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STEM Compass · middle school students

STEM degree ideas matched to who you are — for middle school students

Ideas are cheap; fit is not. Forty careers with growth, path and an ordinary day, and an assessment that tells you which ideas are worth a year of your life. A STEM degree is one path in, not the only one. Web development, security, data analytics and technician roles open through certificates, apprenticeships and portfolios; medicine and research need the long road. Middle school is when interest in STEM is decided, usually by whether the subject ever got connected to a person a student could become.

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Take the STEM Compass assessmentSee the STEM Farm tracks

What the assessment measures

280 items in five modules — what you love to do, how you work, fifteen STEM working traits, thirty real situations, and where you want your work to land — matched against forty careers in eight families. Then a sixth module drafts your mission, vision and values in your own words. Progress saves as you go; it is free and complete today.

Careers this covers

Software & Technology — Build the digital world people live inside.

Software Developer+15%Web Developer+7%Computer Programmer-6%Computer Systems Analyst+9%Database Administrator+4%Database Architect+4%Computer & Information Research Scientist+20%

Data Science & Statistics — Find the truth hiding in the numbers.

Data Scientist+34%Statistician+8%

Engineering — Design and build what has to work.

Aerospace Engineer+6%Chemical Engineer+3%Civil Engineer+5%Electrical Engineer+7%Environmental Engineer+4%Industrial Engineer+11%Marine Engineer & Naval Architect+6%Mechanical Engineer+9%

Healthcare & Life Sciences — Keep people alive, well, and cared for.

Biomedical Engineer+6%Registered Nurse+5%Physician Assistant+20%Physician & Surgeon+4%Clinical Laboratory Technologist+4%Medical Scientist+9%Epidemiologist+16%Microbiologist+5%

Physical Sciences & Research — Ask how the universe works, then prove it.

Biochemist & Biophysicist+7%Physicist+4%Astronomer+4%Chemist & Materials Scientist+6%

Mathematics & Analytics — Turn uncertainty into decisions.

Operations Research Analyst+21%Actuary+22%Mathematician+8%Mathematics Professor+7%

Cybersecurity & Networks — Protect the systems everyone depends on.

Computer Network Architect+12%Information Security Analyst+29%

Environmental & Earth Science — Understand and protect the living planet.

Atmospheric Scientist & Meteorologist+1%Environmental Scientist+4%Geoscientist+5%Agricultural & Food Scientist+6%Zoologist & Wildlife Biologist+2%

This search, career by career

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This search, by labor market

Newark, NJ11 countiesNew York, NY7 countiesLos Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim, CA7 countiesChicago, IL11 countiesDallas, TX12 countiesFort Worth, TX7 countiesHouston, TX13 countiesAtlanta, GA16 countiesWashington, DC13 countiesMiami, FL3 countiesPhiladelphia, PA7 countiesPhoenix–Mesa–Scottsdale, AZ3 counties

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Near you

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming

Other ways people ask this

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Questions people ask

How is a "stem degree ideas for middle school students" different from a personality type test?

A type test gives you a label. STEM Compass gives you a profile on fifteen working traits and eight kinds of impact, then a directional match against each career — a number you can explain, not a letter code.

Does it cost anything?

No. The full assessment is open at tienesesto.org/stem-assessment, and every result links to a STEM Farm track that starts from zero.

Sources. Career traits, education paths and value lines are the STEM Compass assessment library. Employment growth is U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2024–2034. County economic types are USDA Economic Research Service County Typology Codes (2025); labor markets are Census commuting zones (2020). Salary is not shown anywhere in this campaign on purpose: the assessment measures fit and what the work is worth to the world.