Since Natural Inquirer’s founding in 1998, we’ve worked with hundreds of scientists, educators, administrators, engineers, firefighters, and so many more. We love the variety of people and fields represented in our materials, where kids can see so many possibilities for themselves. Now we’ve compiled all this material in one place so you can see the depth and breadth of career options, too. Introducing our new Career Exploration page!
Want to know more about Ellie Fitzpatrick (from our cover photo) and her work as a wilderness ranger? Check out her collector card!
What might, at first glance, be just a laundry list of job titles is actually so much more. Expand the filter options on the sidebar and discover two ways to sort through careers: by field (e.g. ecology, biology, fire science, etc.) and by topic of interest (e.g. building, insects, or space). Mix and match filters to find all kinds of different careers, maybe even some you’ve never considered.
Once you find a career that interests you, click “learn more” to expand a list of more options. Read the career definition, look at profiles of people in that profession, browse through relevant collector cards, and read through our list of related articles, videos, and more.
Interested in aquatic ecology? Read individual profiles of aquatic ecologists or browse the collector cards. Learn about how an aquatic ecologist can research all kinds of plants, animals, and ecosystems. Read articles featuring research from aquatic ecologists or watch videos where aquatic ecologists talk about their research.
Students from middle school to high school to college can use the career exploration page to discover what’s out there for someone with their interests. As we add more articles and publications, we’ll keep adding new careers to our list!
Ways to Use the Career Exploration Page
- Have students browse on their own and find their favorite career matches.
- Have students research specific careers and present their findings to the class in the form of an advertisement, recruitment poster, or video.
- Give students a hypothetical scenario and have them choose what jobs might be necessary. For example, they’re building new hiking trails on a nearby national forest – what jobs might that task require?
- Have students research the educational and skills requirements of a particular job. They can use people’s profiles or collector cards to report on the different paths people took to get into that career.
- Use these lesson plans, designed for the collector cards, for more ideas!
