Summary
This 10th-grade campus visit activity will complement a student tour of a college campus to learn about postsecondary options. In this learning activity, students will strengthen their postsecondary readiness by sequencing postsecondary-preparation milestones across each year of high school. Students will gain awareness of when and why important tasks should be completed, helping them create a clear roadmap for achieving their postsecondary goals.
Essential Question
What steps do you need to take, and when should you take them, to reach your postsecondary goals?
Objectives
Identify important steps and deadlines for preparing for postsecondary pathways (college, career training, or military service).
Organize PSE preparation steps in the order they should be completed.
Snapshot
Introduction
Students sequence essential postsecondary preparation tasks through a Card Sort activity.
Knowledge Building
Students form a human timeline, representing the order of tasks from earlier in the lesson, and discuss why certain steps should be taken in specific years of high school.
Wrap-Up
Students review a comprehensive, chronological checklist of tasks to complete before high school graduation and reflect on what they have already accomplished and what to do next.
Materials List
Activity Slides (attached)
Milestone Cards (attached; one set per group; print one-sided)
Timeline Mat (attached; one per group; print one-sided on 11”x17” paper)
Milestone Markers signs (attached; one set; print one-sided)
Postsecondary Prep Checklist handout (attached; one per student; print two-sided)
Writing utensils
Preparation
Before you begin, print the attached Milestone Cards (one set per group of 3–4 students). Consider printing on cardstock paper, especially if you plan to reuse these cards. Cut out the cards; all of these cards are the same size for easy cutting.
Each group will also need a copy of the attached Timeline Mat (printed on 11”x17” paper) to use as a space to organize their cards.
During the Knowledge Building portion of this learning experience, students will use the attached Milestone Markers signs to create a human timeline. During this activity, have at least one student per group remain in the audience. This is a 32-page document, where each page has text representing one card from the Milestone Cards. Consider printing only the first 20 pages for a typical class size, or print more pages for larger groups.
Introduction
15 Minute(s)
Introduce the activity using the attached Activity Slides. Display slide 3, titled “Housekeeping: Norms,” and review the list of expectations for the visit with students:
Behave like a guest—represent your school well.
Keep cell phones on silent.
Leave the campus as clean as it was when you arrived.
Follow all instructions.
Stay with your group.
Stay engaged in all activities.
Ask questions that are on topic.
Share the essential question on slide 4 and then the learning objectives on slide 5.
Have students get into groups of 3–4 or assign groups. Display slide 6 and introduce the Card Sort strategy. Give each group a copy of the attached Timeline Mat and a set of the attached Milestone Cards. Ask students to think about all the things they need to do before graduation to prepare for their postsecondary pathway. Explain to students that during this activity, they are going to map out what they believe to be the most effective plan.
Show slide 7 and explain to students that printed on each card is an important task that needs to be completed in preparation for postsecondary pathways such as community college, university, career tech, or military. Ask students to sort the cards in the order they think they should complete those tasks by placing the cards in either the 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade columns on their Timeline Mat.
As students work, walk around the room to guide discussions and answer clarifying questions.
Knowledge Building
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 8 and tell students they are going to create a visual map of postsecondary preparation milestones. Ask for volunteers to each hold a page from the attached Milestone Markers handout. These are essentially extra-large versions of the cards from the earlier activity. Tell these volunteers that they need to use what they learned from the earlier Card Sort activity, maybe even asking their group for help, to create a human timeline. After giving each volunteer a Milestone Marker to hold, transition to slide 9. Use this slide as guidance as students move around.
Once students are at least grouped per grade level, show slide 10 and direct everyone’s attention to those representing the tasks to be completed during 9th grade. Ask those in the audience if there is a task card they have on their Timeline Mat in the 9th grade column that does not match the human timeline. Facilitate this discussion as needed; have those in the human timeline move as needed. Use the attached Postsecondary Prep Checklist handout as reference during this activity.
Once the whole group agrees with the tasks in the 9th grade group, display slide 11. Then ask if they think the order of the 9th-grade tasks matters. For example, does it matter if one builds good study habits before or after they visit a college campus?
Repeat this for 10th-grade tasks using slides 12–13, 11th-grade tasks using slides 14–15, and 12th-grade tasks using slides 16–17.
Then, use the guiding questions below to facilitate discussion:
Does the order within that grade level matter for completing tasks? Or does it just need to be completed within that grade level?
What if I didn’t complete a task that I should have during 9th grade?
Which tasks should you start early, even if you don't have to finish them until later?
Looking at this timeline, what grade level seems the busiest? Why?
Which milestone feels like the biggest hurdle for you?
Show slide 18 and thank the volunteers of the human timeline and encourage them to return to their seats. Have groups look at their cards on their Timeline Mat. Ask them to think about what cards they should move, if any. Then facilitate a discussion, as needed, to address students’ questions. If it has not already been discussed, use this time to focus on reoccurring tasks, like talking to their high school counselor.
Wrap-Up
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 19 and give each student a copy of the attached Postsecondary Prep Checklist handout. Direct students to take a few minutes to read through the checklist and mark the tasks they have already completed.
Show slide 20 and introduce the Mirror, Microscope, Binoculars strategy. Have students use the back of their handout to write their responses to the prompts on the slide:
Mirror: What have I learned about myself today?
Microscope: What deserves my attention right now?
Binoculars: Looking ahead, what do I need to prepare for next?
As time allows, ask for volunteers to share their responses with the whole group.
Show slide 21 and ask the group, “Is this a school that has a degree plan that aligns with your postsecondary goals?” Ask for students to keep this question in mind as they go on their campus tour.
Research Rationale
Adults typically spend a significant portion of their time, sometimes as much as a third of their lives, at work, so having meaningful work is crucial to their overall well-being at work and at home. Decent work means not only making money but having good hours, job security, safety, a short commute, fair pay, and benefits such as paid time off and healthcare. These things can add up to a sense of well-being about what you do and who you are (Solberg et al., 2021). Research shows a critical connection between experiences in education and the path to decent work (Duffy et al., 2022). In fact, “as the level of education increases, the probability of attaining decent work also increases” (Masdonati et al., 2022).
Postsecondary education can be a life-altering experience for students. College graduates tend to have more job satisfaction, jobs that offer a greater sense of accomplishment, more independence and opportunities for creativity, and more social interactions in their jobs than non-college graduates (Wolniak & Engberg, 2019). College graduation also increases the chances of employment. Over the last 20 years, the unemployment rate for college graduates has been approximately half of that of high school graduates (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). College helps students develop skills that prepare them for careers in the tech-driven economy, including non-routine, abstract skills that aid in problem-solving, multitasking, and creativity (Oreopoulos & Petronijevic, 2013).
The campus visit activity will help students and administrators set expectations for students to meet Oklahoma’s Academic Standards of being college, career, and citizenship-ready (Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2025), as well as The K20 Center's College and Career Preparation Standards for ninth grade (K20 Center, 2025, standard 10.1).
Resources
Alzam. (2025, March 6). Diploma. [Illustration]. Noun Project. https://thenounproject.com/icon/diploma-7708301/
Alzam. (2025, March 6). Notebook. [Illustration]. Noun Project. https://thenounproject.com/icon/notebook-7708314/
Alzam. (2025, March 6). Test. [Illustration]. Noun Project. https://thenounproject.com/icon/test-7708310/
Alzam. (2025, March 6). University. [Illustration]. Noun Project. https://thenounproject.com/icon/university-7708312/
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2022, March 9). High school graduates with no college had unemployment rate of 4.5 percent in February 2022. The Economics Daily. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/high-school-graduates-with-no-college-had-unemployment-rate-of-4-5-percent-in-february-2022.htm
Duffy, R. D., Kim, H. J., Perez, G., Prieto, C. G., Torgal, C., & Kenny, M. E. (2022). Decent education as a precursor to decent work: An overview and construct conceptualization. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2022.103771
K20 Center. (n.d.) Card sort. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/147
K20 Center. (n.d.) Mirror, microscope, binoculars. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/3020
K20 Center. (2025). Student college and career preparation standards 6–12. https://k20center.ou.edu/collegeandcareerpreparation
Masdonati, J., Massoudi, K., Blustein, D. L., & Duffy, R. D. (2022). Moving toward decent work: Application of the psychology of working theory to the school-to-work transition. Journal of Career Development, 49(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845321991681
Oklahoma State Department of Education. (2025). Oklahoma Academic Standards. https://oklahoma.gov/education/services/standards-learning/oklahoma-academic-standards.html
Oreopoulos, P. & Petronijevic, U. (2013). Making college worth it: A review of the returns to higher education. The Future of Children, 23(1), 41–65. https://doi.org/10.3386/w19053
Solberg, V. S. H., Park, C. M., & Marsay, G. (2021). Designing quality programs that promote hope, purpose and future readiness among high need, high risk youth: Recommendations for shifting perspective and practice. Journal of Career Assessment, 29(2), 183–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072720938646
Wolniak, G. C. & Engberg, M. E. (2019). Do “high-impact” college experiences affect early career outcomes? The Review of Higher Education, 42(3), 825-858. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2019.0021
