Education Technology


NCTE: Exploring My Career Paths

Activity Overview

Students will complete a career interest inventory on the Internet to find out how their likes and dislikes relate to different career choices; and then decide on a career that is right for them or a job they are interested in finding out more about.

Before the Activity

See the attached Activity PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.

Print the appropriate pages from the Activity for your class.

Install the NoteFolio™ App on the students' graphing calculators following the attached instructions.

The first step in preparing this activity is to find a quality career interest inventory on the Internet. It is extremely difficult to find a site that offers career interest inventories. There are a few sites that provide this information if you are willing to look. Another problem with many of the tests on the Internet is that they cost money. Some of the tests will allow you to answer the questions, but then they want you to pay them in order to view the results. It is important that the teacher take the entire test to verify that it is free before recommending it to the students.

During the Activity

  • Distribute the appropriate pages from the Activity to your class
  • Distribute the NoteFolio file(s) to your class using TI Connect™ and the appropriate TI Connectivity cable
  • Follow the procedures outlined in the Activity


  • Students will:
  • Investigate options for their future jobs or careers.
  • Complete a career interest inventory to help understand their own interests when it comes to jobs.
  • Understand the relevance of schoolwork to their future outside of school.
  • Research using the Internet.
  • Collaborate with peers.
  • Conduct an interview with a member of their community.
  • Gain good interviewing and note taking skills.
  • Create a Microsoft® PowerPoint presentation that summarizes the work that they have done.
  • Develop awareness of careers, life choices, and accomplishing life goals.
  • After the Activity

    About ten minutes before the end of class, the teacher should regroup the students as a class and give them the rest of the assignment: they will interview someone currently working in one of the professions that they have chosen. To make this selection, the students should review their complete Career Chart. From the professions listed there, they should select the occupation that most interested them, either because they found out a lot of surprising things about that job or because it came up on their career interest inventory and surprised them. Allow the class a few minutes of time to brainstorm about people or places that they could use in order to find a good interview participant in this field.