Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning

Get a Life

College and Career Awareness

Jacqueline Schlasner, Cody Garrison, William Thompson, Javier Elizondo, Emmett Mathews, Braden Roper, Diana Gedye | Published: November 9th, 2020 by K20 Center

Learning Objectives

College Fit 

  • College Fit: Interest 

    The student can explain how choice of major affects career opportunities. 

  • College Fit: Academic 

    The student can explain how GPA and test scores affect their ability to get accepted to competitive schools. 

  • College Fit: Financial 

    The student can recognize how the cost of education and student loan debt affect personal finances. They can recognize the financial value of a school versus its cost. 

  • College Fit: Social-Emotional 

    The student can explain how the social aspects of college, including emotional supports and distance from family, can affect achievement and their college experience. 

  • College Fit: Retention 

    The student can identify the types of supports they might need to complete college on time and recognize which schools offer those supports. 

Career Awareness 

  • Educational Requirements 

    The student can explain that different careers require different levels of education. 

  • Lifetime Earnings and Satisfaction 

    The student can explain how level of education and career choice can affect personal satisfaction and lifetime earnings. 

  • Social Good 

    The student can identify how certain careers can contribute to social good. 

  • Benefits of Higher Income 

    The student can explain the benefits of a higher income versus a more demanding career. 

About Get a Life

A student’s choices shape their character’s story in Get a Life, a narrative-driven, college- and career-awareness game.

Guide a character from high school graduation to retirement. Decide what interest they will pursue and if they will continue in school. Then, navigate opportunities and obstacles. Balance their comfort, civic involvement, and income to make sure they lead a comfortable, satisfying life.

Dynamic play ensures nearly limitless storylines and outcomes, much like life.

Get a Life is designed and written to teach secondary school students about college and career options and encourage them to have conversations about their futures. By playing Get a Life, students will:

  • connect the concepts of college, career, and income;

  • understand how salary impacts other aspects of life; and

  • consider their comfort and civic involvement when evaluating possible future careers and career clusters.

Students are introduced to a character who has just graduated from high school and is ready to begin adult life.

The character has an expressed interest, an ACT score, and a GPA. Using that information, the student must make choices on the character’s behalf.

Get a Life promotes interest exploration by encouraging students to investigate options outside their comfort zone. In Get a Life, students:

  • consider their character’s interests when making decisions, exploring options they may not have otherwise chosen for themselves;

  • navigate events that demonstrate how job satisfaction is influenced by factors other than income;

  • experience common challenges and setbacks in postsecondary education to gain perspective and discover the resources and support that schools offer to students; and

  • manage major- and career-specific decisions that offer insight into the type of work involved with the career field they chose for their character.

Media

Game Resources

In addition to full implementation support, the K20 Center provides the following documents to help instructors effectively integrate Get a Life into their classrooms:

Download All

Game Request

In order to gain access to the game portal and all K20 games free of charge, please click the button below and fill out the request form.

Get Games

Awards and Publications

2019 I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase and Challenge, Students’ Choice Award: Get a Life.

Game Support

In order to get support for a game, please click the button below and fill out the support form.

Request Support

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 License.