Helping Your Teen with the Choices Ahead

Making
Connections
Helping Your Teen with the Choices Ahead

Dear Parents,
We’re sharing this brochure with your family to help with the important decisions
your teen will be making over the next year and a half. Because we live in an
age of global technology, this brochure emphasizes the importance of math and
science courses. Even if students aren’t planning to go into scientific fields, math
and science courses are critically important for a wide range of careers, college
preparation, and basic life skills. Students need a good background in math and
science to keep their options open in today’s workplace, and parents can play a
critical role in helping their teens make the best choices for their futures.
Our 30 years of research on motivation reveals that parents can help their teens
appreciate the value of math and science courses. One simple strategy is to help
teens discover the connections between their schoolwork and things they really
care about, like understanding how their cell phone works, preparing for college
or technical school, or planning careers. We encourage you to read through this
brochure and talk with your teen about these connections as he or she chooses
courses for next year and begins to think about life after graduation.
We are also developing a Web site with additional resources for parents and
teens. This Web site, choicesahead.wceruw.org, is password protected for WSFW
families. You have received a user ID and password from WSFW, and will need
both to access the Web site, which should be available by January 15, 2009.
We wish you all the best as you continue to help your teen succeed in school and
beyond.
Sincerely,
University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Motivation Research Team
Wisconsin Study of Families and Work
Judith Harackiewicz, Professor of Psychology
Janet Hyde, Professor of Psychology
Chris Hulleman, Research Fellow, Vanderbilt University

Table of Contents
Helping Your Teen Find Value in Math and Science .........................................Page 2
Challenges Along the Way ..................................................................................Page 3
Seeing the Connections:
Math and Science in Daily Life .................................................................Page 4
Your Teen’s Adult Life ..............................................................................Page 5
The Choices Ahead ....................................................................................Pages 6-7
Connections by Topic:
Math and Physics Connections ................................................................Pages 8-9
Biology and Chemistry Connections ........................................................Pages 10-11
Final Thoughts and Our Web site ......................................................................Pages 12-13
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Helping Your Teen
Find Value in Math
and Science
The Research
Do you ever wonder what you can do to help
your teen succeed in school and in life? Based
on our motivation research at the University of
Wisconsin, there’s a simple thing that parents
can do: Encourage their teens to discover the
connections between school and life. Teenagers
do not always appreciate the importance or value
of their schoolwork, and they don’t always see
the relevance of their schoolwork to everyday life
or to their futures. But our research shows that
when they do perceive value, they become more
interested in their schoolwork and work harder.
Connect To Your Teen
In this brochure, we’re offering a variety of
suggestions about possible connections between
school and life that might work for your teen.
These are just examples – you will have the best
sense for what will appeal to your teen, and
what connections will be most powerful. It may
be easier to help your teen make connections
for some school subjects than others, and every
student is different. Some teens may respond to
connections with everyday life, whereas others will
respond to connections with future plans.
Help Your Teen Discover the
Connections
The important thing is to help your teen make
some of these connections for him or herself.
Instead of telling your teen how relevant math and
science are to everyday life and the future, it will
be more effective if you help them discover the
connections that are most meaningful to them.
Helping your teen discover their own connections
allows them to build on their own interests, and
gets them more engaged in learning.
Scientific research shows that
when students make their own
connections between school and
their lives they are even more
successful in school.
Instead of telling your teen how
relevant math and science is to their
life and future, help them discover
the connections that are most
meaningful to them.

Ask your spouse, other family
members, friends, or mentors to
discuss the relevance of some topics
with your teen, and you can discuss
others.
Challenges Along
the Way
Your teen might not enjoy these kinds of
conversations and he or she may resist your efforts.
This is normal. By raising these issues through
discussions with your teen, you may plant some
seeds of discovery and, over time, help your teen
find more value in their schoolwork.
Find Some Examples
Your teen may not see all of the connections
between schoolwork and life that you do, and this
is where you can help. If your teen says, “This
course has no relevance to my life,” or “I don’t see
any point in learning this,” you can be ready with
some good examples. This brochure is intended
to help you come up with examples of how math
and science might be particularly relevant for your
teen’s everyday life (now and in the future), and
college and career preparation.
Connect Math and Science to
Your Own Life
You could start by thinking about how you use
math and/or science in your current job or daily
life. You may find that you use math and science
more than you realize! Talking with your teen about
the connections you’ve made in your own work will
help them see the connections between math and
science and real life.
Use All Your Resources
You might not know a lot about a particular topic,
and it can be hard to generate specific examples
from your own life. It might be easier to talk about
the relevance of math and science for college
preparation or for life in the modern world. Be
creative, and don’t hesitate to ask others to be
resources. Here are some possibilities:
• Your spouse
• Family members and friends
• Mentors, teachers, and coaches
• Our Web site: choicesahead.wceruw.org
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Math and Science
in Daily Life
You can help your teen discover the importance of
math and science by pointing out how knowledge
in these areas impacts his or her daily life, and how
it will be relevant to your teen’s adult life. Math
and science courses can help us understand the
technology we use every day. For example:
Cell Phones
• Physics helps us understand why our phone
calls are dropped in certain locations, such
as in a valley or inside an elevator (because it
is difficult for radio waves to travel through
metal), and math helps us decide on the best
rate plan, and which extra features we can
afford.
• Chemistry helps us understand how electricity
and water can interact to damage the phone,
and why the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
screen won’t work right if it gets too hot or cold
(the liquid crystals that make up the picture are
susceptible to temperature changes).
Driving
• Physics helps explain why sports cars can go
around corners at high speeds (because of their
lower and wider stance) but SUVs flip over, and
an understanding of biology helps engineers
design crash-proof seats that keep us safe
without damaging our internal organs.
• Chemistry and
physics help
us understand
how hybrid cars
can charge their
fuel cells and
provide better
mileage than gasburning
engines,
and math helps us understand the costbenefit
trade-off of buying a hybrid car (more
expensive to buy but less expensive to run).
Math and science courses can help
us understand the technology we use
every day.

Your Teen’s Adult Life
Math and science will become even more important
in your teen’s adult life as he or she becomes more
independent and assumes more responsibilities.
Socializing with Friends
•
When hosting a party, preparing appealing and
tasty food that won’t make guests sick requires
your teen to understand chemistry and
biology (e.g., how heat and refrigeration affect
dairy products, fruits, and meats differently).
• Biology and chemistry knowledge will help
your teen understand how nutrition and sleep
impact their alertness and brain functioning
when working out, playing an instrument,
dancing, or playing a game with friends.
Shopping
Your teen will use math skills when:
•
•
Buying a home entertainment center or a
computer (e.g., financing with a ‘zero’ money
down offer may seem like a better deal at the
time, but usually costs more in the long-term)
Figuring out the unit cost for food, such as soda:
if you have the choice of buying a 20 oz, 2-liter,
12-pack, or 24-pack, which purchase is actually
the best deal per ounce of soda?
Life On Their Own
When starting their independent life, your teen will
need to understand:
How to choose their first apartment.
• Math
and geometry principles (area: length, width,
height) will help your teen determine how much
furniture they can fit into a 200 square foot
apartment, whether their couch will fit up the
stairs, and how many cans of paint are needed
to paint the walls.
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The Choices Ahead
Here are some examples of how math and science
may be important to your teen’s future, whether
they are thinking about entering the workforce and
starting a career, or continuing their education at a
technical school, community college, or four-year
college or university.
Careers
Taking math and science courses in high school
helps teens begin the career planning process by
helping them discover which topics are more or
less interesting to them, and by giving them a solid
foundation of basic job skills. For example:
• Veterinarians need math skills to calculate
proper dosages of medication, and an
understanding of biochemistry to avoid
potentially harmful drug interactions, as do
doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.
• Welders use physics and chemistry principles
to understand how different metals react to
heat, as do mechanics who need to know how
the moving parts of a vehicle are affected by
friction.
• Farmers need to understand principles of
biology and chemistry to maximize crop yield,
maintain the proper acidity of the soil, and
use fertilizers correctly, as do landscapers,
gardeners, and marine biologists.
• Medical imaging technicians use powerful
imaging equipment – X-rays, computed
tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) – to look inside the body without
surgery, and need to be familiar with the physics
concepts of x-rays and magnetic resonance to
determine bone damage, diagnose disease, and
develop treatment for various illnesses.
•
When writing contracts for company mergers,
corporate lawyers use math skills (e.g.,
algebra formulas, proportions) to determine
what percentage of the profits each group will
receive.

More Careers
• Architects use physics and math to design
buildings that are not only visually appealing,
but also functional for the people who live and
work in them.
•
To help patients recover from knee injuries,
physical therapists need to understand
how fast the body heals over time (biology),
and how much force acts on the knee when
walking (physics).
• Hairstylists need to have computer and
math skills to maintain client records and
record earnings, and a basic knowledge
of biology and chemistry to use hair care
products safely.
Preparation for College,
Technical Schools, or Other
Educational Programs
Most teens realize that math and science courses
are important for college entrance requirements
and relevant to standardized testing, but they
don’t always appreciate that math and science
courses are also important for a wide range of
skills and applications:
• Teaching them problem solving and
analytical skills that can be used in their
college courses and everyday lives.
• Discovering which topics are more or
less interesting to them as they consider
possible college majors and careers.
• Keeping their options open when
considering majors and careers. Some level of
math and/or science background is required
for many (if not most) academic programs,
and taking extra math and science in high
school opens even more opportunities for
your teen.
•
Making it easier to learn more
advanced math and science content in
college, technical school, or on the job.
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Math and Physics
Connections
Math
A basic knowledge of math can help us do many
things that are important in our daily lives, such
as budgeting, shopping, and keeping track of
sports scores. More advanced math is important in
occupations such as computer programming and
finance.
Occupations
• Computer scientists – Math skills are crucial
for computer programmers when designing new
software to track business inventories.
• Finance and insurance – Not only do
financial planners, investors, and insurance
salespeople need basic math skills, but they
also need to understand more complex algebra
and calculus in order to calculate interest rates,
analyze business markets, and project future
performance.
• Engineering – Trigonometry and calculus are
used in engineering occupations, such as when
mechanical and industrial engineers design and
build new buildings. Aerospace engineers use
calculus when analyzing projectile motion paths
and designing fighter jets.
Daily Life
• Managing finances – Understanding the
nature of exponential growth, interest, and
compound interest (algebra and pre-calculus)
can help people manage their finances better in
terms of picking the best bank account, deciding
which credit card to apply for, and choosing
which type of car loan or mortgage to get.
Recreational sports
• – Understanding
geometry and trigonometry principles (angles,
shapes, tangents) can help your teen improve
their skills in recreational activities (e.g.,
hitting a golf ball, sinking a pool shot, throwing
a bounce pass in basketball, or running the
shortest distance around a track).

When you watch an athlete,
you are seeing the principles
of physics in motion. The
bat hitting the baseball, the
spiraling football, the bend
in the vaulter’s pole, and the
tension of muscles as a weight
is lifted illustrate some of
the basic laws of physics,
like momentum, equilibrium,
velocity, kinetic energy, center
of gravity, projectile motion,
and friction.
Physics
A basic knowledge of physics can help us understand
many of the things that we use or that affect us
in our daily lives: the weather and environment,
technology (computers, cell phones), and
transportation (airplanes, hybrid vehicles).
Occupations
• Video game designers use physics principles
to plan how a spaceship, missile, or vehicle
should move in a game, as well as principles of
proportion and space (geometry) when designing
scenery so that it appears 3-dimensional.
• Meteorologists – Physics is used to
understand how the wind will blow (calculating
wind direction and speed requires understanding
atmospheric pressure differences and the earth’s
rotation) and to accurately forecast tornado
formation weather (color coding of winds at
different speeds using Doppler radar).
• Nurses need an understanding of physics
principles (e.g., gravity, force, pressure) to
inject medicine without creating dangerous air
bubbles, and keep an IV (intravenous) fluid drip
working properly.
• Engineers use the principles of gravity, engine
dynamics, aerodynamics, and friction when
designing spaceships that keep astronauts safe
and accurately propel them to their destinations,
as well as when designing high speed ‘bullet’
trains.
Daily Life
• Recreational activities can require the
application of physics principles. For example,
accurately kicking a soccer ball requires
knowledge of vectors, trajectories, and wind
resistance, and skateboarding tricks require an
understanding of friction, speed, and mass.
• Cell phones use an amazing range of physics,
such as knowledge of radio and sound waves to
communicate your voice, magnets and magnetic
energy to power the microphone and speaker,
and LCD technology (alignment of molecules by
an electric field) to show you who is calling.
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Biology and Chemistry
Connections
Biology
Did you know that only one out of every ten cells in
your body is human? The other 90% are bacterial
cells! No wonder doctors and nurses need to know
so much about biology in order to help us when we
get sick or hurt.
Occupations
• Botanists (plant biologists) conduct research
that helps increase and improve our supply of
medicines, building materials, and foods – all of
which can help address major social issues such
as hunger, homelessness, and disease.
• Public health professionals depend on their
understanding of biology to help solve pollution
problems, such as disposing of industrial waste
or preventing pesticides from leaking into the
water supply.
Daily Life
• Medicine – We often think of bacteria and
fungi as “germs” or things that make us sick, but
they are also the source of the strongest weapons
we have against bacterial disease – antibiotics.
Microbiologists grow useful fungi and bacteria
to produce medications. You may have directly
benefited from bacteria and fungi if you have
ever taken antibiotics for an infection, such as
strep throat.
Biotechnology
• – Have
you ever wondered why
you never see wild corn
plants growing in the
forest? Most of the plants
we use for food have
been bred for so long that
they no longer resemble
their wild ancestors. A
dramatic example is the
transition of the wild
plant teosinte (pictured, above left) to cultivated
modern corn (pictured, above right).

Chemistry
Chemistry principles are applied in our daily
lives to keep our drinking water clean, produce
cleaner-burning gasoline and jet fuel, and create
new products from recycled ones (such as new
roads made from recycled car tires). We also use
principles of chemistry in our jobs. For example:
Occupations
• Nutritionists, dieticians, and other
healthcare providers use chemistry to help
us understand what kinds of foods we need to
eat regularly in order to be healthy.
• Biochemists and food scientists study how
best to combine chemical compounds in order
to make our food healthier. For example, most
breakfast cereals are fortified with several
types of vitamins and minerals.
• Construction workers – Although
making and pouring cement may seem like
a simple process, it is one that requires an
understanding of chemistry. The different
materials required to make cement, including
limestone and clay, form a chemical bond and
harden. Chemical compounds are added to
“suffocate” the cement and make it harden and
retain strength, even when submerged under
water.
Daily Life
• Clean water – Chlorine and other chemicals
are used to keep swimming pools safe and
our drinking water clean. A lot of drinking
water comes from groundwater and aquifers
that already have pesticides, fertilizers, and
other chemicals contaminating them, and
water filtration systems help to remove these
chemicals. A basic knowledge of chemistry
(and math) can help you understand which
types of water filtration systems do the best job
for your money.
Recycling
• – Advances in chemistry (and
biology) have fueled the recycling revolution.
Almost 100% of used aluminum cans may be
used to make a new one, and completely new
products can be made from old ones – such as
making playground benches and jungle gyms
from recycled plastic bottles.
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Final Thoughts
As a parent, you have more power to influence
your teen’s beliefs and values than you may think.
It is a popular notion that teens tend to ignore
their parents when it comes to most aspects of
their lives. However, research shows that parents
do influence teens’ major life decisions, such as
educational and career choices.
When teens who aren’t interested in science
or math find themselves wanting to solve a
problem (e.g., making faster cars, designing more
waterproof snowboarding pants, or curing cancer),
they may eventually realize that a career in science
will help them solve these problems. If they don’t
have the science background from high school,
however, it can be hard to catch up in college when
they become more interested. This is one reason
that it is so important to take additional science
and math courses before the end of high school.
We hope that you will encourage your teen to take
as many math and science courses as possible in
high school, and that the resources provided here
and on our Web site will help you and your teen
with the important choices ahead.
Our Web Site
You will find many more
detailed resources, including
information on pre-college
planning, career options, and
programs of study, on our
Web site:
choicesahead.wceruw.org
Password protected for WSFW families
Research shows that parents tend
to influence teens the most for major
life decisions, such as educational and
career choices.

Contact Information
If you have questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email:
Judith Harackiewicz, jmharack@wisc.edu
Janet Hyde, jshyde@wisc.edu
Chris Hulleman, chris.hulleman@vanderbilt.edu
Wisconsin Study of Families and Work