This presentation from the OECD Disrupted Futures 2023: International lessons on how school can best equip students for their working lives conference looks at Challenging inequalities “Take your field trip to the school”. Presented by Susan Ibach, Hilah Barbot and Garrett Dorfman. Discover the videos and other sessions from the OECD Disrupted Futures 2023 conference at https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/conferences-webinars/disrupted-futures-2023.htm Find out more about our work on Career Readiness https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/

1. Susan Ibach
Senior Program Manager Amazon in the Community
ibacsusa@amazon.com

2. Careers in STEM provide opportunity What are
they?
• Online, on-demand interactive
virtual field trips
• Behind-the-scenes tours to
• Explore technology used in the
real-world
• Discover careers
• Hosted on Kahoot! a game-based
learning platform that allows
students to watch videos and
interact by answering trivia and
participating in polls

4. The evolution

5. It started as two separate programs
FC Tours - Amazon tour program that offered
public tours at some of our Fulfillment centers
Amazon Future Engineer - philanthropic program
with a goal of providing equitable access to
Computer Science (CS) education and operates in
the U.S, India, UK, Germany, and Canada
2019

6. The pandemic moved both programs online
2020

7. Teacher feedback showed a need
1. “We can’t take field trips any more”
2. “We need fresh relevant content that works online”
3. “We need content that connects to the real-world”

8. Could our online tours address barriers to
career education?1
1. Lack of support and time to develop formal links with employers
• Tours do not require teacher to manage or develop any relationship with
employer
2. School does not have a coordinator to drive career activities
• Teacher can access tours directly
3. Cost of organizing events
• Tours are free, no cost to school or teacher and accessible from any location
with internet
1. Kashefpakdel et al. (2019) Career-related learning in primary

9. We invited CS teachers to try it out with their
classes and collected feedback
Dec 2020

10. Teacher feedback influenced product design
1. “Connect it to our curriculum”
• Aligned to standards by adding concepts and terminology teachers needed to
teach in CS courses
2. “Give us a teacher toolkit with activities we can do with the class
before and after the tour”
• Created a downloadable teacher toolkit
3. “Can we meet the employees who built the technology?”
• Added videos featuring employees in different roles to help students learn
about their jobs

11. We researched known issues and best
practices
1. There is still a lack of gender, racial, and ethnic diversity in STEM1
2. Students with CS role models are over 10X more likely to pursue CS
careers than those without2
3. Children as young as five have developed stereotypes about jobs
people do based on gender, ethnicity and social background3
4. Centering science lessons on phenomena can make science more
relevant and interesting to students.4
• Students and teachers alike were familiar with the concept of selecting ‘Place
your order’ on the Amazon website but did not understand how technology and
people work together to deliver the customer order.
1. Fry et al. (2021) STEM Jobs See Uneven Progress in Increasing Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity
2. Gallup & Amazon (2021) Developing Careers of the Future: A Study of Student Access to, and Interest in, Computer Science
3. Kashefpakdel et al. (2019) Career-related learning in primary
4. C. Gewertz (2020) The Art of Making Science Accessible and Relevant to All Students

12. Our first Tech Tour had arrived
The tours were
offered to CS
teachers in Canada
and the U.S.
The tours ran out
of Fulfillment
Centers in the U.S.
Spring 2021

13. It was so popular we translated the toolkit and
script to add French tours
The tours ran out
of Fulfillment
Centers in the U.S.
and France
The tours were offered
to CS teachers in
Canada, the U.S., and
France
Fall 2021

14. Feedback and research identified room to
improve
1. “It doesn’t fit into the block of time I have for my class”
2. “It’s too early/late in the day”
3. Lack of flexibility in crowded curriculum is a barrier to career
education1
4. “ You recommend it for grades 5+ but I’d like to use it for younger
students”
5. “There are so many students in the tour that students don’t really
get to interact much beyond answering trivia questions in the chat”
6. “The live video was pixelated, couldn’t see the video properly”
1. Education and Employers (2021) Starting Early Building the foundations for success

15. We created a pre-recorded interactive tour
• Hosted on Kahoot! a classroom engagement tool with widespread
teacher adoption which increased awareness of the tour
• Added trivia questions to keep it interactive
• Kept interviews with tech employees selected from communities
historically underrepresented in STEM to address stereotypes
• Offered as one 45-60 minute experience or as two 20-30 minute
experiences to better fit class schedules
• Created one version for primary and one for secondary to better
meet needs of different age groups
Fall 2022

16. The learning continues…
1. Tours work best when you show the actual technology instead of
using animations
2. When creating tours, start from standards such as CSTA and NGSS to
guide tour learnings
3. Students and teachers enjoy seeing student hosts in addition to
adult experts
4. Career video should connect to the content of the tours and include
their personal career path
5. Showcase alternate career paths where possible
6. Videos that are shorter with more frequent interaction points keep
students more engaged
7. Tours work best when there is a narrative that threads throughout
the tour and ties the various stops together

17. Now we can scale!
• Partnered with NASA to create Callisto: Space Innovation Tour
• Localizing the Robotics Fulfillment Center tours for use in other
countries
• In development of Cloud Computing and Data Center Tour
• Rebranded to Career Tours so we have the ability to expand the
careers and tours offered
• Complete and publish research with Gallup on U.S. Careers of the
Future to help us prioritize careers to feature in future tours
(coming mid-June)

18. Learn more
OECD Observatory on Digital technologies in Career guidance
for Youth (ODiCY)
amazonfutureengineer.com

19. Susan Ibach
Senior Program Manager Amazon in the Community
ibacsusa@amazon.com