Their final products are presented on TV through Berkeley Community Media or submitted to local radio and television stations. The skills learned serve the budding neurologist just as much as the aspiring design engineer by integrating baseline technological expertise into a project that allows students to act on their concerns and to address a concerned audience. During the fall semester these students are required to define a career area for exploration, and to research that field in their economics class. The computer classes teach PowerPoint, which includes making side shows with transitions in self-running mode and provide time in class for students to work on their final projects. People working in a variety of fields come to school and meet with students in small groups to discuss the types of technical, analytical thinking, writing and oral skills required for those career fields.
Students then work in small groups to produce public service announcements for their final project.
A second career day brings in an Early Outreach officer from UC Berkeley to discuss the variety of post-secondary pathways open to these students, and the requirements for accessing each. Relationship of curriculum to state standards California State Standards in Government require that students be able to describe the role, functions and powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government and their interrelationships, as well as understanding the political, civic, and social responsibilities of citizenship. This project looks at California State government, involving students in online research into current electoral issues and upcoming bills in legislative committees, with a particular emphasis on criminal justice and the Committees on Public Safety. In this project, students learn about the committee structure of the legislature, the process by which bills become laws, the role of the governor, the bicameral nature of the legislature, and its relationship to the judicial system. During this hands-on activity, they track the fate of a bill that particularly concerns them.