DESCRIPTION
Exploring Technology
Intended Audience
6th Grade students (no prerequisite)
Course Overview
In Exploring Technology students develop an understanding
of the progression and scope of technology through exploratory
experiences. In group and individual activities, students
experience ways in which technological knowledge and processes
contribute to effective designs, abilities, and skills contribute
to effective design and solutions to technological problems.
Students participate in design activities to understand how
criteria, constraints, and processes affect designs. Brainstorming,
visualizing, modeling, constructing, testing, and refin¬ing
designs provide firsthand opportunities for students to understand
the uses and impacts of innovations. Students develop skills
in communicating design information and reporting results.
This course is a cornerstone for a middle school technology
education program.
Course Length
18 Weeks
Connections
Exploring Technology builds on K-5 experiences and develops
a student’s understanding of the scope of technology
and the iterative nature of technological design and problem
solving processes. Likewise, students will be able to communicate
their ideas verbally and visually and document the development
of their plans through visual representation, journals, and
portfolios. Teaming, peer mentoring, and individual actions
contribute to student achievements at this level. Similarly,
Exploring Technology provides the foundation for future studies
in the sequence. Students learn how technology, innovation,
design, and engineering interrelate and are interdependent.
This background provides the basis for more focused high school
studies.
