Summary
This lesson focuses on scaffolding the use of the Get a Life college and career simulation game in the classroom, specifically targeting career awareness in middle school students. Participants will play the game and experience classroom activities designed to process the gameplay and facilitate discussion about how salary, education level, and career/life satisfaction intersect.
Essential Question(s)
How does postsecondary education benefit you?
Snapshot
Engage
Students choose a career that interests them and complete a Preflection exercise to activate their prior knowledge about educational requirements and work-life balance.
Explore
Students play the Get a Life game and complete a 3-2-1 activity about the relationships between career, income, and education.
Explain
Students compare the observations they made in the 3-2-1 activity after playing the game to research about career satisfaction.
Extend
Students play the Get a Life game multiple times with specific challenge parameters.
Evaluate
Students return to the Preflection exercise and discuss what they have learned about the relationship between education, income, and careers.
Materials
Computers with Internet access
K20 Game Portal teacher account
Writing materials—pen, pencil, paper, etc.
6-sided dice (or another randomizer)
Character Sheet and Achievements handout (attached)
3-2-1 Activity handout (attached)
Career Lesson Cards (attached)
Career Cluster info sheets (attached)
Research Brief (attached)
Engage
Prior to the lesson, print a Character Sheet (attached) for each student. Print and cut out the attached Career Cards.
To begin the lesson, have students form groups of 2-3. You can either have students form groups based on the career cluster they are most interested in and give them the corresponding Career Card or have them for groups another way and deal out a random Career Card to each group.
Ask students to choose a career cluster and form a group for each one. Try to make sure all of the clusters are evenly distributed among your class. Once students have chosen a cluster, have each of them roll a die (or otherwise randomly assign a number from 1 to 6 to each student). The number each student rolls reflects their level of education and their resulting career based on the possible careers numbered 1–6 on each card.
Next, have the students fill in their Character Sheet with their ACT score (their roll), their career, and the college they expect the character to attend. They can then sketch their character in the space provided. Students should begin to recognize the mediating factor level of education has on their further education choices and subsequent career options.
Next, use a Preflection instructional strategy to have your students respond to the following "My Career" questions on the Character Sheet:
What kind of income do you think you are paid for the chosen career?
Do you think this is higher or lower than the average income?
What kind of education does this career require (no college, special training, 2-year degree, 4-year degree, more than 4 years)?
Do you think this career will give you lots of comfort (time with family/friends, good health, personal fulfillment)?
How will this career enable you to help society or your community?
Are there any other aspects of this career you know about or would like to learn more about?
Explore
Students will now play through Get a Life. Pass out Chromebooks or facilitate another means for students to use a computer with internet access. Encourage the students to explore the game and pay close attention to the relationships between education, income, debt, and career choice.
After students have had enough time to play the game at least twice, introduce the 3-2-1 strategy and distribute the 3-2-1 Activity handout (attached) for students to complete. Depending on the class size, follow up with either a whole-class or small group discussion of their observations relate to the 3-2-1 questions:
What 3 things did you learn or notice about the relationship between income, career, and education?
What are 2 questions you still have?
What is 1 thing you found interesting?
Explain
Form groups of 2–5 students based on which career clusters most interest them. These do not have to be the same clusters they chose previously. Hand each group the appropriate Career Cluster Info Sheet (attached) based on their chosen career.
Distribute the attached Research Brief. Have students read the brief individually and take notes using a Why-Lighting strategy, then read their Career Cluster Info Sheet. Each student should highlight at least three ideas in the research brief that are the most interesting to them and note in the margins why they highlighted that idea. Ask students to also highlight at least one career on the Career Cluster Info Sheet they would like to learn more about and note in the margins why they think that job would be satisfying.
After finishing the reading strategy, ask groups to discuss what they have highlighted and why. Then, lead a whole-class discussion about what makes a job meaningful.
Extend
Students will now get the chance to play Get a Life again with specific challenges to guide them. These challenges are located on the back of the Character Sheet. As they play, students should keep notes on the changes between each play-through of the game.
Each time the student completes a game and gets their character to retirement, they'll see feedback on their comfort level, civic performance, and savings achievement. On their Achievement Sheet, have students record the results of each measure, as well as how much money their character can spend in retirement.
Evaluate
After playing through the game with challenges, have students participate in a survey to measure what they have learned about the relationship between postsecondary education and career options.
Below are some suggested survey statements and questions that will help students process information and resolve misconceptions. Discuss the responses and how students formed their ideas after each poll:
Agree/Disagree: The higher the education, the higher the pay.
Agree/Disagree: College is too expensive for me. (Discuss how the increased future salary that accompanies many college degrees can offset the education costs, depending on the chosen career path.)
Agree/Disagree: I learned about new jobs that I didn’t know existed before this activity?.
Agree/Disagree: I was right about the level of education needed on my Character Sheet?.
Agree/Disagree: My thoughts on post-secondary opportunities have changed?.
Agree/Disagree: There are jobs I'd consider now that I didn’t know about before this activity.
Have students reference their Character Sheet from the Engage activity and their Research Brief from the Explain. Ask them to use these materials to identify some goals or actions for the next few years of school that will help them improve their chances of reaching a career and a lifestyle that blends comfort, balance, and purpose.
Resources
Carnevale, A. P., Rose, S.J., & Cheah, B. (n.d.) The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. https://1gyhoq479ufd3yna29x7ubjn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/collegepayoff-completed.pdf
Data USA. (2019). Oklahoma Profile. https://datausa.io/profile/geo/oklahoma
K20 Center. (n.d.). 3-2-1. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5059a7b
K20 Center. (n.d.). Flip. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/1075
K20 Center. (n.d.). Four Corners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5064550
K20 Center. (n.d.). Game request. Retrieved from https://k20center.ou.edu/contact/getgames/
K20 Center. (n.d.). Jigsaw. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f507c1b8
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mentimeter. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/645
K20 Center. (n.d.). Preflections. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/fc74060730ea745c8c4f356aa203f86a
K20 Center. (n.d.). Why-Lighting. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f505e7d5
Meme generator. (n.d.). Meme Generator. https://imgflip.com/memegenerator
Payscale. (n.d.). Most and Least Meaningful Jobs: Full list of jobs. https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/most-and-least-meaningful-jobs/full-list
Robst, J. (2007) Education and job match: The relatedness of college major and work. Economics of Education Review, 26(4), 397-407. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2006.08.003
United States Census Bureau. (2018). American Community Survey (ACS). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/news/data-releases.html
