Today I want to introduce you to an awesome new company called CareerCube that is being brought to you by a team from Harvard Business School. CareerCube connects the dots between classroom education, career exploration and creative competition. Each CareerCube kit helps put kids in the shoes of different careers, encouraging them to apply what they learn in school to solve problems.
What is CareerCube?
We talked to a number of parents and kids to learn what is most important to them. We learned some really important things:
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Kids are most excited about connecting what they are learning in school with the real world
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Parents are interested in educational games that reinforce and enhance what their kids are learning in school
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In addition, parents want a fun, informal way to introduce their kids to potential careers (with 80% specifically interested in STEM careers)
What is included in a CareerCube?
A CareerCube game includes two components, activity booklet and experiment materials:
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The activity booklet is your main guide for the game. It puts you in the shoes of a real life problem solver and guides you through a series of challenges.
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The experiment materials are all the physical materials you can use to solve the challenge.
Why is CareerCube special compared to other educational games?
Unlike other educational games, CareerCube content is directly aligned with Common Core educational standards. We have partnered with the experts, elementary school teachers, to develop the educational materials. Due to this unique design, kids will have the opportunity to reinforce and enhance what they are learning in the classroom via CareerCube.
Survey Results from CareerCube
We’ve had 18 kid testers of the prototype version so far. All but one said they wanted to play the game again (the one said he wanted to build something different. This kit is the Marine Engineer kit, so the children were building boats). We also asked the kids to rank if the game was fun on a scale of 1-5 (5 is the most fun). The average score was a 4.3. We also asked them to rank how easy it was to follow, and again the average score was 4.3.
Our favorite review was where a student replied “Double Yes!!” to the question of whether or not they’d play again! Almost all of the reviewers deemed the game extremely fun, and almost all said they’d change nothing about it.
My Thoughts
I’m absolutely loving the idea behind CareerCube because its starts a real conversation about the child’s future. I remember when I was a kid being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. It seems like my answer was always something way out of reach that I didn’t realistically see myself doing, like an astronaut. CareerCube offers kits for real world careers that children can actually see themselves doing, like a Marine engineer or the upcoming kits of a Veterinarian and Architect.
Not only does CareerCube allow kids to have hands-on interaction with the real world, it opens up a conversation between parents and their kids. Talking about a child’s future can sometime be a hard subject to bring up and sometimes can end in disaster. Thanks to CareerCube, it’s never been easier and more fun to seriously talk about your child’s future.
Visit www.career-cube.com to learn more!
Giveaway
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I have had somewhat of a career talk. I tell them to find themselves and what their passion is and everything will fall into place when it is time.
I have not had a career talk with them but this is a good idea.
Not yet. They are still a bit young but it's just fun to hear what they want to be when they grow up!
Yes, my son and I talk all the time about what he wants to be when he grows up. Currently it is a mechanical engineer… 🙂 He's only six so that will probably change tomorrow!
I just make sure they know I'll be proud of them no matter what. (CoreyOlomon at gmail dot com)
We are big Mike Rowe fans here, and our 7 year old is very familiar with Mommy's soapbox about college being marketed as the "only way" to spite thousands of young people graduating with useless degrees and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Yes, we discuss career opportunities on a regular basis here.
no
Yes, She only 5, but she has a lot of career options: princess, vet, or mommy
Yes my son and I discuss it often. I encourage him to do something he loves not what pays the most. I was talked out of my career choice because my family didn't think it paid enough.