Technology Education

  • STANDARDS:

    1. Unifying Themes
    2. Inquiry and Design
    3. Biological Sciences (part of science curriculum)
    4. Physical Sciences, Chemistry and Physics (part of science curriculum)
    5. Earth Sciences (part of science curriculum)
    6. Technology Education
    7. Technological Devices
    8. Science, Technology and Human Endeavors
    ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:

    Technology is a body of knowledge and the application of resources, using a systematic approach, to produce outcomes in response to human needs and wants.

    Technology includes, but is not limited to:

    1. The knowledge that describes former, current and emerging human actions.
    2. The actions of developing, producing, using and assessing.
    3. The appropriate use of resources (capital, energy, information, tools and machines, material, people, and time).
    4. The use of systematic methods of problem solving.
    5. The synthesis of products, structures, and systems.
    6. The incorporation of the universal systems model.
    7. The ability to meet human needs and wants in man-made or natural environments.
    CORE BELIEFS ABOUT INSTRUCTION:

    1. Effective instruction actively engages students in a learning process that promotes higher order thinking.
    2. Students learn best when objectives are clear, achievable and meaningful to their lives.
    3. Effective instruction must meet the needs and interests of students through a variety of differentiated strategies.
    4. Effective instruction is driven by continual assessment, teacher and student reflection and modification to improve student achievement.
    5. A consistently positive, safe and respectful learning environment is integral for effective instruction.
    6. Effective instruction builds shared accountability for learning.
    BEST PRACTICES IN INSTRUCTION:

    1. Students will enhance their basic skills of reading, writing, mathematics, listening and speaking.
    2. Teachers will develop students’ higher order thought processes through creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, and reasoning.
    3. Teachers will assist students in developing an understanding of the value of quality.
    4. Teachers will develop technological literacy in all students.
    5. Students will engage in developing products, structures, and systems with appropriate resources.
    6. Students will practice safe work habits with materials and devices.
    PHILOSOPHY:

    Technology Education is a formal discipline through which all students actively participate in the study of how former, current, emerging, and future technologies are developed, produced, used, and assessed in order to be technologically literate.

    1. A discipline is a body of knowledge that is determined and agreed upon by specialists in the identified field. It is dynamic, cumulative, theoretical, structural, and integrative (Devore, 1966).
    2. Developing, producing, using, and assessing are the actions that we engage in to meet human needs and wants (Wright & Israel, 1993).
    3. Technological literacy is the ability to use, manage, assess, and understand technology (ITEA, 2007).
    VISION:

    Our vision is to prepare all individuals to be technologically literate in order to comprehend and contribute to an ever-changing society.

    MISSION STATEMENT:

    Our mission is to provide an integrative, hands-on experience through which students will develop, produce, use, and assess technology while considering its impacts on the individual, society, and environment.