Professional STEM Project

Interview Question Plan

1. What is your official job title?

2. What educational background/degrees do you have?

3. What does a typical workweek look like repairing buses, and automobiles?

4. What type of community involvement is there with your current job functions?

5. How does your job impact the community?

6. How does your community impact your job?

7. What recommendations do you have for students who want to have a job like yours in the

future?

8. What are some of the things your company is doing that are STEM related?

9. What do you feel your company can do to enhance the work place for the environment?

10. What technological advancements do you feel your company can make to improve your job?

11. What type of education did you need to do your job?

12. Why is what you do important?

13. How does your job affect the community?

14. What do you wish people in the community better understood about your job? Why?

15. What tool do you use for your job?

Summary of Important Points

 I decided to interview a pharmacist and a pharmacist technician because I was curious

about the process of filling medication. I leaned some interesting things about what pharmacist

and the technician does. I visited CVS Pharmacy in Acworth Georgia. I know have so much

more respect for pharmacist and the pharmacy technician because their job is none stop and they

rarely take breaks. The pharmacy and the pharmacist technician both work closely together

which is why I ask them both questions. The pharmacy technician informed me that she only

had to be certified by the state and obtain a Georgia Board of Pharmacy state licenses. She also

said the she is required to have a National Pharmacy Technician licenses. She informed me that

all of the pharmacy technician and pharmacist must always display their sate licenses where they

can be visible. She explained that no educational background was necessary to acquire her job,

she just started as a cashier and begin training as a pharmacy technician. After about three

months of training, she took the state and national test to become a pharmacy technician. The

pharmacist was different, he said he had to attend a four year credited college in to obtain a

Bachelor of Science degree in either chemistry or biology. Then he said he had to attend a

graduate college for pharmacy to earn Doctoral of Pharmacy degree. The both fill prescriptions

by entering them into the system. The pharmacist technician fills the prescription first and the

pharmacist is the final checkpoint to make sure the patient is getting the correct medication.

After all of that, the pharmacist technician checks the patient out and debrief then the medication

side effects, proper storage, what to drink with the medication, and ask if they have any other

questions.

The pharmacy technician explained that they have to follow a prescription compliance

protocol, which is the state law. The compliance basically requires insurance verification, name,

date of birth, and a diagnose code. The pharmacy technician informed me that they do not deal
with a lot of paper work because everything is online. The only type of paper they use is for

medication information given to patients, and labels that go on medicine bottles. She did

indicate that they receive blood analysis through the fax machine and online to ensure they give

the patient the correct medication. She informed me that prescription are filled in time order,

that means the prescriptions are filled based on the time they come in. She indicated they do

have to manually count medication and place it into the medicine bottle. She further included

that when filling out medications, the have to be sure check for allergies and verify that they give

the correct person the medication because it can be very deadly. I did enjoy hearing that they

help senior citizen more than other patients by explaining things more to them. The have a

service that allows patients to get their prescriptions mailed via UPS and the United States Postal

Services. When the medications are mailed to patients it is separated in a decorated box with

labels for their medication.

The pharmacist said that his job is STEM related because it involves science like biology and

chemistry. The biology involve with their knowledge of how various medications affect the

body and the chemistry aspect involves knowing the drug ingredients. The technology aspect is

using the computer RxNET software, the computer, computer scanner black pad, and bar code

scanning tools. The engineering aspect is utilizing a compound machine to make medications.

Lastly, the mathematical aspect is a lot of conversions between units, and problem solving.

Some of the other tools they use is an application called GoodRx to help give patient a cheaper

price for medications if they do not have insurance or the GoodRx price is cheaper. She

regrettable notified me that they do not recycle paper but do have paper taken to a shredding

company to prevent patient’s information from being retrieved. The one thing that the

pharmacist and the pharmacist technician told me that will make me more patient is that they
want customers to be patients. They explained that too often customers come in and want their

medication right away but there are other customers medications being filled by time and they

can not put a new customer first. The pharmacist and pharmacy technician both create an impact

on the community because the provide a service that is very important. It influence the

community because they provide customer service to a lot of people and care about the welfare

of the customers, with out them people could not get their medications.
 Daily Lesson plan

(these are organized based on the 5e Learning Cycle by Bybee)

Day 1: Exploring Careers Through STEM Job Approved Employers

Length of activity – 20 minutes

Standards

Objectives:

 The students will explore a career related to STEM in out community

Materials:

 Pencil

 Paper

 Laptops

Approaches to Differentiation:

The lesson will be differentiated by grouping students on topic, instructional strategies using

Google Docs and Microsoft Word, digital media like YouTube, providing a learning center for

advanced placement students, for ADHD student provide learning videos and video games,

providing fewer homework problems to the English and language learner and speech student.

Engagement: Have students brainstorm different careers and record them on the board or

overhead projector. Once they have created a fairly substantial list, ask if they can start to

identify industries to which each job belongs. Have the student review the STEM career jobs on

the projector. The student will select at least 5 jobs within each field of STEM. The students

will discuss what job the students will compare and contrast the jobs and be ask questions. Are
any the same? Which are different? If there are industries mentioned in the magazine that did not

come up in the discussion, why were they omitted?

Explore: Break students into ten equal groups and randomly assign each group two jobs. Have

the students pick one of the jobs and complete research online with the travel laptops. The

students will review the following questions: What does this industry do or produce?

1. What are some of the well-known companies leading this industry?

2. What are 10-15 different jobs available within this industry?

a. Include a diverse range of jobs - encourage students to think about fun, unexpected

jobs in each industry (i.e. providing transportation services for bands and their equipment

in the transportation industry)

b. What education is needed for each?

c. What is the median salary for each?

d. What are the duties/responsibilities for each? e. Do any special incentives exist for

each?

i. Company-paid training/education ii. Company travel

ii. Job growth/opportunity for advancement

Explain: Each student will pick an industry and occupation that appealed to him or her during

the group presentations and conduct further research. Students will write an informal paper that

discusses what they found appealing about this particular industry and occupation; the talents,

skills, and interests they possess that make this occupation a good fit for them; the top three
schools or certification programs that would best prepare them for this occupation, and the cost

of each; any internship opportunities that exist within the field; and the ideal career path they

would like to follow within the industry. If possible have a guidance counselor speak with

students about the courses that are available at the high school level that would help them on

their path to this career. If a guidance counselor is not available, provide students with current

course schedules and discuss these options, including honors and AP courses, with them.

Extend: Group research and presentations and individual contributions will be scored according

to the rubric below. Independent research papers can also be graded as desired.

Assessment Rubric Career Jobs 10pts

5-4 3-2 2-1

The The The

presentation presentation presentation
was clear, was was unclear and
concise and informative. It only provided a
thorough. It answered most small portion of
provided of the questions the required
precise posed in the information.
information and prompt in an
explanations. understandable
way.

The student The student The student did

contributed not contribute
contributed to somewhat to to the group’s
the group’s research or
the group’s research and/or presentation.
presentation.
research,

understanding,
and

presentation in

meaningful

ways