STEM education and CTE programs are two complementary practices. Both STEM and CTE rely on real-world, hands-on instruction, and often through CTE, students can learn more about a career in science, technology, engineering, or math. Here are five STEM products that are great to use in your career pathways courses!
1. Engineering: SpanStructure
Many CTE programs offer an engineering course. By nature, engineering is part of STEM and there are many great STEM activities that can be done to teach students more about aerospace, civil, mechanical, or other engineering branches. With SpanStructure, students navigate the Engineering Design Process by researching, designing, prototyping, and testing balsa wood bridges. This product is a great way to teach about tension, compression, forces (load), and engineering failures and successes!
2. Media Production: STEM VR and High Tech Kit for Social Emotional Learning
Communications is a field that can be explored through several CTE courses from website design, information technology, or creative media production. The STEM VR and High Tech Kit for Social Emotional Learning builds technical skills that allow students to create their own production. This kit comes with all the items necessary to explore video production, like green screens and webcams. Additionally, there is a virtual reality (VR) component that gives students tools to create their own games. Combined with free standards-aligned lesson plans and worksheets, teachers can address STEAM and SEL using one comprehensive kit.
3. Automotive 
Repair: CrashCourse
Automotive courses are a classic CTE and vocational program offering. In these courses, students often gain firsthand experience working on cars from oil changes to collision repair. To further understand how collisions occur and their impacts on a vehicle, try CrashCourse. This product allows students to set up several different crash experiments. In one experiment, a cart crashes into a stationary wall while in another, two carts crash into each other. By simulating different crashes, students learn about momentum and
gain a firmer understanding of the impact that a collision has on a vehicle.
4. Forensics: Analysis of Fingerprints Kits
Forensic science is a hands-on way to engage students in careers like medicine, nursing, or biomedical engineering. The Analysis of Fingerprints Kits let small groups collaborate as they dust and lift fingerprints using real-world techniques. Students can explore and compare methods involving carbon, aluminum, iodine, amino acids, lipids, and more.
5. Robotics: Ozobot Robotic Arm & Evo Kit
Robotics can be taught in CTE when learning about engineering, manufacturing, and technology careers. Compact yet powerful, ORA introduces students to real-world skills in process engineering and factory operations. This cutting-edge tool teaches the foundations of engineering, automation, and robotics as students program the collaborative robot (cobot) to complete tasks with precision. Equipped with an end-tool gripper and vacuum gripper, ORA can manipulate objects, including two included Ozobot Evo robots, offering an engaging, hands-on experience.
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