Event ID: 1198224
Event Started: 11/18/2008 6:46:02 PM ET
This is a test. One, two. Captioner, if you are listening, can you hear me, we just hold your control key on your keyboard so we know you can hear the audio on your computer.
Thank you very much..
Pat you can start recording. Jeff stand by just a second before you click on slide number one. You can start counting back from ten know and Pat you are start your recording now.
Good evening everybody. This is Jeff in the office of disabilities services at Wright state universecy, getting ready for college careers in science, technology, engineering and math. This is our first night with some new equipment on the internet and so we're experiencing afy difficulties. We -- a few difficulties. We had this wonderful introplanned with music and everything that had been postponed until next week. Give you another reason why to listen to next week. Go ahead and get started with some of the things we have in store for you tonight.
Things are running a little bit slower. So let me just start off with -- we may have some new folks out there that didn't get to tune in last week or didn't hear the live show. Let me talk about who I am and what we're doing here. I'm the director of officer disability services. We have a program at Wright state university in Dayton that provides services to over 500 students on our campus that has various kinds of disabilities. Wright state if you haven't had an opportunity to visit is the newest state university we opened in 1967. That makes us pretty young in the education world. We have since the beginning of the institution been looking at ways that we can accommodate students with disabilities. We have one of the few campuses in the country that is 100% accessible to students with disabilities and provides support services to not only students with physical disabilities but also students who have various kinds of learning disabilities. Starting Wright is a program that we designed to try to give students and their families an opportunity to begin thinking about college and what they need to do and what kind of things they need to get ready for those kinds of things and why we needed to do that has to do with is why get in to college? Why talk about college? Well, we're embarking on the 21st century on what we call the knowledge economy. Chose to go to college. Others chose to go in to the world of work and begin working and a lot of them chose things like manufacturing jobs, general motors was at it's peak. There were companies all over that needed factory people to do. They paid good wages. There were good health insurance programs. There were a lot of opportunities for people that chose not necessarily to continue on with their education and go out. Today, we're in a race with the world. There are other countries in the world who are training their students in large numbers to take over the leadership of research and development that needs to go onto create new devices and new areas. Right now, if you compare the United States with other countries in the world, you find that we were number 8. That there are 8 other countries that have more of their students graduating from high school and going to college than we do. We have to make a change in that area if we expect to maintain the superiority in the economy that we have today.
So one of the things that we're doing is that we are trying to helm families begin -- help families begin to take a look at how we can get more individuals with disabilities in the STEM field. Those in last week's show know that STEMM stands for what? Science, technology, engineering, math and medicine. Those are the fields that are really going to lead this knowledge economy , that are going to develop new devices and tools and methods that are going to make this world a better place. Why should you consider STEMM? As we talked about it in the last time, STEMM gives you an opportunity to do a variety of things and to earn a very good salary. So we're interested in having you begin that process of looking at it and it's not something that you could just do the day before you go to college. You can't wake up the last year of your high school and go to college and do that. It takes time and effort and it takes some discussions. Particularly, if you have difficulties with those things or you have a disability, you may need to look at other issues.
So we had a homework assignment last time. Let's take a look at what the homework answers were. What is STEMM stand for? Science, technology, engineering math and medicine. We asked each of you to identify somebody that you know that had a stem career. So Kaycy in rivercide Ohio talked about -- Bill Edwards and he's an electrical engineer. Cameron Grays from origin village, Ohio he's a physical therapist. So each of those are exactly the kinds of folks we're looking for, people we want you to get in touch with, individuals who are in STEMM careers. We'll have an opportunity -- we'll have an opportunity to talk to other folks who are involved in the STEMM field.
Our program tonight -- I was just remanded by Catherine. Everyone who emailed us will be receiving their starting Wright draw pack. If you forgot to send in your answer for your homework we'll give you an opportunity to send that in and we'll send you the pack a little bit later. If you didn't get a chance to send in your homework assignment, make sure you do that this week.
Program number two. Careers, coming up tonight. What is a career? That's something we're going to talk about. So often people don't really understand what is involved in a career, how do you make a choice about a career? What are the things you look at regards in careers. What kind of careers are available in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine. What are those jobs that are out there? What are the people that do in those particular areas? As I said we're going have an interview. We're going to give you an opportunity to hear from one of our students at Wright state who is working in her career in the STEMM field and talk with a faculty member who works with her on those particular areas.
Okay. So let's start off with what's the difference -- simply, a career is something that you do over a period of time in your life. I've had a career as an educator for the last 30 years where I've spent time doing a variety of jobs here at Wright state including directing the office of career services. I've also been a counselor and grant manager. Those were the individual jobs that I had, but I put in to my particular career. A real simple answer as to what a career is or what a job is. What is career is versus a job. A job is something
do for a period of time and it may be one particular place that you work or whatever, but a career is pinning those jobs together in a particular field. We're more interested right know in terms of talking about what are the careers that you want to go in to before we start looking at the jobs. Jobs -- you could do a lot of different jobs in a particular career, but we're really interested in taking a look at overall what you want to do with your lifetime or at least for a period of five to ten years in your life.
Careers, there's a basic simple formula that I use to help people understand what they need to look at in order to develop a career. First of all, you have to look at the ability that the individual has. What are you good at? What do you like to do? Oftentimes the -- oftentimes the easiest way to look at what your abilities are is the things you like to do. Because most ache -- we don't like things we don't have abilities in. I'm a terrible basketball player. I'm probably not going to like to play basketball, but if I'm really good at pinball, then that would mean I have stronger abilities in those areas. So we naturally gravitate to the things that we're good at and like to do those particular things. So looking at your abilities, what are you able to do?
The second area is what are you interested in? What do you get excited about? Do you like history? Do you like to use certain gadgets? Do you like to investigate things or research things? Do you like talking to people? Do you like writing things and creating things? Do you like to paint? What are those interests that you have and what fields are you interested in? Do you like autonomy or do you like plants or do you like technology? Looking at your ability and looking at your interest area, added to what is the demand out there? What are we looking for? What's the world needs? What are the predictions for what kind of jobs are going to be available in the future? What are the things we can start to prepare for with that demand? Those three areas, ability, interest and demand, will lead you to a career you will be. There's a lot of really good information out on the internet that talks about how to plan that career and there's some really good books out that are written as well. I would encourage you to Google career planning and see what kinds of things you come up with because -- we'll have some resources at the end of the night that will help you to go to some particular places. But when I was out looking around, there's a lot of good information out there that you would use some tests or answers you could take or ways you can put down information about yourself to help you to look at those abilities, interests and demands. Those three criteria that you are going to need in order to do those.
When we talk about STEMM careers, we're looking at a variety of things that people do in the physical life science careers. That's one of the areas or groupings of stemment careers. That could be something -- stemment careers. That could be a veterinarian or veterinarian assistant. Classifies rocks. We see somebody here working as a series of shells and they may work in the field of biology, looking at those kinds of things or in the lower area, we have folks who are in a lab or perhaps doing medical research in various areas. Then we have somebody in a scuba suit so that's a marine biologist. So physical life science careers are even done in a variety of locations either where they provide services either a veterinarian or a hospital or something along that line. Or perhaps in a laboratory situation or in other area, or actually out in the wild where they are. One of the things -- I think is really important that we emphasize this as we start to go through these careers, is that not all of these jobs require that you get a P pedestrian. You don't have to -- Ph.D. In veterinarian science, there are a variety of jobs that are available to you with all kinds of educational opportunities and you can get in these physical life science careers with a year or two of college.
So the life sciences is one area. Engineering careers is the next area that we're talking about. Engineering careers often have to do with technology or building things or whatever. Certainly building cars and developing robots that build cars is something that engineers do. Engineers work with sound. Engineers work with light. They do Rays anelaces and -- lasers and heating things and protecting things from being overheating. They also work on bridges and help design roadways and begin to look at some of those things. Where they're actually designing any processes or compounds that are used to do some of the things that we need to do in the field of technology or space exploration or other areas.
Then there are math and technology careers. Astronomy and physics are two areas where there's a lot of opportunity for people who are interested in some of the math and technology areas, but also we can take a look at just daying and designing. Daying and designing. Drug -- drawing and designing. Programming a compute their will be used to make something with or to process information or other kinds of things. Or may look at things like an air traffic controller, who works at an airport that brings planes in and makes sure the radar runs properly and all the equipment is working properly at the various airports.
Then we also have the medical careers. Nurses, physical therapists. Physical therapyassistants. Radiologists, pathologists. All these fields in the health profession have a STEMM component to them an they learn both how to deal with people and how to deal with individuals, but they also learn how to deal with the medical side of it, to understand how our body works and why it works the way it does.
Where do people with STEMM careers work? What are some of the things that they work? They work at industry, government, schools and college. The STEMM field might be manufacturing or construction company, or could be your power company that provides energy. Could be technology for cars and other things. It could also be the health care field where they design and build any medications that help fight off cancer cells or ways to improve our body as we get older and to stave off some of the aging process or whatever. Said careers also work in finance though. We have people who are -- who have management. Other kinds of things that are used to support the whole economy of the world, keep everything rolling. Then they also work in the transportation field, to be able to deal with drive -- flying planes and moving materials and moving cargoes of oil and orange juice and other things that move around this global world in this global economy that we have. The STEMM field, a number of people work for the government, departments like NASA, the national air nautical and space administration, or the environmental protection actcy, the EPA, they look at the natural elements around us and give us information about how we can explore various parts of the solar system or how do we take care of what we have here on the earth, how do we ensure that our air is going to stay pure and our water is going be there so that in the future we don't have problems with those areas. Then there's also government careers like the defense department. There are civilian workers who work in every service. The army, Navy, air force, marines, they ail have what they call cell January counter parts that support the folks in the service and provide the assistance and technology and other kinds of things they need keep our country safe and to support the allies that we have there. Then finally, all of us [ Indiscernible: Speaker/Audio faint and unclear] CSI and television shows about people who are? STEMM careers who are solving crimes. Places like the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The CIA. All those local police departments as well as your state police departments have technology folks who back them up and provide the support that they need in order for them to be able to keep us in safe environments.
Thin finally -- then finally we have STEMM careers in academe yeah. Who are professors who teach in class and teach students about their own particular field, but in addition to that, they do research to come up with new and innovative ideas about their particular fields. To explore new concepts and to work on those kinds of concepts. Some of those in the science areas but in other areas as well.
Okay. So resources. How do I make up my mind about a STEMM career? What should I do? The first step that any investigator does is to begin to do research about what's out there already. What exists. What kinds of things are out there. You can get more information about STEMM by going to this website that I've got. Www.Washington.EDU/Doit/stem--re sources.HTML. Talks about vary informs about what you do in various occupations. How do you look at those kinds of things. New careers or paths with students with disabilities is also available at that website and we encourage you to look at those. Then the Sloan career corner stone center has more information about STEMM careers. One of the things I'd like you to do is take some time in the next week and go out and look at some of these websites and begin to look at some of the ideas that they have to help prepare you in the field of STEMM. But in addition to websites and other kinds of things, one of the best ways I found is to learn more about a particular field is to have an opportunity to talk with somebody that's involved in it. Tonight, we have two guests here in the studio with us. We've got Jenny border. We're going to talk with them and hear about some of the things that they're involved in here at Wright state university.
Let's start off with Jenny. Good evening Jenny.
Jeff? I had no idea you were going to have other people talk. I sue pressed the mics for the participants. This is a surprise to me. Let me see if I can unmute her mic. Stand by. Okay Jenny you can try talking.
Hello?
Hi Jenny. We're kind of glad to have you here with us. We're taking a minute to get things set up in the mic room for Jenny so hold on just a minute.
Okay Jenny what you need to do is hold down your control key solid. When you are done you can release it and we'll try to get your mic working.
Hello everyone.
It works fine. You need to keep it down when you talk and you're doing fine.
Great. Glad to have you with us tonight Jenny. Do you want to take a minute and tell us a little bit about what you're doing here at Wright state?
I'm first year grad student in the psychology department. Most people don't know what human factors is. The interaction of humans and the environment that we live in. So it's really interested in designing, testing, and just trying to make things better for everyone's lives.
Okay. Jeff? Let's try this again.
Can you tell us a little bit about what is involved with human factor psychology?
Okay. [ Indiscernible: Speaker/Audio faint and unclear. ] human factory psychology is the interaction between humans and the environment that they live in so what I'm trying to do is design, test and figure out things that might make things better. How we do routines. It would also be equipment or processes.
Are you working on any particular project right now?
Actually yes Jeff. I'm working on Brainfingers which is a software and hardware that you use at the computer that takes brain signals and movements from your forehead an they're used to control a cursor on the computer.
Oh so that's like the picture we have on the screen which is this black head band that's around your head.
Yep. The head respond what collects the signals and then in the bottom right corner of the picture is the hardware that will take the signals and transfer it to computer.
Okay. We we've got another diagram on the computer. We see the head band and on the screen of the computer the Brainfinger software, which is what's telling us what signals are being processed?
Yep. This is the main screen that you see on the computer an it has 11 different signals on it. It starts from the eye movements and then the [ Indiscernible ] Brain signals and the facial missiles. -- muscles.
That's really cool.
What kinds of things can be done with those signals? What are you hoping that people can learn to do with that or the fingers I guess?
What we're trying to do with it is get it where people will be able to use the computer without any hands or any other, like accessories like that. So being able to do it with your brain signals or using your facial muscle.
Okay. So that means like if the old bewitched thing if I twitch minos then something -- nose then something in my environment will move?
Yeah. I think so. I've never seen bewitched but yeah.
I must be showing my age. [ LAUGHTER ]
Jenny, tell us a little bit more. You use this equipment -- you participated in a particular program this past summer. Can you tell us a little bit about what that was?
The program that I'm participated in was streams which is a program for minority students and people with disabilities for the whole summer where we do research every day. We have a research project each summer and then in the end we'll present it. [ Indiscernible: Speaker/Audio faint and unclear]
And what did you learn from that experience?
I learned a lot of things. I've done this program for three years, but each year there's something new in it. This year's experience, I learned I could really help as a researcher or a participant in the program.
Has it million ped you get -- helped you get ideas about what you want to do, what your job might be in the future?
Most definitely. It's helped me quite a bit. It's helped me just be more secure in knowing that I'll always have a love for academics and education and would like to be a professor and researcher when I grow up.
That ices interesting. -- that's interesting. Did that just pop in to your brain? How did you as a person think about you going in to STEMM. What are the things you liked to do when you were younger?
I've always been interested in science and math and just the whole STEMM field but never really new I could do it since I had the disability but from the help from my other friends and even just reading books that I just decided to be ahead an do it. I was able to last year work with Dr. Gooden and do research that I did with him. That was pretty awesome.
That's interesting. That brings me to our other guest doctor Martin Gooden. Good evening Marty.
Good e fine Jeff. Good evening Jen.
Can you all hear me?
Marty, maybe could you take a couple of minutes and maybe tell us what you do here at Wright state and some of the work you're doing with some of our students with disabilities?
Sure. I am the director of the undergraduate student -- understand graduate psychology program. What that involves is overseeing all of the courses that are taught to our undergraduates in psychology. Also responsible for teaching, as well as mentoring opportunities who are interested in conducting research. So that's a couple of the ways I was able to start working with Jenny, first through courses and then through research.
What are some of the other kinds of research that are ongoing in the psychology department? What are some of the other things they're working on?
Well the [ Indiscernible: Speaker/Audio faint and unclear] department at Wright state has a thriving research program that covers projects and what we call human factors psychology which is what Jenny was talking about. But also in industrial organizational psychology which focuses on applying principles to the workplace. Aside from those proprimary programs, we also have a number of faculty members like myself who are involved in things like social psychology, which involves generally studying people's attitudes and how that affects their behaviors. We also have developmental psychologists who focus on applying principles of psychology to the entire life span. We also have behavioral neural scientists who focus on the relationship between hormones and bodies chemistry and how that might affect psychological phenomenon. We have a number of faculty members who are involved in any kind of phenomenon that relates to psychology.
That's really interesting. You know when we talk about psychology so often we think about counselors and think about people who are gets services of various sorts and people who talk with people and that sort. This is a whole other area sent it?
Absolutely. If you were interested in studying the more traditional areas of psychology at Wright state, you can do that to but we want to encourage our students the full breadth of sickling and there are about 50 different areas that you can focus on. It's pretty Mitch your particular interest is. You probably could find an area of psychology that would match it.
What kinds of course DOS you have to take in -- what kind of courses do you have to take in the field of psychology?
We aftera number of course -- offer a number of courses to expose the student for defining psychology. There's a lot of people that may understand about psychology that they've learned through television, but we have former courses that define the field in terms of it's major emphasis. We also have courses that teach students how to write. How to engage in critical thinking. We also have courses that focus specifically on how to conduct research so wedgie an understanding of what psychology is, how it's practiced and give them an opportunity to participate in projects to give them the field of what a psychologist, a research psychologist can do.
That's really good. I think that helps people to make up their mind about which direction they want to go in to decide some of those things. Is there anything in the field that would preclude somebody from not going in to that area? So often those of white house have disabilities they believe that we're not capability of anything or not able to do that. Has that been your experience?
Well you know Jeff, it's been my experience as an educator over the years that students come in to school with stereo types object what they can do with psychology or what they can do with any degree, but it's our job as educators and administrators to illustrate to them what the opportunities are. Aside from the misperceptions that a student may come with, there are other fears that students have that sometimes get this their way of pursuing their dreams. Some of those might be the fear that they couldn't do it. Misperception of how much money they're going to make. Or concerns that they might not be able to do all the things that they want to do. So for example, sometimes students think that by pursuing a field in science that they're going be stuck in a sterile laboratory all day. That's just not the case. If that's what you want, you can do that, but if you want to interact with people and travel and see the world, then you can be a scientist that does all of that as well.
So the old add damage of the skies the limit is probably the thing that fits in to this particular area or field.
Absolutely. Whatever your determination, your level of creativity and your imagination, you can take it and do whatever you want to with it, not only with psychology but with a variety of disciplines we offer here at Wright state.
This has been very informative. Something we wanted to do as part of this, I'd like to invite Jenny and Dr. G. to come back to talk about some of the things they're doing and the things they're involved in. We're getting short on time now. I'm going to close tonight's discussion bereminding everybody there ishomework. It's time for you to get ready to list out ten colleges within 200-miles of your home. So we want you to spend a little bit of time on your computer, maybe go to a guidance office, a library and there should be information out there about colleges and universities that are near your home. We'd like you to come up with ten of those. Then bewant you to -- we want you to begin the process of developing your own career equation. So we'd like you to list some of your interests. We'd like you to list some of your abilities. Then we want you to demand -- talk about the demand that people have or will have for their careers that match your interests and abilities. What are some of the markets out there that you'll be able to be a part of. Then send us your answers. This week if you email your homework by this Friday, we're going to enfor your name -- enter your name in a drawing for one of three Wright state T-shirts. You need to get your homework completed by Friday afternoon and in the mail to us. We'll pit your name in the -- put your name in the drawing and we'll draw three people that will be winning that T-shirt. The other reminder that I have is if this was your first time on hearing the program and you want to answer last week's questions, second those to us and we'll be sending out your Wright state draw pack. The name of our program on it and something that you can carry to school and carry books in it and other kinds of things. We have another program scheduled next week, the 25th. It's our next show. Then we're going to take a break during the Thanksgiving holiday and come back on December 9th. And again on December 16th. Then we'll be setting up our winter broadcast starting in early 2009. This year has flown fast. We'd like to thank you again for tuning in tonight starting right. Our next program is Tuesday, November 25th. If you'd like to see or hear this program, you can go online to the website that we have listed there. And to request a copy of the program, please contact us here at starting Wright@G mail.com.
Good night.
[ Event Concluded ]