May 7, 2020 –  

Part two of two - As I mentioned last post, we released a set of 5 Spark 101 Career Snapshots.  I’m sure that you have seen them by now.  Here is a little bit on what it was like to develop each of the new Snapshots.

We use real STEM professionals in our videos, not trained on-screen talent.  If you think it’s easy to step up in front of a camera with the lights shining and talk to me asking a bunch of questions, then I suggest you try it and you can see how tough it can be.  For the production team, there can be a lot of stress associated with wrangling of talent, keeping on schedule, and conducting the interviews to be sure we have all of the content on film that we will need for the videos.  As I mentioned in my last blog, filming in a studio with the AMS team made things a lot smoother.  Let’s take a look at each of the new Spark 101 Career Snapshots.

Healthcare

Healthcare is a growing field all over the country.  The ROI on a healthcare career is one of the best out there.  The Dallas Healthcare Career Snapshot is our second healthcare Snapshot, and I learn more each time.  (Our first Healthcare Career Snapshot was done in Phoenix.)  This time around, I was amazed at the amount of math nurses and healthcare workers use.  I know you have to have a strong command of science and math, but the amount of math was way more than I expected.  During our design session, they were doing math equations on the board, and I felt like I was back in class again. 

I also had the chance to visit the Cook Children’s Teddy Bear Transport team hangar.  So cool!  They have ambulances, a helicopter, and a jet there.  Yes a JET!   This location houses all of the transport vehicles along with the dispatch team and everything associated with all their work.  Did I already tell you how cool it was?  These people travel all over caring for the people of Texas.  These are mazing people doing tireless work.  While we didn’t get to visit Methodist Health, I did spend some time with Evan.  It’s wild to talk with someone who deals with traumatic neurological injuries and is cool about it.  He was all, “No big deal, it’s what I do.”  As you heard in the Snapshot, “Healthcare professionals are the real superheroes!”

Aerospace

It’s fitting that I follow the Healthcare Snapshot with the Aerospace Snapshot because Cook Children’s connect us with Amy, our helicopter pilot from the video.  If seeing the aircraft from the Cook Children’s hangar isn’t cool enough, I was able to visit the Bombardier facility and spend some time with Andre who was their Technical Advisor at the time.  Not only was Andre a great guy, he taught me so much about the aircraft the how the different technicians service them. I had such a good time on that visit.  In addition to learning about tail numbers, I got to hear about non-destructive penetrating testing and non-destructive eddy current testing.  It’s a shame that I couldn’t spend more time there.  While I was willing to miss my next appointment, my colleagues were not.  Did you know that Rolls Royce makes jet engines? I learned that too!

Information Technology

Information Technology careers are always in demand.  Perhaps now, more than ever, we are seeing new and different ways information technology helps us complete our work and stay connected.  I know when I think of Toyota, cars are the thing that comes to mind.  I understand the huge role that IT has in the production process, but there is so much more.  With a company the size of Toyota, they do so much more than automobile production.  The IT backbone of the company is vast and dynamic.  In the Snapshots, you will hear from IT professionals who work in Financial Services and others working on the ongoing development of the Dealer Platform.  These talented IT professionals do not work alone on their given tasks.  The amount of collaboration and the desire to solve the user’s problems are astounding.

Data Analytics

I’m not going to lie; I was a little concerned when I learned that Data Analytics is a high growth field in DFW.  I’m a data nerd.  I will go down the rabbit hole looking at the Spark 101 web site analytics.  Back in my teaching days, I actually liked to look at testing data.  Trends are cool!  All of that said, I know it’s not the easiest concept to get on film.  It was interesting to speak with our Data Analytics professionals and hear them talk about accuracy and trustworthiness in data.  We know that there is a lot of misinformation in our world, and it was great to learn about professionals who work to collect trustworthy data and then determine what the information is telling us.  I was pleased that the professional talent made it easy to tell the story of Data Analytics professionals. 

Construction

I don’t think people realize what a STEM-heavy career construction is.  The vast amount of math and science that project managers and project engineers use daily is amazing.  When you add in the people skills elements, it really reminds me of teaching.  The range of projects and specialties in construction is staggering.  There are also many different pathways to enter into a construction career.  It was interesting to talk with the construction talent from the Snapshot and learn about their work.  Without them, we wouldn’t have any modern buildings, roadways, or even power and water in our homes.   If you think about it, they really do build the infrastructure for technological advancement. 

This project had many moving parts.  Thank you all for your patience.  Thank you to everyone for making it a success!  Now get out there and share these Spark 101 Career Snapshots with the world!  I’m not sure when we will be able to work with schools, but we can share them with teachers and parents who need resources.

New to Spark 101?  We created a simple step-by-step guide to show teachers and parents how to use our free resources. We also put together a post specifically about how to use Spark 101 as a distance learning resource.

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