% (not counting check-ins with simple line changes). At the end I had several new features implemented and a lot of code refactored to be cleaner.
lazyant 11y ago
I think that goes for almost all jobs. Do most high schoolers have a good idea what the job of a lawyer or a doctor or a pilot, or a small business owner or a cop or a professor really looks like? I'd say most adults don't have a good idea of what other jobs outside their experience or contact really are day to day.
Balgair 11y ago
I mean, nowadays, if you have an idea of the job you are going into in a STEM field you are usually kidding yourself (exception being sons and daughters whose parents own a business or have another secure job type). Heck, many times the stuff you learned in the 1st year is irrelevant or has changed by the 4th year. For instance, how many 2 terminal linear circuit components are there? 3 right? Resistor, capacitor, inductor. Wrong. There is a 4th, the memristor, and those are available today (http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic/MN101LR05DXW/?qs=OeBdveGBEcQzg65tbPujiw%3D%3D http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic/MN101LR05DXW/?...). Now this particular example is not that big, but it speaks to the variety and rate of change in an undergrad course set these days. You have to be able to change, and change a lot. Everything thing you learn has an asterisk next to it. it never really did not, but you have to talk about those things now in class, not just sweep them under the rug. If you think you know what is going on after university, you are now very naive. I'd say, most of the kids at least know this now, that they are not going to have a career in one company, but many, and in a lot of different fields too. EE will bleed into neuroscience and geology and ME into bioengineering and FDA food stuff.
jotm 11y ago
Please, I know half a dozen economics students who have no idea whatsoever as to what job they can possibly get when they graduate...

dalke 11y ago

What you're saying doesn't really seem specific to the so-called STEM fields. Do these same 10 year olds know what a movie actor does at work on a day-to-day basis? Or a politician? Do art students halfway through college have more than a vague notion of what their career will look like? What about English majors? History?

maxander 11y ago
You can get some idea of what its like to be in politics through watching C-SPAN or reading news accounts of high-profile political struggles or watching fictional accounts like the West Wing. The life of actors is often meticulously charted out by the public consciousness just because many people have such tremendous interest in celebrity actors. I'm not saying that its only STEM fields to which this applies, but it certainly doesn't apply to everything.
- modfodder 11y ago
  You really don't get a good idea about any of those professions through the media. Watching C-SPAN or even the West Wing only gives you a minute glimpse. Same with actors (most of the actors time on set is spent waiting or doing nothing). 90% of a director's job is done before the 1st day the camera's start rolling (and the majority of a director's career is spent emailing or meeting about prospective jobs, not actually on set directing actors).
- dalke 11y ago
  How many 10 year olds do you think watch the West Wing or C-SPAN? And you do realize that most politics is local. You need to watch local access cable of town meetings, not C-SPAN, to get an idea of what most politics is like. Bartlet never walked in the local city parade, mingled at the 4th of July town pancake breakfast, nor had to listen to the local kook make a complaint. Watching West Wing for an idea of how politics works is like watching a documentary on Einstein. Even if completely accurate, it's still a very unusual example. Similarly, most actors are not celebrity actors. Wil Wheaton's blog, for example, doesn't match what little I've read from the tabloids, and Wheaton is one of the more well known actors.

weinzierl 11y ago

I suppose software engineers are the exception, since the popular notion "they just sit at computers all day typing arcane things" is actually true. : ) I know you are joking, but it has to be said. In my experience most software engineers spend considerable time in (formal or informal) meetings. According to "Mythical Man Month" the average productivity is 10 lines per developer per day.

minot 11y ago
I wouldn't mind spending 40 hours a week in these inane meetings if business didn't want me to get stuff done.
SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
Yeah, but MMM also mentioned a 10x productivity range between average and exceptional programmers. 100 lines per day isn't too shabby. I just try to work with exceptional programmers. :)
- jes5199 11y ago
  I try to be LOC neutral. A good day on a healthy team lets me delete at least as much code as I write.
  - forrestthewoods 11y ago
    The best days are when you delete more code than you write. If the only thing I did was delete code I'd be soooooo happy!
  - SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
    I agree that LOC isn't an ideal metric. But there isn't really an ideal simplistic metric. Out of curiosity, I thought I'd look at a recent productive day. In actual numbers, my 42 check-ins totaled 409 new lines of code compared with 213 lines deleted, so close to 50% (not counting check-ins with simple line changes). At the end I had several new features implemented and a lot of code refactored to be cleaner.

lazyant 11y ago

I think that goes for almost all jobs. Do most high schoolers have a good idea what the job of a lawyer or a doctor or a pilot, or a small business owner or a cop or a professor really looks like? I'd say most adults don't have a good idea of what other jobs outside their experience or contact really are day to day.

Balgair 11y ago

I mean, nowadays, if you have an idea of the job you are going into in a STEM field you are usually kidding yourself (exception being sons and daughters whose parents own a business or have another secure job type). Heck, many times the stuff you learned in the 1st year is irrelevant or has changed by the 4th year. For instance, how many 2 terminal linear circuit components are there? 3 right? Resistor, capacitor, inductor. Wrong. There is a 4th, the memristor, and those are available today (http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic/MN101LR05DXW/?qs=OeBdveGBEcQzg65tbPujiw%3D%3D http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic/MN101LR05DXW/?...). Now this particular example is not that big, but it speaks to the variety and rate of change in an undergrad course set these days. You have to be able to change, and change a lot. Everything thing you learn has an asterisk next to it. it never really did not, but you have to talk about those things now in class, not just sweep them under the rug. If you think you know what is going on after university, you are now very naive. I'd say, most of the kids at least know this now, that they are not going to have a career in one company, but many, and in a lot of different fields too. EE will bleed into neuroscience and geology and ME into bioengineering and FDA food stuff.

jotm 11y ago

Please, I know half a dozen economics students who have no idea whatsoever as to what job they can possibly get when they graduate...