What will it take to establish technology/engineering education for all students? An interview with Cary Sneider of the National Center for Technological Literacy at the Museum of Science, Boston.(Interview)

Publication: The Technology Teacher

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COPYRIGHT 2008 International Technology Education Association

In 2001 Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to include the words "technology" and "engineering" in the title of its science standards for all students. What do these standards call for at different grade levels and what does it look like in the classroom?

The Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework includes standards to promote technological literacy at all grade levels. In the earliest grades, students are expected to distinguish natural materials from processed materials such as plastics, metals, and fabrics. They should gain facility working with simple tools such as scissors, and learn that different materials are better for different purposes. In upper elementary school, students are expected to use more substantial tools, such as hammers and screwdrivers. They also learn about simple machines, and they design and build solutions to practical problems using a simple version of the engineering design process.

At the middle school level students are expected to use the full engineering design process to solve more complex problems, and to build prototypes using a variety of hand tools and power tools. They're also exposed to key concepts related to various technologies, such as manufacturing, communications, construction, transportation, and biotechnology. All students in Massachusetts take a state science test at the eighth grade level in which 25% of the questions concern technology and engineering. Teachers must provide ways for their students to learn these subjects, or their students will do poorly.

At the high school level, the standards call for a laboratory course in technology and engineering that is equivalent in rigor to chemistry, biology, or physics. The content of this course revisits the engineering design process, as well as construction, communication, and manufacturing technologies at a higher level, and adds the topics of energy and power in thermal, fluid, and electrical systems. Massachusetts has an end-of-course exam policy, so that all students must pass at least one science exam to graduate from high school. The technology/engineering exam is offered alongside exams for biology, chemistry, and physics.

These standards...

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