Family career trees are useful for exploring the changes in careers over time, the changes in education required for careers over time, how career choices are determined by current trends and events, and to help students explore their own career interests.
During class, discuss various types of career choices. Have the class work together to brainstorm career categories for jobs the students list. As a group, have the class discuss how individuals determine their future career paths. Have students tell what careers they are interested in pursuing in the future.
Give students about a week to interview their parents and grandparents about their careers and the educational requirements for those careers. The student and his siblings can list their desired careers. The students should also ask their parents and grandparents about the careers of their great-grandparents if known. Adopted or foster students can use information from the individuals in their adoptive or foster families.
Students should use a career family tree template to list the jobs of each of their family members. Each student should use this information to create a poster-size version of the family career tree. Accompanying this tree, the student should include a simple description of the tasks involved in each job and the education or training required for each.
Each student should complete the project by displaying his family career tree and explaining his findings to the class. The presentation should last about 10 minutes. The student may wish to include pictures or video of his family members in the presentation.
After students have presented their findings, the teacher should lead them in a discussion about how careers have changed over time. The teacher can use specific examples from the students' career trees to illustrate how modern careers require more education or how modern people tend to change careers more frequently. Students should use this activity as a starting point for exploring their own career options.