“Why do we have to learn this?” “When am I ever going to use this?” “Why is this important?”  Heard these words lately? It can be frustrating as educators to defend our educational strategies and lesson plans daily, but we must also realize that it can be frustrating for our students as well. Students become disengaged and disinterested when they can’t make the connection between their coursework and real life. Take this challenge as an opportunity to help your students connect content with their lives, by bringing relevance to your classroom with a student-led career fair.

 Regardless of the content area you teach, or the grade level, you can implement a student-led career fair to connect core content with career opportunities. The idea is simple – each student in your class selects a career connected to your content area and conducts research on the career. After research has been collected, select one day for a student career fair. Students each set up a “booth” on a desk top with information about their career. Students should display pictures and information such as career description, education level/training required, salary levels, and employing companies. Encourage students to get into character by creating business cards and dressing the part!

 How do you keep all of your students engaged during the career fair? In addition to receiving credit for displaying their career booth and information, give students credit for visiting at least five career booths. Rotate students so that a majority are manning their booths while a handful are visiting booths until all students have had an opportunity to tour the career fair.