Your kid can get career-ready during Remake Learning Days. Here’s how. 

Up for some fun – and want to help your kids become a bit more career-ready? The annual Remake Learning Days festival kicks off today, offering families hundreds of free workshops and hands-on learning experiences through May 22. Many of these events – a total of 231 – are part of the Career Ready PA Backpack Challenge. 

Here’s what that means: Between kindergarten and grade 11, Pennsylvania kids are required to collect “artifacts” to show their progress in pursuing career readiness. Over time, this collection of meaningful experiences paints a picture of a student’s career interests, their understanding of career concepts, and the career skills they’re building. The goal is that by the time they finish high school, they’ve begun discovering work that interests them and crafting a potential career plan.

To help students gather these artifacts, the state’s Backpack Challenge points kids toward career-focused events during the Remake Learning Days festival. Kids (often with a parent or caregiver) participate in the event and then complete an artifact survey on the Career Ready PA Backpack Challenge page. This info is shared with their school, so the child can earn a digital badge and get career portfolio credit. At the end of the festival, students also receive a sticker badge.

The experiences will be as varied as the careers they showcase. Students and parents will tackle hands-on, do-it-yourself projects, speak with working adults about their careers and some kids will even present their own work during events at their schools.  

This year’s events – happening at local libraries, tech centers, museums, play spaces, community centers and school, as well as online – include: 

STEAM ahead with SQUAD: On May 3, join SQUAD Art Studio for art- and science-infused explorations. Design and make drawing robots, explore color and paint on and with natural materials, design a playground, make larger-than-life self portraits and learn about inspiring artists who live in our community.

The STEAM Station: On May 4, dive into all five areas of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) with interactive activities, demos, and experiments at stations spread throughout the Trolley Museum. This event is geared towards students and their families. Each station will focus on one of the STEAM content areas and offer hands-on interactive challenges, demonstrations, and experiments. Advance tickets aren’t required. This event is included with general admission at the Trolley Museum (members receive free admission.)

Brick-By-Brick Open House: Brick-by-Brick Clubs teach social-emotional skills, teamwork and collaboration, and build friendships while kids create LEGO® designs. On May 6, come and see a Brick-by-Brick club in action at Mellon Middle School and have some fun building something awesome with your child. 

Kids Club – Terrific Terrariums: On May 8, learn about how greenhouses work while making your own little terrarium habitat. 

Fast & Furious: Full STEAM Ahead: Drop by on May 9 to observe 3D-printed and laser-cut car parts being made. Then assemble your own rubber-band car and design your own custom car logo, with help from the Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania’s maker space equipment. Once your masterpiece is complete, learn to assess your car’s performance, including calculating your car’s speed through distance measurement tests. 

Apprenticeships: Alternative Career Pathway: At this virtual event on May 13, you’ll learn how apprenticeships are a learn-while-you-earn approach to career development offering paid work experience, classroom instruction and a nationally recognized credential.

Streaming the Future: On May 18, join SLB Radio online and tune in to Streaming the Future, a live conversation hosted by teens, featuring youth-selected topics, music, conversation and more. Listen in and learn about the hopes and visions that teens have for the future of education, their communities and their own lives. Listen live at youthexpress.org.

At these events, students “are not only getting an educational experience, but they’re also making connections between those experiences and their futures,” says Laura Fridirici, a career readiness adviser at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Kids will also be helping their schools: The Career Ready PA Backpack Challenge awards a banner to schools that earn more than 100 digital badges. 

You can search for Career Ready PA Backpack Challenge events right here. 

Want to learn more about career preparation in Pennsylvania? Check out this story about Future Ready Centers that were on display during Remake Learning Days in 2022.