CareerStart
CareerStart is a program that aims to help students make connections between the academic curriculum and future careers, created by a partnership among the Schools of Education and Social Work at UNC - Chapel Hill, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school district, and the Piedmont Triad Council of Government.
CareerStart offers collections of lessons in which core subjects (English language arts, math, science, and social studies) are taught using illustrations from real jobs, enabling students to understand how course content is applied outside the classroom. Through a partnership with LEARN NC, CareerStart has made these mini-lessons available via the LEARN NC website.
For an article that more thoroughly describes the program and shares some of the research that illustrates its effectiveness, see “CareerStart: A Proven Approach to Middle-School Success.”
CareerStart lesson plan collections
- CareerStart lessons: Grade 6
- This collection of lessons aligns the sixth grade curriculum in math, science, English language arts, and social studies with potential career opportunities.
- CareerStart lessons: Grade 7
- This collection of lessons aligns the seventh grade curriculum in math, science, English language arts, and social studies with potential career opportunities.
- CareerStart lessons: Grade 8
- This collection of lessons aligns the eighth grade curriculum in math, science, English language arts, and social studies with potential career opportunities.
Resources provided by CareerStart
Records 41–60 of 132 displayed: go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
- Economic planning in West Africa
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 4.3
- In this lesson plan for grade seven, students will research the West African nation Mali and will work in groups to create proposals for improvement projects in Mali. Students will discuss careers that require creating proposals and giving presentations.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7 English Language Arts and Social Studies)
- By Mary B. Taylor.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett and Sonya Rexrode.
- Ecotourism in South Asia
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 4.4
- In this lesson for grade seven, students learn about ecotourism in Nepal and discuss its negative and positive aspects. Students conclude by making connections with tourism in the United States.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7 Social Studies)
- By Kenyatta Bennett.Adapted by Sonya Rexrode and Mary B. Taylor.
- Effective communication for successful careers
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 1.7
- In this lesson plan, students consider the elements of effective communication and write an informative or persuasive paper with a particular audience in mind.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Guidance)
- By Andrea Fedon, Gail Frank, and Cindy Neininger.
- Electroplating: When is a penny worth less than one cent?
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 5.8
- In this lesson, students understand the chemical differences between pennies made before and after 1982, and gain an understanding of the process of electroplating.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Science)
- By Tammy Johnson and Martha Tedrow.
- Employment applications and resumés
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 1.4
- In this lesson for grade seven, students will discuss the parts of a job application and resumé. Students will complete an application and resumé for either a medical job or a construction job, and will compare and contrast the application materials needed for each of the two kinds of jobs.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Guidance)
- By Anissia Jenkins.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett and Sonya Rexrode.
- Energy: Concepts and careers
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 3.9
- In this lesson for grade 6, students will analyze the law of conservation of energy and will apply energy concepts to skateboarding. Students will also explore careers related to energy.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7 Science)
- By April Galloway and Christine Scott.
- European and South American agriculture
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 4.3
- In this lesson for grades six and seven, students conduct research about agriculture in South America and Europe and organize the information on a compare/contrast map.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Social Studies)
- By Mandy Matlock.Edited by Julie McCann.
- Evaluate forces: Earthquakes
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 3.3
- This lesson for grade six will help students to gain an understanding of geological processes including plate tectonics, faulting, and earthquakes. Students will explore careers related to earthquake analysis, measurement, and disaster management.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Science)
- By April Galloway and Christine Scott.
- Fact and opinion in the real world
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 1.8
- This lesson for grade 6 will help students understand the differences between fact and opinion based on career-related examples.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 English Language Arts)
- By Jennifer Brookshire and Julie McCann.
- Finding hidden messages in advertising
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 1.3
- In this lesson for grade six, students will look for hidden messages in magazine advertisements and will create their own ads with hidden messages.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 English Language Arts)
- By Jennifer Brookshire and Julie McCann.
- First contact newspaper
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 6.2
- In this lesson plan for grade eight, students write newspaper articles about early contact between individuals or groups from very different cultural backgrounds who met in the Carolina colony, including Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans.
- Format: lesson plan
- By Andrea Stewart, Keisha Gabriel, and Patty Grant.
- The five themes of geography
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 4.6
- In this lesson for grade six, students will explore different career paths based on the five themes of geography.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Guidance and Social Studies)
- By Shea Calloway.
- Food service professionals: Working with fractions
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 2.2
- This lesson for grade six demonstrates how an understanding of fractions is important in the food service industry. Students will use operations with fractions to determine how many recipes to make for a given scenario.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Mathematics)
- By Kim Abrams, Mike McDowell, and Barbara Strange.
- Forensic scientists: Identifying unknown substances
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 5.10
- In this lesson, students use the physical properties of three mystery substances to determine their identities. Students discuss how these skills apply to careers in forensic science.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Science)
- By Tammy Johnson and Martha Tedrow.
- Free falling: Working with radicals
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 2.4
- In this lesson, students solve problems involving radicals and discuss the importance of radicals in various careers.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 9 Mathematics)
- By Debbie Brooks, Peggy Dickey, and Jan Sullivan.
- Frequency tables
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 2.1
- In this lesson for grade seven, students discuss how frequency tables are used in various careers. Students use survey data collected in class to make their own frequency tables and present them to the class.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Mathematics)
- By Peggy Dickey, Carol Taylor, and Monika Vasili.Adapted by Sharon Abell and Barbara Turner.
- General contractors: Working with area
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 2.10
- This activity for grade six combines math, art, and writing, as students design a floor plan for a house and use calculations of area to arrive at a cost estimate.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Mathematics)
- By Kim Abrams, Mike McDowell, and Barbara Strange.
- Grammar and editing
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 1.4
- In this lesson for grade six, students will learn about the conventions of grammar and will learn how to write and edit a business letter.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 English Language Arts)
- By Jennifer Brookshire and Julie McCann.
- Graphic designers: Working with scale
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 3.3
- In this lesson, students will create a design on centimeter graph paper and enlarge it by creating a grid on a piece of poster board. Students will learn discuss the use of scale factor in the careers of graphic artists.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7–9 Mathematics)
- By Valerie Davis, Sonya Rexrode, and Monika Vasili.
- Guidance counselors: Working with scatter plots
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 3.10
- In this lesson plan, students read about the life earnings of people with a variety of educational backgrounds and visualize the information using a scatter plot and line of best fit.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Guidance and Mathematics)
- By Valerie Davis, Sonya Rexrode, and Monika Vasili.
