Build Meaningful Connections with STEM Role Models
Simple tools and activities to help children and STEM role models connect through shared experiences, discover common ground, and recognize the STEM skills and identities they share.
Connecting children with STEM role models, from engineers and skilled tradespeople to college students and professionals in unexpected STEM careers, can spark curiosity and open doors to new possibilities. Whether you're a school, company, or nonprofit, these simple strategies and resources can help turn introductions into meaningful connections through shared experiences, conversations, and discoveries.
Make STEM Role Models Visible
Help children recognize STEM role models and give them a reason to start a conversation. Invite STEM professionals, students, and volunteers to wear something that sparks curiosity and encourages interaction.
Options include:
Buttons, stickers, or name badges: "Ask Me About My STEM Job!"
Job titles: "I'm a Mechanical Engineer" or "I'm Studying Computer Science."
Conversation starters: "Ask Me What My Favorite Subject Was in School!" or "Ask Me About Something I've Designed!"
STEM identities: "I'm a Problem Solver!" or "I'm a Persister!"
Company apparel: Encourage volunteers to wear branded shirts, jackets, or other apparel representing their employer or organization.
Tip: Identifiers don't need to be professionally produced. Printable name tags, stickers, or handwritten badges work just as well!
Find Common Ground Through STEM Identities
STEM isn't just about what you know or what job you have. It's also about how you think, create, explore, and solve problems.
STEM identities provide a shared language that helps children and role models connect through how they think, rather than simply what they do.
A professional engineer and a child building their first invention might both be Creators, Persisters, or Problem Solvers. By exploring these shared identities, children can discover that they already use many of the same skills and approaches as STEM professionals.
Invite role models and children to choose an identity that describes them and share an example of when they've demonstrated that quality.
Give Connections a Natural Starting Point
Hands-on activities and simple games help break the ice, giving children a natural way to connect with STEM role models.
Building or problem-solving together creates opportunities for conversation, while bingo cards, passports, and scavenger hunts encourage children to meet different role models, ask questions, and discover shared interests and experiences.
The goal isn't to complete the game or create a perfect project, but to create meaningful moments of connection that help children explore different STEM pathways and recognize what they have in common with STEM professionals.
Prepare STEM Role Models for Meaningful Connections
A little preparation can go a long way. Before an event or activity, encourage participating STEM role models to:
Do something together first. A shared hands-on activity can be a more natural starting point than a formal introduction.
Be curious about the child. Ask about their interests, ideas, experiences, and what they're working on.
Share relatable stories. Talk about childhood interests, favorite subjects, mistakes, challenges, and unexpected career pathways.
Look for common ground. Help children recognize the creativity, persistence, curiosity, and problem-solving skills they already use.
Make it a two-way conversation. Encourage children to share their own experiences and discoveries, rather than simply listening to an adult explain their job.
Celebrate different pathways. Reinforce that there are many ways to explore STEM, and no single type of person who belongs in it.
Make STEM Connections Your Own
Explore free, ready-to-use activities, guides, and customizable templates to help children and STEM role models connect through shared experiences, conversations, and discoveries.
STEM Role Model Bingo Template
Editable template · Customize and print
STEM Connections Passport
Editable template · Customize and print
STEM Connections Conversation Starters
Printable resource · For all ages
STEM Role Model Volunteer Guide
Editable template · Customize and print
IDENTI-BEADS Guide
Customize and print
STEM Role Model Name Badges
STEM Role Model Buttons
*The State of Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) funded (in whole or in part) this workforce development product (training, event, curricula, etc.) through a grant. The grant recipient created this product. DEED does not endorse this product or make guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability or ownership of the information herein or elsewhere.