This article was originally published by San Antonio ISD
As part of a pilot program using Virtual Reality (VR) Goggles to teach students about career pathways, more than 1,100 middle and high school students in SAISD have had some very vivid visions experiencing potential careers.
In one simulation, students really feel as though they are climbing 300 feet in the air to repair a communications tower. In another, as an HVAC repair technician, spiders run out of the unit toward the person in the simulation. For some students, their experience is exhilarating and affirming of their career pathway. Other times, there can be some mind-changing.
“I went in thinking I wanted to be a doctor, but after doing a surgery simulation, I changed my mind,” a sixth grade Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) student at Davis Middle School said. "There was blood splatter, and I could see bone, and that is something I don't think I ever wanted to see in person. I was able to find another job in engineering that I am interested in now."
This discernment process — thinking and rethinking careers — is exactly what the district's Career and Technical Education Department team was hoping would happen when they invested in 30 VR Goggle sets this year. The decision to acquire the sets was made after the SAISD Foundation bought eight sets last year to use on their STEM buses — and students were hooked.
“These VR goggles serve as a bridge between imagination and opportunity,” said Katheryn Cline, director of Career and Technical Education. “We're using this immersive technology to broaden our scholars' horizons, helping them discover and pursue high-impact careers they never knew were possible.”
Throughout the year, the goggles have been piloted with middle school students in AVID and Leadership Officer Training Corps (LOTC) programs with the assistance of District AVID Coordinator Dr. Cynthia Martinez, who developed a four-day sequence of lessons to accompany the use of the goggles. The lessons are designed to expose students to possible career clusters before they must select a high school endorsement (STEM, Business & Industry, Public Service, Arts & Humanities, and Multi-Disciplinary Studies) as mandated by the Texas Legislature in 2013.
“The intent is to provide some early career awareness and exposure to middle school scholars so that when they make their choices, they're a little bit more informed about what it looks like,” Martinez said. "In AVID, one of our scholarly outcomes is opportunity knowledge, which includes college and career awareness. And LOTC does a lot of career awareness as well."
When a school requests the program, Martinez meets with the teacher to train them before the four-step lesson is deployed. Much of the content is delivered by Transfr, a maker of career exploration software that creates the VR simulations. Day one is a general lesson on career awareness. Day 2 two moves on to career clusters. On Day 3, students complete the Transfr Trek interest inventory, a survey of 23 yes or no career preference questions, such as whether students like working with their hands, working with numbers, or working alone or in teams. Once the inventory is complete, the system matches students to careers.
"They have all the information you can need on a career," Martinez said. "It has a description, it has what skills you need. It has how much money you would make, and it's relative to our area. It also has information about a pathway — what do you need to do in high school? What classes do you need to take? Do you need a certification? Are there institutions close to us that have this career major?"
Students are able to make a budget and see what life would be like if they pursued that career.
“It was great exploring different careers and how much they pay,” said Perla, an eighth grade LOTC student at Hot Wells Middle School. “It gives me an idea of how I want to pay my bills when I get older.”
There are currently 60 different simulations for students to choose from based on the results of their inventories. After students receive a list of potential careers, that's when the experiential learning begins, virtually at least. Students are instructed to choose the careers that intrigue them most for the career simulations in VR, with the goal of every scholar completing at least two simulations.
“The VR career exploration goggles really gave the students a sense of whether they would like a certain career field,” said Jasmine Collins, AVID teacher at Davis College Preparatory Middle School. “This opportunity gives the students virtual experience to jobs they may never have a chance to experience until they are in that career field.”
As the middle school students make endorsement choices and fill out choice cards, many are choosing CTE pathways. Based on the knowledge they have gained in the simulations, they are now better equipped to complete their pathway all the way to industry certification, making better use of the high school courses they can take for free.
“We know that for accountability, being a completer in a CTE program is very important,” Martinez said. “So if we can help them make an informed choice early, hopefully they will stay the whole four years and get their certification.”
So far more than 1,000 middle school students have completed the simulations, with the top simulation choices being registered nurse, firefighter, and veterinary technician.
While the pilot has been aimed at middle school students on the precipice of making high school choices, there are plenty of applications to extend beyond the pilot into high school classrooms.
The simulations can be used to provide high school students in CTE programs a realistic view of the tasks required in a profession earlier in their high school careers, even as they still learn theory and safety in their lower-level classes.
“It will be a good way to capture them in ninth and 10th grade and show them what the hands-on part will look like,” Martinez said.
At the recent SAISD Scholars Job Fair, more than 100 students tried the simulations, choosing from 20 different careers that encompassed all CTE pathways in the district. Even presenting employers tried the simulations and came away impressed by how realistic they felt.
“They told us, 'wow, that was real,'” Martinez said.
That kind of reaction shows the pilot project is giving students meaningful, hands-on insight into their future careers.
