Mapping My Volunteer and Work Experience

Summary

• Students will learn how to find a volunteer or work experience in the city, town, or community where they live.
• Students will make a detailed plan to identify the steps they need to take to apply for a volunteer or work experience.
• Students will make a detailed plan to identify how a volunteer or work experience aligns with their interests, skills and lifestyles.

Setting the Stage

Through this self-paced lesson, students will be given the tools to find a volunteer or work experience that best fits their interests, skills and lifestyles. In addition to determining how a volunteer or work experience fits with their lives, students will also learn how to determine if a volunteer or work experience logistically fits with their lifestyles. As students navigate through volunteer and work experience opportunities in the city, town, or community in which they live, they will develop the valuable skills of decision-making, purposeful planning, and knowledge of what makes a work experience a good fit for them.

Materials & Preparation

• Computer with internet access for students working individually.
• Download the Mapping My Volunteer and Work Experience Reproducible [Google doc] [Word doc] [PDF], 1 per student.
• Download the Mapping My Volunteer and Work Experience Exit Slip Reproducible [Google doc] [Word doc] [PDF]

What To Do

• Teachers could begin this lesson by sharing with students where they volunteered and worked while they were in upper elementary school or junior high and high school. While sharing, teachers could include details about what they liked and disliked about each experience. They could also share the skills that they learned from each position. Teachers could also share how they had to plan for each experience in terms of transportation, time management between homework and extracurriculars, and the application process. Teachers could also outline the benefits of unpaid/volunteer work in terms of building a work history for a resume, making contacts in the community, developing skills, and obtaining work-related references.
• Teachers could introduce the activity by explaining how valuable they would have found this process when they were a student. Teachers could explain how it is important to consider both the logistic and personal interest components to a volunteer and work experience. For example, if you take a volunteer role that you really don’t enjoy, you will probably not do your best work and, as a result, not get a good reference from your supervisor. 
• Teachers could provide each student with a copy of the Mapping My Volunteer and Work Experience Reproducible. Teachers could then give students time to research and complete the tables at their own pace. As students are working, teachers could circulate and provide students with individual support as questions come up.
• Once students complete their own Mapping My Volunteer and Work Experience Reproducible, they could share the results of their search either in a small group or as part of a whole class sharing session.
• To conclude this lesson, teachers could ask students to complete an Exit Slip learning strategy in which they reflect on the appeal of each work/volunteer scenario and their position on accepting preferred versus available work/volunteer options. The Exit Slip reproducible for this lesson is available in the downloads below.

Let’s Talk Science appreciates the work and contributions of Nadia Hagman from Pembina Trails School Division in the development of this lesson.