Sequence | Background | Objectives | Materials | Activity | Evaluations

TOPIC-TITLE Careers Lessons 2 - How Can I Get There from Here? AUTHOR STARBORD GRADE SUITABILITY High School SCOPE Appropriate for all science classes and especially for an integrated curriculum

Sequence This is the second in a series of six on careers in the field of oceanography. The lessons would not necessarily have to be done as part of a unit of study on oceanography, marine science, marine biology, etc., but they would certainly be more meaningful to the students if they were integrated into the teaching of the academic content material. < < go top

Background Summary The COAST Careers module contains videotaped interviews with actual practitioners in several fields related to oceanography. These interviews are intended to put a face with a name as well as a career in order to let the students see "real" people involved in these careers. In using the interviews in a classroom, teachers can point out the diverse nature of the careers related to oceanography as well as the diverse nature of the demographic information related to the practitioners themselves. These men and women come from different backgrounds, are different ages, and have different career interests, yet they all have found a place of work within the broad field of oceanography. < < go top Objectives At the end of this series of lessons, students will be able to: Identify the differences between a job and a career Identify career areas within the broad field of oceanography Explain the commonalties and differences between the various careers in the field of oceanography Demonstrate a knowledge of how these various careers relate to each other Locate information on the World Wide Web related to a specific career field Recognize the necessary educational foundation needed for a specific career field Compare and contrast the requirements needed to become a practitioner of various oceanographic career fields Determine the high school course selections that would be most beneficial for someone planning a career in oceanography Create as part of a group a computer-based project relating to an oceanographic career < < go top Materials Access to computers and the Internet QuickTime plug-in for viewing the COAST Web site Dictionaries Spreadsheet software Presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint, HyperStudio) < < go top Activity Divide the students into groups. Using the list of careers generated in the previous lesson as well as any other oceanography-related careers of which the students are aware, ask each group to find the web pages for one or more universities in their area/state and determine if a student can get a degree in one of these career fields at one or more of these universities. Have each group select a different career when doing this exercise. As an example, have one group look for "marine biology" and determine if a college major is available in that field within the surrounding geographic area. Another group might look up "environmental chemist." If their assigned college major is not available at a local/state university, ask the students to hypothesize why it is not. Is there another college major that might provide sufficient background for a student who wants to enter an ocean-related field but who cannot afford to go to a university in another community/state where the specific major is offered? To help the students determine what colleges and universities are in their area, have them visit the web site of The National Center for Education Statistics Classroom [http://www.nces.ed.gov/nceskids/index.html]. It has an interactive component that will help the students find the names of colleges and universities throughout the United States either by region or by specific state. Choose the "College Search" option to get to the database that has over 3800 colleges listed. There are no links from this web site to the actual web pages of these colleges, however. Once the students have located names, they should use a standard search engine to locate college/university home pages on the Internet. Have each group use the career for which they searched in #1 or an entirely different one and locate a college or university where they could receive an education in this career field. If the university they looked at under #1 offers a degree in that field, the students may want to see if there is an out-of-state school offering the same major. Have the students list the required courses they will need to take, and then ask the students to determine what types of knowledge they will need to learn in high school in order to be successful in college in this major. Require a narrative account of the facts that each group has ascertained. Using a spreadsheet, have the students list the courses that they would need to take in high school in order to be well prepared as a new student entering this college program. In another column, ask the students to list the courses relating to this major that they would be taking as a college student. In a third column, have the students to hypothesize what it is about those courses that will apply to the knowledge base they will need for this career field. In other words, why are these required courses? When the groups have completed their research, ask them to present their findings to the entire class. Look for similarities and differences in the preparation required for the different career fields < < go top Teacher Evaluation Use a rubric to assess each student's ability to work collaboratively. For an example collaboration rubric, visit the EdWeb Web site: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/triton/tidepoolunit/Rubrics/collrubric.html Assess the groups for the manner in which they conduct their web searches and the quality of the information they discover. Assess their hypotheses for depth of understanding and application of critical thinking skills when making links between such general things as biology and the more specific marine biology and between course work and practical applications on the job. Assess the content of the group spreadsheets by the quality and quantity of information a group finds and the logic of their arguments. Are they able to support what they say by facts they have located on the Web? < < go top