Competency X Digital Badges

​Our digital badges were co-developed by our industry and college partners and are assigned when scholars meet specific criteria for science and engineering practices in their digital portfolio.  These badges act as mile markers that map out a learning progression for how we see scholars developing the essential skills, knowledge, and dispositions required for workplace success.  Scholars use their digital badges to earn internships and do more intentional skill development work within the internship.

Digital badge progressions

Our digital badges fall into 3 learning progressions for how we see scholars developing expertise with science and engineering practices.  

Experimenting

Planning, conducting, and evaluating experiments.

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Analyzing

Analyzing data, claims, theories, and models produced by scientists and engineers.
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Communicating

​Presenting arguments in writing or oral presentations based on evidence collected from experimental or text based research.

​Digital Badge Showcase

Each quarter, we highlight a badge with an exemplary digital portfolio from one of our scholars that earned the badge.  
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Badge: 
Visual Explanation
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Badge Expectations:
As a scientist, you can visually explain a phenomenon.  The visual must be organized, flow, and coherently tell the story of your phenomenon and its relevance to a diverse audience.

Badges and Internships

Scholars use digital badges to earn internships and do more intentional skill development work within the internship.  Scholars co-create a digital badge with their internship mentor to represent the goals they have for their project.  This allows the scholar and the internship mentor to have deep conversations around how to assess what is needed for success in that industry.