Learning Blade

Learning Blade for STEM/CS/CTE Career Exploration

Learning Blade is a system of interactive online lessons, teacher lesson plans, and printable at-home activities for 5th to 9th graders, where students learn about STEM and Computer Science careers while reviewing academics. Students have access to over 400 standards aligned lessons in human-centered “Missions” or stories to explore exciting careers. These resources effectively support career exploration and computer science requirements. Teachers can download related lesson plans to integrate project-based activities, design thinking, 3D printing, at-home lessons, and other resources. This resource is offered to schools fully funded by the state in partnership with the Idaho STEM Action Center.

See a Video Intro of Learning Blade

Interactive Lessons

Over 400 online lessons tied to academic standards

Challenge Projects

Hands-on, project-based lessons using common materials

Design Thinking

Solve complex problems with the 5-step creative thinking process

Parent Discussions

Handouts and easy experiments for at-home discussions

Career Videos

Introduce over 50 careers with real-life people

3D Printing Activities

Create objects that demonstrate science principles

Coding Activities

Demonstrate coding principles on and offline, including code.org

Papercraft Figures

Students make origami-type figures of 100 careers and technologies

STATUS: OPEN

FREE school site licenses for 3 YEARS available to all Idaho Public Schools

FUNDING:

This resource is offered to schools fully-funded by Idaho STEM Action Center.

SCHEDULE a free webinar training or a 30 minute live demo of the resource by emailing Learning Blade at the link below.

Career Blade provides lessons to improve k-12 career awareness. Lessons include hands-on activities that demonstrate career tasks to students in terms that they understand. This helps students to visualize the world of work at a young age. All lessons have an introductory narrative, two student activities, rubrics, and academic standard alignments.

- Printable lessons for K-12

Here are some quotes from Idaho Teachers and Students:

"Thank you to the Idaho STEM Action Center for proving Learning Blade to help show our students careers in STEM and Computer Science."

“I learned so much about new careers that I'd never heard of before. The math problems were hard and challenging but I love math so now I know some different careers that use math and how they use it.”

"In computer science, students have the option to select Learning Blade as one of the activities that they do in a semester. They go through the mission(s) of their choice at their own pace during that time frame."

"I enjoy the ability in Learning Blade to find almost any topic that the students are interested in and seeing how it ties to STEM."

"I like the variety of tasks students need to complete. I like that it hits all learners through the use of videos, audio attached to the reading and tasks to complete."