Activities for Engagement

Icebreaker - Human Bingo! 

Provide students with a list of characteristics, and provide a set amount of time to search amongst their peers for the full suite. This website helps you create virtual and printable bingo cards. 

Easy to adapt for local areas and aspirations - EG: Find people who: 

• Have an interest in health 

• Know a doctor as a family member or friend 

• Know exactly what they they want to be in the future 

• Have no idea what they want to be when they leave school

Get moving - First Nations Games

This site has produced dozens of physical game cards for all ages. 

Each card gives background on where the inspiration comes from, with references to Country, the specific contributions of First Nations people and groups, and detailed instructions. 

Great as ice breakers, or as brain breaks. 

Pop quiz - ID that career

This website has a free downloadable kit you can use as is, or use as a base to create your own. 

This activity works well as a pop quiz at the end of a lesson, workshop, or whole program. It is easily adaptable for differing literacy levels, access needs, and individual or team work. 

Play mythbusters

This slide deck is very basic and ready to adapt to your own branding or context. 

Showing common myths about higher education and debunking them with students, rather than for them, is a fun and inclusive way to correct misconceptions. 

This is easy to turn into a competitive game, an individual activity, or a reflective activity. 

Skills quiz 

This skills quiz has been developed by the UK government, but can still be useful in Australian contexts. It takes about 5-10 minutes to complete, and can be completed by people using screen readers. 

You can skip the need for a mobile number/email input at the start. 

Use Free Little Ripples resources

Research tells us that children start making subconscious decisions about their future from as young as 7 years of age. It’s important to create the right little ripples through conversations and activities that positively contribute to children’s future aspirations and possible career paths. Little Ripples is a series of free government resources for young students.

Listen to a podcast about STEM careers!

Targeted to senior primary and high school students, Smologies gets a different STEM expert on to talk about their career each week. 

Great background listening while students complete other work or activities. 

Would you rather? 

This website has a great list of would you rather questions suitable for high school students. 

Watch and/or listen to a podcast!

Targeted to junior primary school students, Jamming on the Job explores different careers in a highly engaging, musical format. 

Engage students at expos

The team at CUC Maranoa had questions printed on the back of lanyards for their students to encourage conservations between students, facilitators, and local industry:

Questions included:

• What other jobs are there in this career?

• What type of money can I earn?

• What other jobs have you done?

• Why did you choose this as a career?

• What’s your favourite thing about your job?

• What type of study have you done?

Access TUC's Human Library

The Human Library is a growing collection of MidCoast people sharing their career journeys, challenges, and the values that guide them. 

Each story is unique - and each one shows that there’s no single path to success. Whether you’re a student figuring out your next step or someone guiding others on theirs, we hope these stories spark curiosity, courage and connection.

Read a unique career story

Be inspired by reading interesting real-life career stories of people who have transitioned from school to work. Discover the different pathways they took to their chosen careers. 

Collect an exit ticket

Exit tickets are a piece of work that a participant completes right before they leave - it often helps deliverers to assess if their activities hit the mark, to encourage reflection, and to evaluate particular outcomes. 

This link provides some appropriate for school students, but these can easily be adapted for adult audiences. 

Use a Kahoot! 

This iconic platform turns a classroom into a live quiz.

 Completely customisable, Kahoots can be used for indivdiual or team quizzes, for fun mythbuster games, or to check knowledge and understanding. 

Conduct a gallery walk

Gallery walks are a great way for work to be shared between peers. They work especialy well for sharing collaborative brainstorms or any kind of creative work, and encourage reflection and discussion. 

Share in a yarning circle

Yarning circles are a circle where sharing equally and constructively is encouraged, without the classic teacher-student power dynamic. 

Yarning circles can enhance students understanding of First Nations knowledge and ways of working; enrich the learning experiences for both students and teachers; provide a safe place to be heard and to respond to students; and build a connectedness within a community.