Career WebQuest
By Mark Carl and Michelle Scarber

Lanesville High School
2725 Crestview Avenue NE
Lanesville, IN 47136
812-952-2555

Introduction | Task | Process | Guidance | Resources
Evaluation | Conclusion | Notes to Teachers


Introduction

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This is one of the most widely asked questions that many of us hear as we are growing up.  Many of us remember the time when we wanted to be a firefighter, a police officer, a doctor, or an astronaut.  Often, our playtime would center around our career dreams of the moment, or we would watch our favorite television show and imagine ourselves in the actors' shoes.

Now we are older, and our career dreams may have changed.  We are looking at being launched into the workforce in a few years.  Each of us must now ask himself, "What do I want to be now that I am grown up?"
 

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Task

Many of us enter the workforce not clearly understanding what our chosen career will be like.  We have some notions because of what we have experienced, but our knowledge often falls short on a few details.  The goal of this webquest will be for you to develop a better understanding of your selected career - the good parts, the bad parts, and all those in-between.

Below is a brief overview of the activities that you will complete by the end of this webquest...
 
Tasks to Accomplish
Due Dates
(calendar)
Point Value
Select a career

1/12/10

 10
Complete career note page

1/19/10

 25
Complete career paper outline

1/22/10

 25
Interview questions and answers

1/26/10

 25
Complete thank you note to person interviewed

1/27/10
25
Complete business letter

1/29/10

50
Complete rough draft of career paper with works cited page

2/4/10

  75
Complete final draft of 2-3 page career paper

2/9/10

  200
Complete Powerpoint presentation to class on career

2/12/10

 100
Complete evaluation form

2/12/10

 20
Total Points
  

555

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Process

You will be provided time during class to complete a large portion of this assignment.  However, some tasks may need to be accomplished outside of class.  Use your time wisely.  Make sure that you familiarize yourself with the due dates for each portion of this project.  Also, there are several sub-tasks to complete, and each of these has a different point value.

Career Note Page

Use these pages to take notes in the various target areas while conducting your research.

Career Paper Outline

Complete the outline form using the notes taken during your research.  The outline form is a way to help organize your thoughts and place them into a logical order.  Once completed, you should be able to use your outline as a springboard to writing your paper.

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Career Paper Interview

Each student will design a set of questions to ask a person already engaged in the selected career (see suggestions on interview questions page).  Then, each student will conduct an interview with this person and record his/her responses.  Students should include this information in their final paper.

Each student will follow-up the interview with a thank you note.  See the thank you note page for the format of this letter.  Students will actually send a thank you note to the person they interviewed.

Career Paper

Write a 2-3 page informative paper about your selected career.  Use your outline to help you in the writing process.  The paper should cover the main areas targeted in your outline.  Be sure to check the paper rubric to understand how your paper will be graded.

Also, visit the checklist page to see the order in which your information should be turned in.

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PowerPoint Presentation/Speech

Each student will be required to complete a PowerPoint presentation on his/her career selection.  You may use the  PowerPoint template sheet to help plan the presentation.  Consult the PowerPoint evaluation sheet for specifics on the PowerPoint presentation.  Although you have had some experience using PowerPoint, this PowerPoint tutorial site may come in handy.

This part of the project will consist of two grades - the PowerPoint presentation itself and the speech given by each student on his/her career choice using the PowerPoint presentation as a visual aid for the speech (see the PowerPoint evaluation page).

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Guidance
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Resources

The following list of resources will be helpful in completing the assignment.  They are divided into different categories for convenience.

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Evaluation

Students will be evaluated throughout this assignment.  Various grades will be given for individual tasks.  Students' overall grades for this project will be a compilation of the points earned on each individual task.

Students may wish to examine the evaluation forms to understand how they will be graded.

                Career Paper
                PowerPoint Presentation and Speech

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Conclusion

We hope that this Career WebQuest has provided you with a better understanding of the career that you have chosen, as well as more knowledge about other careers.  We would like you to take a brief moment to provide us with some input into what you thought about the overall process.

Please complete the evaluation form and leave us your thoughts.  We would appreciate your utter honesty.  Anything you write will be used to help make this a better lesson for future students.  We thank you for your time and hard work throughout this activity.
 

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Last updated on November 20, 2009