Traditional academic science focuses on laboratory research to gather new knowledge and on teaching to impart that scientific knowledge to future generations.  Whether a person working in academia spends more time with research, teaching, or administration is a matter of personal preferences and skills.

Perhaps you are someone who loves science, exploring, and being creative, but learned the hard way that science research is not your dream job.  Maybe you were considering working in industry, but prefer to work with children than adults.  In both of these circumstances, science education provides a unique opportunity to connect your science background and enthusiasm with the needs of the community.

Industrial science encompasses a variety of careers in which people work for scientific, government, or private institutions conducting research or manufacturing goods and services.  Agricultural and biological sciences, information and communication technology, and mining and mineral explorations are just a few of the many industrial science fields.  Each industrial science field has its own set of job requirements, expectations and, most importantly, required skills and knowledge.

Have you been hearing about the NSA or FBI on the news lately? Or how about the CIA, NASA, and FDA?  This alphabet soup of government agencies appears in the news often, as they are responsible for the well-being, safety and happiness of United States citizens.  These agencies, along with other departments and branches of government take care of homeland security, the environment, health issues and many other basic concerns of the country.  In order to ensure that these agencies can handle a wide variety of problems, they employ many professionals to take care of administrative research duties.  Science positions are especially important because the federal government depends on the latest technological and scientific developments to keep the country at its peak performance in serving its citizens and in international relations.