In this course student will get the opportunity to explore careers in a variety of fields and disciplines and understand the necessary skills and education needed to choose a future path. Students will discover careers including business and finance, manufacturing, engineering, and others career clusters. During their exploration, students learn about the required education and training needed for the different career clusters. This course utilizes a project based learning (PBL) approach. Students will develop skills in teamwork, time management, goal-setting, decision-making, communication, and recognition of diverse viewpoints. Students will use Newsela to support their learning. Newsela articles will provide background information, general “how-to” guidance, and sources for independent research.

Project and Course Objectives

Project 1: Discover a Job You’ll Love

· Conduct internet research

· Identify a strength, weakness, or interest.

· Distinguish between personal strengths and weaknesses.

· Use an assessment tool to match personal characteristics to a career.

· Identify personal interests that match a career.

· List steps for matching personal interests to careers.

· Identify the steps for making a decision.

· Use the decision-making process while working to complete a project.

· List skills needed for careers within a career cluster.

· List abilities needed for careers within a career cluster.

· List talents needed for careers within a career cluster.

· Identify career clusters.

· List career cluster pathways.

· List careers in career cluster pathways.

· List reasons why people work.

· Research a related career.

· Differentiate among careers, jobs, and occupations.

Project 2: Pitch a Club

· Use research and technology to support writing.

· Explain why knowledge and skills acquired in middle school lay the foundation for future academic and career success.

· Explain critical thinking.

· Apply critical thinking skills while working to complete a project.

· Identify various life, civic, or work-based learning opportunities in the school, home, and community.

· List time-management skills.

· Apply time-management skills while working to complete a project.

· Explain personal initiative.

· Demonstrate personal initiative while working to complete a project.

· Identify career technical student organizations.

· List reasons for setting goals.

· Differentiate between long-term, medium-term, and short-term goals.

· Identify steps in the goal-setting process

· Identify personal goals for life or career.

· Set goals for academic or career success.

· Apply proper writing conventions when preparing documents.

· Assign team roles.

· Research government and public administration or education and training careers.

· Identify characteristics of a marketing pitch

· Develop script for a marketing pitch.

Project 3: A Place for All to Play

· Describe the characteristics of effective teamwork.

· Identify effective collaboration skills.

· Describe the characteristics of effective leadership.

· Demonstrate collaborative teamwork skills while working to complete a project.

· Identify diverse viewpoints while working to complete a project.

· Identify trustworthy sources of information.

· Explain plagiarism.

· Explain copyright law.

· Describe how to cite a source properly.

· Identify personnel required for a community project.

· List characteristics or responsibilities of a leader.

· Describe effective leadership characteristics.

· Demonstrate effective leadership characterizes while working with a team to complete a project.

· Apply work ethic skills while working to complete a project.

· List tasks performed in a career.

· List characteristics of different careers.

· Deliver an oral presentation to an audience.

· Participate in a community service project.