A Division of Biochange, Unlimited
Teacher's Page CA Standards
This project is designed to be done as a long term project over a five to six week period for a high schhol class.
The time can be shortened by limiting the detail required for inclusion in the reports. The introductory pages can also be used individually as career awareness information.
Project Set-up
The major project is begun by dividing the class into groups of 4 or 5 students each. Five students is optimal, but if a group has 4 students, two of the job categories can be covered by a single student.
An introduction to the departments of a company is a good idea, and an overview as to how different parts of a campany are often competeing with each other for funding.
The teacher can start out with a bit of role play the part of Dr, Bluegenes, the company president. This often helps the students set the tone for the project. The students should be given access to the computersso they can explore the job possibilities for themselves.
Periodic deadlines
Throughout the time period of the project. the students should have regular deadlines for work relate to the project. This helps teach them how to schedule their workload and with study skills.
Below is an example of a schedule
for a six week project.
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Grading
The students should know how they are being graded and the teacher must emphasize that although this is a group project, each individual has specific individual responsibilities, deadlines and tasks. See the grading rubric.
Career Investigations
Students often have an interest in one of the jobs on each team but know little about the specific job or career field. There are career interest games and general information on careers on the overview page. Access Excellence has a good link on how to guide students in career investigations. Click here or here
Oral Presentations
Students need to practice public speaking and oral presentations skills. They also benefit from the experience of organizing and presenting their own work to their peers.
In business, individuals and groups often present their finding to others in the company. For this project, oral presentations allow the students to measure their product development, their creativity, and their presentation skills against their peers.
According to the introduction of the project, the groups are competeing for funding. If the teacher has monopoly money, the students can actually receive a share of the funding.
The presentations are limited to 15 minutes and every student must present their work (about 2 minutes per student, plus an introduction and conclusion by the group). A very liud timer goes off at 15minutes and the students must stop at that point, finished or not. It is best to model a two minute talk to the class several times before the students do their presentations and the fact that they will be stopped at the 15 minute mark must be emphasized.
Students often feel a great deal of pressure and stress from this type of oral presentations but they also feel a great deal of pride when they successfully complete it. Asking a group a day to stay after school 20 minutes to practice the week before the presentations is very helpful to the students. It helps them see what they need to shorten, how to use visual aids, and allows the teacher to provide direct help in a safe atmosphere.
During the presentations, students are given grading rubrics. They grade only the presentation, not the content. This helps keep the students quiet and on task. The teacher grades both the presentation and the content.
If you have questions or suggestions
about this project, please contact Judi Heitz at lavendr@cts.com. I'd greatly
appreciate your input!
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Copyright 1999 , Judi Heitz, San DIego, CA Lavendr@cts.com
All Rights Reserved. Contact lavendr@cts.com for educational usage.