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Description
Faster aircraft, bolder video games, better medicines--technology moves forward every day. And tech-savvy workers make those advances happen. Without the work of scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians, and other skilled workers, most new products and discoveries would never be developed.
The need for technical work continues to grow. Technical occupations are often defined as those related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Workers in STEM occupations use science and math to solve problems. Educational requirements for STEM occupations range from a high school diploma and on-the-job training to a Ph.D. But all require the ability to think logically.
There are several ways to identify and count STEM occupations. Some researchers, for example, count social scientists and science managers; others include any occupation that uses science and technology. Adopting a more focused definition, this article describes the occupations that most clearly concentrate on STEM.
On the pages that follow, you'll find information about STEM occupations, earnings, educational requirements, and job prospects. There are also suggestions on how to prepare for a STEM career and where to find more information.
STEM jobs
There are many kinds of work within STEM's divisions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Science
When you think of science workers, you might picture a chemist in a white lab coat running experiments--and you'd be right. But science goes beyond the laboratory. Scientists are also involved in teamwork, communication, and data analysis. And although many scientists spend time in laboratories, they work in offices, too. Some work outdoors, as when wildlife biologists observe animals in their habitats or geoscientists measure movements in the Earth's crust.
Scientists design experiments to find out how things work. They conduct or oversee those experiments, analyze the results, and explain what the results mean. They use scientific methods to learn about the world. In 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 13 percent of STEM jobs as defined here were in natural science occupations. (See chart 1.)
Natural science occupations fall into three broad groups: life scientists, physical scientists, and natural science technicians.
Life scientists. Life scientists study living systems, from organisms to ecosystems. Agricultural and food scientists, for example, study the production and distribution of food. They work to increase food quantity, quality, and safety.
Biological scientists study animals, plants, and bacteria. They also analyze metabolic processes and other life elements.
Conservation scientists and foresters manage natural resources to maximize their long-term economic, recreational, and conservation value; for example, they might decide when and how to plant trees or chop them down. And medical scientists look for both causes of and treatments for human diseases.
Physical scientists. Physical scientists study the parts of nature that are not alive. They might ponder the motion of distant suns or the bonds between nuclear particles. Atmospheric scientists, for example, monitor... |
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