Episode # 63
Learning Blade & Career Awareness with Dr. Beth Deuermeyer, Dr. Carrie Curtis and Jerry Wooden
December 10, 2024
About This Episode
On this week’s episode, we are joined by Dr. Beth Deuermeyer, Dr. Carrie Curtis, and Jerry Wooden to discuss Learning Blade, how it works with STEM, and how it can help set up students for future careers.
Guests
Dr. Beth Deuermeyer
Dr. Beth Deuermeyer is an accomplished professional with over a decade of experience across multiple sectors, including workforce development, education, project management, and research. Dr. Deuermeyer’s career demonstrates a strong commitment to fostering innovation, enhancing educational systems, and leading transformative workforce development initiatives. She brings a unique blend of leadership, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement, making her a key figure in workforce development and education. She is currently the Director of Workforce Development at BlueForge Alliance (BFA), a role that involves comprehensive management of workforce programs aimed at driving strategic results for the organization.
Dr. Carrie Curtis
Dr. Carrie Curtis is the Education Initiatives Lead for the U.S. Navy Maritime Industrial Base Program. Carrie has over 12 years of experience in education as well as 10 years of experience in leading and managing projects. Carrie has a bachelor’s in History and a master’s in teaching History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Doctorate in Philosophy from Liberty University.
Jerry Wooden
Jerry Wooden serves as president and CEO of eDynamic Learning. Jerry has worked passionately in the education market leading a variety of sales, marketing, and operational teams for the past 20 years. Jerry has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing Research from the University of Southern California.
Transcript
Kara 0:00
Today’s episode is sponsored by learning blade. Middle school is the ideal time for career exploration. With learning blade, you can easily integrate stem and career awareness concepts into your classroom. Find out if this resource is free in your state at learning blade.com. Thanks, learning blade.
Hey. Is this thing on? Are we recording? Can I get a tech person?
Oh,
Caryn 0:28
Oh, for the love of EdTech.
Kara 0:32
Joining me today is Dr. Carrie Curtis education initiatives lead for the US Navy Maritime Industrial Based Program, as well as Dr. Beth Deuermeyer, Workforce Development Director at Blue Forge Alliance, and Jerry Wooden, who is the CEO at eDynamic learning. So hello to each of you, and thanks for talking to me.
Beth 0:58
Thanks for having me.
Jerry 0:59
Thank for having me here today.
Unknown Speaker 1:00
All
Kara 1:00
All right, Jerry Can you tell us a little bit about what students and teachers can expect when they’re using learning blade, and what kinds of real world connections students make through their interaction with the platform?
Jerry 1:15
Absolutely, happy to do it and appreciate the chance to do it. Learning Blade is the the most widely used STEM and career awareness resource in middle school across the country, and what students can expect when they’re working with learning blade, and what teachers can expect is the opportunity to explore STEM career fields in a way that’s linked to real world problem solving, and I think that’s really the key here, because it’s not enough just to experience STEM careers and technologies, but the application and how they fit in the real world is what really makes a difference here. And so with learning blade, students and teachers have the opportunity to actually choose missions. They have agency in what they want to learn about, and when they do that, they engage with a whole series of team members and technologies in order to solve a real world problem. And so I’ll give you an example our most recent mission, which we’re really excited about, called Beneath the Waves, Building Submarines.Students have the opportunities to learn about naval engineering. They have the chance to learn about the technologies that go along with that. They have the the opportunity to learn about propulsion of nuclear submarines and how that works together. They can pursue learn about how to pursue welding careers and so the entire ecosystem of how a submarine gets built, and the technology that is involved with that is what students and teachers have a chance to do along the way. And because they have agency, they can really pursue the things that they’re most interested in first, and then as they begin to complete those tasks, they can move on to other tasks to complete the picture for them.
Kara 3:01
Oh, cool. That sounds like fun. All right, so Carrie and yeah, Carrie and Beth. Why do you think there’s a need for this, like for STEM awareness, as with a career focus in general?
Carrie 3:18
Well, I think that, from the Navy’s perspective, the problem that we have is that we have a large demand for submarines and surface ships and other things that require manufacturing. And as a nation, we just don’t have the capacity to do that. Unfortunately, after the Cold War, our ability as a Nation to produce, to manufacture goods slowly and eventually rapidly declined to the point where now it has just atrophied to the point of, you know, we’re about 40% of what we were at the end of the Cold War. So we’re struggling as a nation to be able to produce these massive machines that, frankly, are what keep us safe every day. It’s a matter of national security. And where that starts, and where that interest starts to get students into these careers is in K 12 education, being able to start students really early thinking about, what are my interests, what are my skills, what are the things that you know, I could make a good career out of that also allows me to serve and to provide for a family and to serve my country as a good, you know, as a solid citizen. And these are the careers that that we’re trying to introduce students to. It’s that career exploration piece that we want to to involve you bring back into education in a really strong, robust way, and attaching stem to that, especially audiences of students that particularly might not be attached to stem they might not naturally feel that attachment. So girls, for example, trying to open up those doors for them or.
Um, you know, students that may think that, oh, well, I have to have four years of of university education to be able to contribute to these to this mission, or have to have, you know, a lot of money to be able to afford the training for this. And that’s just not the case. There are so many career options that can be really customized to what your funding source might be, to your education level that you want to go to your interest. And it’s our job. You know, Beth and I are working very diligently with organizations across the country to try and help students have those hands on STEM experiences, career explorative experiences, so that, so that we can fix this national issue that we have.
Jerry 5:45
You know, what if I could just jump in and just under, just with a data point here, real quickly, because this is Learning Blade is is used in middle schools and and I think there’s a percentage of folks who might think that seems awfully young to be exposing students to careers, but the data shows that 90% actually north of 90% of students in middle schools, are making career decisions. That doesn’t mean they’re deciding what career they’re going to go into, but they’re already starting to eliminate possibilities and move directionally in other areas. And so I don’t know about you, but when I was in middle school, I didn’t have a very big data set of decision of criteria to make decisions around my career. And this is a way to do that. If you can get exposure to students the stuff that they’re not even aware of, it can completely change their educational directory and ultimately what they do in their careers as well?
Kara 6:43
Yeah, for sure, and I just think of all the opportunities that kids have now that weren’t available and that’s ever changing, but also their access to the knowledge that things are available that they might not know about either. So what are some of the most in demand careers within submarine production, and what do those roles typically involve day to day?
Beth 7:11
So what we are seeing on on our job board, so we have a job board career portal on buildsubmarines.com, and we are seeing a lot of welding jobs, CNC machinist, quality control, non destruction, destructive testing. We’re seeing a lot more additive manufacturing roles, and then, as well as engineering. And engineering is a very broad term. It doesn’t have to mean what people may think of when you hear the word engineer. You don’t you could be an engineering technician, which would be, you know, maybe just two years of school, or you could be an engineering designer at a manufacturing company, but a lot of times you know what your day to day might look like, especially for your welders and your machinists and quality control folks.
It’s just it’s hard to describe a typical day because it’s different every day. It depends on, you know, the team you’re working with and the product that you’re developing. It could change day to day or week to week or even month to month, but typically, what you’ll see is you start your day with like a team meeting, and you go over all the things that your team needs to complete for the day to make sure that you are staying on task. So really, it’s, it’s like working on one big, giant assignment, or like a project, and they meet as a team to discuss what needs to get done today, and then they go and they accomplish their tasks. So if you’re a person who likes a job that varies on on a maybe a weekly basis, or you might encounter new skills or new challenges, and then manufacturing is definitely a job for you, because your job can be different depending on what’s going on in the in the on the floor.
Kara 9:14
When I think of having access and being able to participate in building submarines, or, you know, anything with the military, I automatically assume that I have to be in the military.
Beth 9:31
No.
Kara 9:32
So how can you talk just a little bit about that? How like to change that perception?
Beth 9:39
Well, Carrie mentioned it about going into manufacturing can be your way of serving your country. There are so many ways that people can get involved with service, either to your country or to your community, and working in a manufacturer within the maritime industrial base or the.
Submarine Industrial Base is a way of serving our country without having to enlist in the military. I would say, certainly, in my role here at Blue Forge Alliance, I very much feel like I’m serving my country, which is great, because I’ve always wanted that opportunity, but I know that I would not do well in the military. I do not take orders well, so that would never work for me, but yeah, this is a way for you to get involved with protecting your country, like Carrie mentioned, and doing it without having to join the military. If that’s not something that you don’t want to do.
Carrie 10:35
I think it’s important to keep in mind that there are over 16,000 suppliers across the country that are part of what we would consider the maritime industrial base across the country, that they make or produce some parts that will eventually end up on a submarine, for example, and that’s not necessarily counting surface ships. So there’s even additional suppliers that will will make parts for them, and additional shipyards, etc. So it’s important to keep in mind that when we’re talking about building these naval vessels, we’re not just talking about shipyards. We’re not just talking about coastlines and coastal communities and coastal manufacturing shops. We’re talking about shops across the country that are doing their part that will eventually serve the men and women of the Navy and, and it’s just as important to have those really strong parts and these really strong machines, because that’s what’s going to allow the Navy to get their job done. So it is a way of service without being in a uniform and, and it’s something to really take pride in, for sure.
Beth 11:41
And Carrie, that reminds me of like the Rosies, right? Rosie the Riveter, the women that stepped into the manufacturing roles during the war, and that was their way of serving their country, right? Was to work at these manufacturers that are not always at a shipyard or on the coast or just down the street from anywhere Town USA, right?
Kara 12:05
Yeah, that’s, yeah. That’s really interesting. So why is it critical to raise awareness of career opportunities in manufacturing, especially in the light of future workforce needs in these areas?
Carrie 12:22
So at the end of the Cold War, the United States stopped producing as much as they were during the Cold War, because the need for that military industrial complex declined dramatically, and now our ability as a Nation to produce just goods in general has really atrophied dramatically, and it’s a serious problem across lots of different industries, but specifically for the US Navy, it means that we’re not able to produce the machines that the sailors need to get their job done, and we’re not able to produce them in a timely enough fashion. And so a few years ago, the United States government and the United States Navy decided to create a program that would be devoted specifically to helping the Navy build these massive predators, really called submarines. And then just recently, it has expanded out to surface ships as well. So the mission is to build one Columbia class submarine and two Virginia class submarines every year for at least a decade. That is the goal. And then, of course, you have to sustain those ships and make sure that they’re maintained.
Students hands on, learning experiences, field trips, giving them simulation experiences like what learning blade provides, being able to have students when they get to the point of making decisions about their future, that they have knowledge that will help them do that in a real way. And as you said, understanding what all their options are, that is something that that we did not have when we were young, and we want to make sure that students do have that knowledge that’s necessary, but also, because it is such a critical issue, submarines specifically, are sort of part of the they are one of the triad. They’re one of the three main deterrents of any future action from our aggressors and and our adversaries, and it’s something that keeps us safe every single day. So it’s vital that we’re able to to meet this demand, that we’re able to do that and and create that cadence of building the three submarines a year. It’s just, it’s, frankly, it’s national security.The reason.
Kara 16:00
yeah, which is wild. And I’m curious, do you know how long it takes to build a submarine?
Carrie 16:07
So what we’re trying to do is build them in a year. Right currently, you know, right now, we’re able to produce about one and a third or so submarines per year. But of course, we need to double that. We need to more than double that cadence so that we can demand so as you can rightfully tell, we need all of those careers that are that that Beth listed. But also we need admin we need project managers. We need finance specialist, analyst, data analyst. I mean, there, the list goes on and on and on about the possibilities that that someone could could get involved with in this service, specifically in this mission, again, without having to put on a uniform. Because there it is such a large demand, and it’s going to take so many people to meet it.
Beth 17:02
Yeah, and the size of the Columbia class submarine, really, it’s more like you’re trying to build not three submarines a year, but four or five. Because it is huge. It’s, I think, Carrie 187 yards long.
Carrie 17:20
You can think about it. Virginia class is about a football field size and length, and a Columbia class is about one and a half right, almost two football fields in length. They’re just massive. Again, the apex predators on the planet, and we’re trying to build them very quickly, but also very efficiently. It is essential that they are produced with the highest quality possible. And and there’s a lot of care and attention that is is taken into every single part. Because, you know, we’re putting people’s lives at risk if we don’t and so it’s really, it’s vital work. It’s something that provides meaning and purpose. I think when you when you get up to go to work every day, and you know that what you’re doing has this very large, green, national, even global significance, that it really changes. You know your your mental process every day, when you get up to go to work,
Kara 18:17
yeah,
Beth 18:18
Command Master Chief, Hitchcox tells a story, but has, he talks about how our job, what we’re trying to do, and those that are building parts that go on a submarine, our job is to cause our adversaries to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, not today. Today is not the day that I’m going to attack the US because of that submarine that’s sitting in the water out there. That’s that’s our role. That’s an important one.
Kara 18:51
Yeah, for sure, yes. Keeping everybody safe.
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Caryn 19:00
Visit, for the love of Ed tech.org, for more information.
Kara 19:04
So as manufacturing and other STEM fields grow, what are some effective strategies or programs that can be used to inspire and engage students in these areas?
Jerry 19:18
I can jump in with that to start and happy to have Carrie and Beth add add more commentary, for sure, I think for us, though, in this case, the data can give us good guidance about what to do, and we’ve worked in this area extensively, and we know that education exposure, early and often is the key here. Students that use something like learning blade or the opportunity to see real world application, the data is overwhelming. 60% of those students who use and explore with that determined that STEM career fields are something they want to pursue, an area that they were not aware of. What so ever, before that, I think that’s super meaningful. For sure, people understand there’s a massive improvement statistically in the understanding of students as it relates to career fields and all the different things that Carrie and Beth are talking about, from software engineering to manufacturing, as they mentioned. You know, almost 20,000 companies across the country working in this field, the number of jobs is limitless when it’s all said and done. 84% of students see a job that they want to pursue when they use something like this.
And we just had the opportunity. We were at the school in Chattanooga. We had the chance to all be together, and there were students that were using this product, and it was great to see them stand up in the front of the room and say, Look, I didn’t even know what naval architecture was, but now it’s the thing I want to be. And that all happened within a week period of time. So we completely opened up the world of opportunities to a student and changed how they think about what they want to do in the future, and so that’s really what we’re trying to do. The more opportunities people to see what STEM careers are all about, what STEM manufacturing is all about, how they apply to the world. Students like to solve problems. They want to be involved. And this is as directly applicable as it gets that’s where you create powerful connections for students, and it helps change what they pursue and what they study down the road. So certainly, that’s the way we think about it, for sure. Carrie Beth, I don’t know if you guys want to add to that.
Beth 21:35
Carrie’s doing some great work, so we’re not just focusing on the students and getting them aware. The MIB is doing some work with addressing adults, and not just adults looking for jobs, but adults that influence our students on a daily basis. So working with teachers and guidance counselors to help them understand that, you know, manufacturing jobs aren’t necessarily dangerous or dirty like they used to be. Or maybe, you know what, what maybe your parents might think of when they hear, you know, a welder or a machinist, or thinking of heavy labor, and that’s just not always the case anymore, especially when you get into machining or advanced manufacturing, where you’re working with computers and 3d printers, it’s changing the mindset of the adults that influence our students as well.
Carrie 22:41
Yeah, I think that as far as strategies go, the big thing to keep in mind is that if you work with students, there is something that you can do to help and not to try and over complicate it. It’s just inserting career literacy into every thing that you do, or every lesson or every unit that you have, there’s some piece where students are able to connect what they’re doing in the classroom to real world. I’ve been in the classroom with students, and the most common question that teachers get almost on a daily basis is, when am I ever going to need this? When am I ever going to use this? And this is the answer to that question. This is the Forever answer to that question. So you can build submarines, because there is a real world application out there. There are real careers and jobs that students can take that knowledge and translate it into, or there are skills that they’re learning, soft skills that they’re learning in class, or even those basic STEM skills, about engineering, design, processing, how to read a tape measure, how to you know, how to communicate with their classmates. All of those things are translatable into these careers, and it’s important that students are able to make that connection. And unfortunately, at that young age, even though they have the world of information in their hands, you know, on their cell phones or whatever it might be, they’re not necessarily making that decision to spend the time to research, where can I use this? So they need that guidance. You know, they need a teacher. They need a trusted adult. They need a family member. They need a guidance counselor, they need a principal. They need people in their lives that they trust, that can help guide them through that process and talk them through that and let’s think about what’s the logistics of this career for your interest, or your life or your town, where do you want to live?
How? What kind of life do you want to live? What you know, what kind of house do you want to live in? And let’s think about the salary. And let’s think about the pay and talk them through those having, having those activities, or even if you’re just, you know, a classroom teacher, whether it’s history, whether it’s English, science, math, find those ways of cross curricular. Are relevance of embedding that into what you’re doing bring, and a great way to do that is to bring in the real world. What is a career that you’re that uses this and what are all the different pieces that that they need to know in order to do their job? What additional things, or maybe even, as a former history teacher, economics teacher, a great thing would be to have them explore their community, what industries are here, what industries might do? Well in this town, let’s go talk to our leadership, giving them that real world citizenship experience. And how do I make change? And I think that there’s really, there’s there’s limitless opportunities for academic and educational professionals to help us in in what we’re doing, even though they’re, we’re not asking them to leave their careers and start welding, if they want, sure, but what we’re, you know, what we’re really asking is, is just help with their students, helping them explore what their options might be.
Kara 26:01
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I’m glad you mentioned the adult aspect of things, because I was curious about that. Because I mean, too, as if teachers aren’t aware, how are they supposed to share with, you know, their students. And so I’m glad you also touched on that piece of it, because it’s very important.
Carrie 26:22
Yeah, I think one of the my favorite things that Learning Blade and eDynamics likes to say is that students can’t be what they can’t see.
Jerry 26:29
That’s right,
Carrie 26:30
and I think it’s just so beautifully and directly put, students can’t see themselves in a career that they’ve never seen someone that looks like them in that career, and that’s, you know, that’s something that we’re trying to provide. But to your point, adults can’t guide students in a direction that they just don’t know anything about. And so in some ways, what we’re doing is fighting just ignorance about what’s out there, about what opportunities are out there, about what they pay and the kind of security that it can provide. Because, of course, you know, parents and guardians, they want that for their students, and they want that for their kids, and they want to make sure that this is a good direction to go in, and we want to provide that confidence and security in those those decisions. So there are so many aspects to what we’re trying to do and and I guess that brings me back to that original point. Is whatever you do with students, you can help us.
Kara 27:28
Yeah, I love that. What advice would you give to students or early career professionals hoping to pursue a career in manufacturing, and what should they focus on now to set themselves up for success?
Jerry 27:46
Yeah, I think if we jump and we think about this kind of longitudinally, the way that we’ve been thinking about it, both in in long term development and, you know, long term getting in front of students early and often as we can in their career, and then all the way to the acute needs of adults today that jobs that need to be filled right now, from a student point of view, at least from our perspective, it’s one, have an open mind. Don’t have any preconceived notions or make conclusions about what you are good at or what you are not what you don’t want to study, don’t make any assumptions. Get as much exposure as you can to education, and the teachers are the ones that that this starts and stops with. They have to create that exposure for the students, for sure. And then once you see something that interests, you dive into it. If you’re passionate about it, there’s a career to be had out there, for sure. And we’ve talked about just a huge range of the types of positions that are available as jobs down the road, you have to find something that you’re interested in and have some passion about. The mission is, is something that you can be inspired with the national defense and doing stuff to make this country continue to be what it is. I think everybody can get inspired by that part of it. So then find something that you wake up every day and you want to pursue. I think that’s the key for students, and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish with education, kind of early and often throughout their school career. And Beth and Carrie, maybe you guys want to comment on kind of beyond that point of view.
Beth 29:23
I would say, you know, maybe once you have found something that you are interested in pursuing, it’s just explore all of your options, and don’t think that money is holding you back, because right now, more than ever, knowing that we need these manufacturers, we have programs that are that, that you could get a scholarship for or we. Have a training program that’s accelerated. It’s four months, and it’s right now for most people that apply, is free. The Navy funds at 100% we have a program called accelerated training and defense manufacturing, which is in Danville, Virginia, and the US Navy, because of the work they’re doing, is funding the program 100% and so look into your options, and look around and don’t limit yourself because you think you can’t afford it or you don’t have the time. There are all sorts of types of training programs, and even if you can’t move to Danville or you just want to stay where you are. There are programs where you are, and we can help you explore those.
Carrie 30:51
I would I would say, for students specifically, think about if you, like Jerry said, if you have an interest, really deep, diving into what that career is, finding job postings that are currently there, reading what those qualifications are, thinking about what it might take to get there. If you’re not sure and you’re really in that exploratory state, ask as many questions as possible. Every adult that you come across. Ask them what they do and why. Ask them about their journey. How did they get to that job? How did they get to that career? What led them to their What lessons did they learn? Would they choose something else? Ask, ask, ask, because that’s how you learn, and that’s how you find out what direction you want to go. I would also say try as many experiences as possible. If your school is offering a job shadowing opportunity or a field trip just to observe take it, because you can ask the professionals there about why they do what they do, and you can learn a lot about that. Don’t be afraid to learn what you don’t want, because that’s just as powerful as learning what you do want, and you’re only going to find that out from experiences and asking questions. And I would also say, you know, try to seek out experiences if you can. If your parent or guardian or someone you know, a family friend is out working on something with their hands, go observe. Go ask them if you can help. Try it out. See what what interests you and what doesn’t. Try the clubs. Try the coding club, try the engineering class. Take take a round of CTE class if it’s offered, even if you’re thinking you want to go into one field, just try it out and see what happens. Because a lot, as we mentioned before, there’s a lot of skills that are transferable, and it’s going to make you just a more well rounded candidate for whatever position you end up in. But also, there are so many options out there, and even ones that the adults don’t know about. And I would say, if you are an adult that works with students, try and help them with that those opportunities. Try and help provide those opportunities for them, seeking out aid, seeking out information and resources as best you can. Of course, we have some on build submarines.com and we have links to our partners that also have a ton of fantastic resources for educators and for students and for parents. And of course, if you’re in a state that has learning blade, please, please start using it and introduce your students to it, because it does make a world of difference.
Kara 33:27
That’s great. Yes, and check out Beneath the Waves Building.
Jerry 33:32
Kids love this mission. They absolutely love it. They’re fascinated by all the technologies that go along with it. It completely opens their eyes to, frankly, something not many students have really any understanding of what’s going on and just how technically advanced the submarines are just absolutely engaging for students, they love it.
Carrie 33:52
Well, it is called the silent service for a reason and because it’s supposed to be and we’re not supposed to know where they are. But now, all of a sudden, we’re asking people to think about them and to know about them and to learn about them, and to care and and so that can seem to sort of Sideswipe people from time to time, but but definitely something worth looking into and helping us out with.
Jerry 34:15
One thing worth noting, especially for the educators listening here, our teachers have so much to do during the day, and it’s always challenging to find time to do something else. One thing that they should know about Learning Blade and this mission in particular, is that the missions are tied to standards for all four core subjects, and so no matter what subject you teach, you can guarantee that you’re going to be hitting and reinforcing standards that are part of your normal curriculum already. So it’s a great way to give the students alternative way to learn and apply something that they’re going to need to do to achieve the goals of the the academic year, and it’s a fun and engaging way to do it,
Kara 34:58
yeah, for sure, and I’m glad. You mentioned that because that’s one thing I like about it, is the cross cross curricular. It’s like getting out of the silos.
That’s right, you can study math all day long. Let’s show you how to apply that math into the real world. It’s a great opportunity to do that for students,
Carrie 35:18
yeah, and it’s also a turnkey solution. You know, for teachers, it’s not something that you’re going to have to do a lot of prep work if you want to, and you want to really extend it out in your class, you absolutely can. And they offer extension hands on activities that you can take, that they actually have a takeaway, you know, that you can send home for parents, so that they can sit around the table and have a conversation about, what are you learning about and why? But I think also it’s for that, you know, for those educators, again, they don’t have time to be adding something else. They don’t have time to be doing a ton of research to figure out, how am I going to insert submarines into my class? This is, this is how. I mean, you know, you it’s a turnkey solution for for participating in this mission and helping students, but also being able to check those standards boxes that you have to as an educator. So again, so many reasons to love this program.
Kara 36:14
Alright, so before we go, can you just let our listeners know where they can find each of you your, I guess, information about your programs.
Jerry 36:26
Sure. I’ll jump in just with with learning blade real quickly. People can go out to learning blade.com there are 13 states where statewide usage is available right now. Anybody can use the product for free, with no incremental cost. And if, if you’re not lucky enough to be in one of those 13 states, like Wisconsin or Illinois or Massachusetts, if you’re not lucky enough, there’s certainly a lot of other ways that you can access learning blade. So go to the website, grab it, jump on. We’ll be in contact with you and happy to get you started and using it your classroom right away.
Kara 37:03
Awesome.
Beth 37:03
And so I’m Beth and I, so I actually work for a company called Blue forge Alliance. So we have our own website. We are the Navy’s neutral integrators. We’re kind of this organization that’s helping bring all of the important people to the table make sure enabling everyone to work together to to accomplish this mission. But Blue Forge is it manages a website called buildsubmarines.com, and that’s really what we what we try to push. Because you can go there, and there is a career portal where candidates or adults can go and apply for jobs. You can kind of get an idea of what’s out there. And then I’m going to let Carrie talk about our educational resource in our training page, because that’s really where our teachers can go if they want to learn more.
Carrie 38:03
Yeah, absolutely. So buildsubmarines.com. Backslash education all lower case will take you to our educational resources page. And we’re super excited about this page. It’s growing. Every month we are adding more and more to this page. So excited for you to make that a regular visit part of your rounds of looking for resources as an educator. But what we have on there right now are some programs that we can collaborate with you on some activities that we might could send out that are specific to maritime industry and maritime industry exploration, career exploration, but also being able to connect you with suppliers in your area, to maybe have a guest speaker in your class, maybe you’re having a career day or career panel that you want to to load up with some maritime industrial way suppliers, we can absolutely help you with that. But we also have some partner organizations that we’ve worked with from across the country, e dynamic learning being one of them and several others that we have linked there on that page so you can actually use build submarines.com backslash education as a hub to find lots of different organizations that have some great resources that you can use in your Classroom.
Kara 39:19
Awesome. Thank you for such a great conversation today, all of you,
Beth 39:26
thanks for having us happy to share the message.
Caryn 39:28
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope you found our discussion interesting and insightful. Don’t forget to check out the show notes on our website, where you’ll find more information about today’s guest resources we mentioned, and information on earning contact hours for listening.
Kara 39:44
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it with your network and check us out at for the love of edtech.org, this podcast is produced by SOITA, the Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Association, in partnership with ThinkTV and CET the local PBS stations in Dayton and Cincinnati, until next time, keep exploring new ways to empower your students through tech, and we’ll catch you in the next episode.