Reach for the Stars: A Health Careers Constellation Topic: Health/Medical Careers

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Teacher Background Information

Student Instructions

Student Task Cards

Keywords

health career, job, constellation

Search Curricular Keywords

Special Instructions

Please note that there is a form that needs to be filled out when the H.O.T. Jobs materials are used. You may access this form by clicking here. Thank you for taking time to do this, the form helps the South Central Area Health Education Center keep track of materials usage and is critical to obtaining funding to keep these materials available. Individual information is not reported, only general information regarding numbers of people using H.O.T. Jobs materials will be reported.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• select relevant information about health-related careers
• use information from text to create a presentation of health-related careers
• present information using good presentation skills
• create symbolic representation of the critical attributes of a health-related career

Activity Description

Students will work in groups of two to four in order to explore Texas health-related jobs. They will use information available from the Health Opportunities in Texas (H.O.T. Jobs) website which houses materials written in cooperation between the office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA), the three Texas Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program offices, Texas Education Agency (TEA), and the program office of the Health Education Training Centers Alliance of Texas (HETCAT). These materials are well-written and appealing for secondary level students and provide a complete look at the opportunities for a health-related career in Texas. Students will decide upon group roles as outlined on the activity task card included in the activity. They will select a Health Career scroll from a basket prepared in advance by the
teacher (instructions to follow) and work together to learn about the career, design a constellation that would represent the career and finally present the results of their work to the class.

Activity Materials

• Select careers from the H.O.T. Jobs web site, printed, rolled and tied with ribbon to form Health Career Scrolls
• Basket or other container to hold the scrolls
• 20 cut-out stars or star stickers per group (A cut-out star pattern is included on the student pages so students can trace them onto colored paper and cut them out)
• One large piece of butcher paper per group (exact size does not matter)
• 1 glue stick per group
• Five colored markers per group
• Task card with group roles described
• Optional: Computer lab for technology link
• Optional – computer station for showing video clips of jobs.
  These clips are available at the following websites:
  http://www.southcentraltxahec.org/html/videolibrary.htm http://realsrv.uthscsa.edu:8080/ramgen/AHR/alliedvideo.rm

Activity Management Suggestions

Students can work in smaller groups by making sure that each task card is given to one student in the group, thus some students will have more than one task card. Monitor the groups carefully to make sure students are on task and are using good group skills. They should be interacting with each other, with no wasted time, to complete the assigned task. Carefully monitor the constellations being created by the groups to make sure the adequately represent the career being researched.

The web resources listed at the end of this teacher page are very well done and are very complete. Students can use video clips from the video library as part of their presentation if you have a computer presentation station set up in advance. By including these clips, students will have a chance to hear professionals discuss their jobs. If a computer lab is available, students can do their basic research from the scrolls and then extend their research using information from the H.O.T. Jobs website or other sites approved in advance by you.

References & Resources

H.O.T. Jobs Website - The office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA), the three Texas Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program offices, Texas Education Agency (TEA), and the program office of the Health Education Training Centers Alliance of Texas (HETCAT) directory of health careers, which can be accessed at the following website: http://www.texashotjobs.org/

South Central Texas AHEC video library of Texas health-related careers:
http://www.southcentraltxahec.org/html/videolibrary.htm

Allied Health Careers (RealPlayer Video)

BioWorksU http://bioworksu.com/

Funding

M.O.R.E. Curriculum Program Funding 2003-2008:
National Institutes of Health
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Minority K-12 Initiative for Teachers and Students
Grant # R25 HL75777

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