Empower Career Exploration in Your Classroom
Engaging, ready-to-use teaching tools and guides—developed with educators to inspire future-ready students.
8th Grade | Middle School
These 21 career exploration activities are designed for 8th grade students to begin answering an important question: “What possibilities might exist for me?” Rather than choosing a career, students explore, experience, and reflect — discovering Michigan's 17 Career Clusters, connecting school subjects to the world of work, identifying their interests, strengths, skills, and values, investigating post-secondary pathways, and building a flexible plan for high school and beyond. Throughout the curriculum, students use Jebbee tools like Career Match, Ask Jebbee AI, Skill Tracker, and School Match to turn classroom activities into personalized exploration.
1 | Brand You: Creating Your Jebbee Profile
Students will create a personal Jebbee profile that highlights their interests, strengths, activities, and goals. Students will understand how their experiences, skills, and interests help tell their personal story.
2 | Career Cluster Escape Room
Students will: Identify the 17 Michigan Career Clusters. Recognize that multiple careers can exist within one career cluster. Identify career clusters that interest them.
3 | Explore the World of Work
Students will: Analyze real-world tasks and determine which career clusters are involved. Recognize that one workplace or problem can involve multiple career clusters. Discover unfamiliar careers connected to everyday products and services.
4 | If School Subjects Were Careers
Students will: Identify connections between academic subjects and careers. Recognize that most careers require multiple academic and transferable skills. Explore careers connected to their favorite subjects.
5 | The Mystery Career Challenge
Students will: Analyze career descriptions and clues. Identify skills and characteristics associated with careers. Research unfamiliar careers.
6 | A Day In the Life
Students will: Explore daily responsibilities associated with different careers. Identify workplace environments and activities. Evaluate whether aspects of a career appeal to them.
7 | Career Myth Busters
Students will: Evaluate common assumptions about careers. Distinguish career facts from stereotypes. Use technology to investigate career information.
8 | What's Your Work Superpower
Students will: Identify personal strengths. Connect strengths to workplace skills. Begin developing self-awareness related to career exploration.
9 | The Career Values Auction
Students will: Identify personal work values. Prioritize factors that influence career satisfaction. Connect personal values to potential careers.
10 | Build Your Dream Life
Students will: Examine the relationship between career, income, and lifestyle. Identify personal lifestyle priorities. Understand that different careers can support different lifestyles.
11 | Skills You Already Have
Students will: Identify transferable skills developed through everyday activities. Translate hobbies and experiences into workplace skills. Add skills to their Jebbee profile.
12 | Career Makeover Plan
Students will: Examine careers from multiple perspectives. Identify skills, responsibilities, and workplace environments. Discover related careers.
13 | From Classroom to Career
Students will: Identify career skills developed through academic classes. Connect classroom assignments to real-world applications. Explore careers requiring academic skills.
14 | Would You Rather?
Students will: Identify personal work preferences. Recognize how preferences relate to career environments. Explore careers aligned with different preferences.
15 | Try It Out
Students will: Experience short tasks modeled after real workplace responsibilities. Identify transferable skills used during career tasks. Reflect on which types of work they enjoy.
16 | Post Secondary Scavenger Hunt
Students will: Identify different postsecondary pathways. Recognize that there are multiple routes to career preparation. Explore educational options connected to careers.
17 | Create Your Future Self
Students will: Identify interests, strengths, values, and skills. Create a possible future-self profile. Begin connecting self-awareness to career exploration.
18 | Try it, Don't Choose it
Students will: Experience a career-related task. Identify skills used in a career. Reflect on whether the career interests them.
19 | Career Influencer Challenge
Students will: Learn about careers through personal connections. Identify career pathways and skills. Recognize the role families and communities can play in career exploration.
20 | My Future Has Options
Students will: Identify multiple possible career pathways. Compare careers based on interests and skills. Understand that career planning is an evolving process.
21 | Letter to My Future Self
Students will: Reflect on career exploration completed throughout the unit. Identify current interests, skills, values, and possible career directions. Establish short-term goals for high school. Recognize that career plans can and should change over time.