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 61–80 of 132 displayed: go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
- Home renovation: Working with area
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 2.9
- In this lesson for grade six, students will work together in cooperative groups using the internet to calculate the cost of finishing a basement.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Mathematics)
- By Kim Abrams, Mike McDowell, and Barbara Strange.
- Hurricane response: What do we do first?
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 3.8
- In this lesson for grade seven, students take on the roles of officials preparing for and responding to a hurricane.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 5 and 7 Science)
- By Emma Couch.Adapted by Mitzi Talbert.
- India: A filmmaking capital
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 4.5
- In this lesson for grade seven, students take on the role of film production crew members, planning the production of a trailer for a film about the life of Mahatma Gandhi.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Social Studies)
- By Meredith Ebert.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett and Sonya Rexrode.
- Inquiry: You are an earthworm
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 3.5
- This lesson for grade 6 will help students understand the cycling of matter. Students assume they are earthworms and learn by asking questions about their life processes. The lesson also introduces career possibilities in the soil science field.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Science)
- By April Galloway and Christine Scott.
- Interior designers: Working with area
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 2.4
- In this lesson for grade seven, students will act as interior designers, and will measure the walls of the classroom to determine the area of each wall.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7 Mathematics)
- By Peggy Dickey and Barbara Turner.Adapted by Sharon Abell.
- Interior designers: Working with right triangles
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 3.2
- In this lesson, students will use their knowledge of right triangles to create a design for an abstract work of art.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7–8 Mathematics)
- By Valerie Davis, Sonya Rexrode, and Monika Vasili.
- International Space Station scenario
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 3.6
- In this lesson for grade 6, students will learn about the International Space Station and will explore the many careers associated with it.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Guidance and Science)
- By April Galloway and Christine Scott.
- Job interviews: Focus on details
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 1.5
- In this lesson for grade seven, students will develop questions and answers for hypothetical job interviews, and will perform job interview skits for the class.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Guidance)
- By Anissia Jenkins.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett and Sonya Rexrode.
- Key deer: Evolution and species survival
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 5.7
- In this lesson, students learn about the evolutionary history of the Key deer, then discuss the animal's prospects for survival in a changing habitat.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Science)
- By Tammy Johnson and Martha Tedrow.
- Landscape architects: Working with indirect measurement
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 3.5
- In this lesson plan, students use indirect measurement to discover the height of the school's flagpole. Students learn about careers in landscape architecture.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7–8 Mathematics)
- By Valerie Davis, Sonya Rexrode, and Monika Vasili.
- Law enforcement careers: Working with decimals
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 2.1
- In this lesson for grade 6, students will perform basic math operations with decimals and will understand how math is used in law enforcement careers.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Guidance and Mathematics)
- By Kim Abrams, Mike McDowell, and Barbara Strange.
- Laws and government: Hammurabi's Code
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 4.2
- In this lesson, students analyze the Code of Hammurabi and make inferences about Babylonian society based on the code. The lesson plan concludes with a discussion of contemporary careers that involve knowledge of laws.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Social Studies)
- By Mary B. Taylor.
- Learning about the earth through remote sensing
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 5.6
- In this lesson, students will learn about remote sensing and satellite images, and will gain an understanding of how various professions use information gathered via these methods.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 7–8 Science and Social Studies)
- By Tammy Johnson and Martha Tedrow.
- Let's take a trip: Careers in tourism
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 4.10
- In this lesson for grade six, students will create advertisements for travel destinations in Europe and South America and will research careers in travel and tourism.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Guidance and Social Studies)
- By Shea Calloway.
- Linear equations
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 2.2
- In this lesson for grade seven, students calculate monthly bills for cell phone plans using linear equations.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Mathematics)
- By Peggy Dickey and Barbara Turner.Adapted by Sharon Abell.
- Maintaining safe water: Whose job is it?
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 5.3
- In this lesson plan, students learn about careers that are involved in maintaining water quality.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Science)
- By Tammy Johnson and Martha Tedrow.
- Map skills and transportation careers
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 4.1
- In this lesson for grades six and seven, students will create maps to assist their understanding of relative and exact location and will conduct research on transportation careers.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Social Studies)
- By Mandy Matlock.
- Marketing careers: Working with scale drawings
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 2.6
- This activity for grade six combines math, art, and writing, as students create a scale drawing of a toy car and reflect on how math can be used in marketing careers.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Mathematics)
- By Kim Abrams, Mike McDowell, and Barbara Strange.
- Medical careers: Working with probability
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 2.8
- In this lesson for grade six, students will use probability to predict the likelihood of occurrence of two unrelated health conditions and will understand how math can be applied to careers in mathematics.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Mathematics)
- By Kim Abrams, Mike McDowell, and Barbara Strange.
- Meteorologists: Working with data analysis
- In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 2.4
- This lesson for grade six introduces students to careers in meteorology and engages them in meteorological data analysis.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 6–7 Mathematics)
- By Kim Abrams, Mike McDowell, and Barbara Strange.Edited by Julie McCann.
