ACTIVE EXPLORATION

Signature Projects are characterized by active exploration. In the classroom, students engage in academically rigorous and challenging activities. In the community, students perform service to benefit the community and apply their learning to solve authentic/meaningful problems. Career-related aspects of the projects support active career exploration and help students to make adult connections.

Signature Projects are academically rigorous applied learning projects that are a hallmark of School to Career practice in Boston. Signature Projects are characterized by six A's:
   Authenticity
   Academic Rigor
   Applied Learning
Active Exploration
   Adult Connections
   Assessment

Examples of Career Activities

Web Site Project
O'Bryant

• Sub-contracted web design work for a design firm (asks to be anonymous) which focuses on the "communities of color" in New England.
• Business plan competition and presentation: this is first a local competition, then a citywide competition, and finally a national competition.

School to Career Pathway Video Project
Brighton

• Identify, plan and discuss parameters of the Brighton High School to Career Pathway Video Project with Mass Interaction, project sponsors
• Students audition/interview for roles
• Attend presentations by industry experts
• Participate in studio protocol orientation
• Shadow professional technicians
• Share work assignments with professionals
• Receive expert feedback and troubleshooting ideas

Westie Water Wars Project
West Roxbury

• Invite water specialist to help identify, plan and discuss parameters of the issues. Students learn from professionals and gather scientific and career information first hand.
• Students connect to National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences, Creating Critical Viewers project, BNN, WHDH and WCVB.
• Build a PowerPoint production for the school with the assistance of college students and technology teacher.
• Set up a career bureau with guest speakers from TV and Science to talk to students about their work, education and background. overall in an informal Q & A session in the TV studio.
• Share work with professionals for expert feedback and troubleshooting ideas; Edit and proofread segments of production.
• Students invite water specialists to examine their work and critique it from a professional perspective.
• Students invite TV professionals to screen video and critique for career standards.

Business Plan (NFTE) Project
East Boston

• Students have ongoing adult connections throughout the project with business plan coaches
• Presentation on the business idea - with outline and visuals - to live audience that includes some people from outside the classroom and preferably the school
• Conduct an interview with business prople
• Engage an audience in the business idea, using public speaking skills (voice projection)

One in a Million Class Fund Project
Charlestown

• Guest speakers provide perspective on entrepreneurship and investing: students hear from investment bankers and individuals who started investment clubs with friends.
• Research analysts who worked for Salomon Brothers and now work for Bain & Co, a Charlestown High business partner lend support.
• Potential for guest speakers also exists through Private Industry Council.
• Students travel to NY to see the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange live.
• Students demonstrate their professionalism and their learning by handling real money invested by adults in the community.

ETA / City Build
Mary Baker Eddy Entryway Structural Design Project
Dorchester

• Students travel to the Mary Baker Eddy Library on internship and to make final presentation.
• Students analyze the general blueprint of the landscape of the Mary Baker Eddy Library.
• Students view video and slide clips of the site.
• Students tour the construction site and meet with project manager, engineer, and architect.

From pH to Parkland Project
Charlestown

• Use professional scientific protocol to complete field studies
• Visits with Ann Silva, Lynn Morgenstern, Ivey St. John, and an environmental lawyer introduce students to careers and avocations in community environmental activism
• Complete resume detailing skills gained during the project

Books and Bookings Project
East Boston

• Meet and consult with board members and mentors in the tourism industry to better understand the changing climate and times
• Interview and model tour guides at Salem, Boston, Cambridge, and Concord on busses, trolleys and ducks (Duck Tours)
• Q & A sessions in front of industry professionals

Children's Books - Read Them! Share Them! Write Them!
Boston High and West Roxbury

• Students volunteer to read aloud to young children at an after school program or learning festival
• Students read a loud at an elderly home to practice their reading skills and connect with their community
• Students email college students who are enrolled in an education program to investigate the career of teaching or related fields
• Students prepare a read aloud lesson for younger children and then implement that lesson at a learning festival
• Students create "refrigerator art" for elementary school children that gives tips to parents on how to make reading a priority in the home

Codman Square Lead Contamination Initiative
Dorchester

• Students learn the role of a journalist, publisher, or author with guest speakers from the Boston Globe and visiting authors
• Students connect success with a plan or goal and understand the importance of organization by interviewing different professionals at the school (teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, administrators)
• Students complete a task and understand that the task needs to be planned and time managed by completing an interview project with an adult in the school or community
• Students read aloud to young children with elementary school teachers in the audience
• Students are given feedback by those teachers

Narrowing the Digital Divide by Building Computers Project
J.E. Burke

• Shadow professionals at Computer Warehouse, Dorchester
• Invite guest speakers: Computer Warehouse, Dorchester
• Consultants from Deli Video Productions visit four time to plan and complete video
• Invite all partners to view and critique final products

TechAssist - Helping Schools Help Themselves
Madison Park

• Prepares students for careers in computer support by helping develop problem-solving skills. Example: Lab Tech Assistant.
• Provides more advanced skills needed in various aspects of computer industry's tech-support operations. Example: PC Technician
• Prepares students for positions in the computer networking industry. Example: Networking Administrator Assistant
• Prepares students to work in Technology related community service industries.
• Puts students into actual community service as future tech support providers for Boston Public Schools (TechBoston Consulting Group).
• Prepares them with skills they need to start their own networking/tech support businesses after graduation; Prepares them to take jobs in the computer industry during their senior year.