Core Ideas Engineering and Technology

This article is very interesting because it talks about what the students should be learning in the different grade levels in the different core ideas of the framework. The article states th... See More

This article is very interesting because it talks about what the students should be learning in the different grade levels in the different core ideas of the framework. The article states the reasons why there is an increased emphasis on engineering and technology in the science curriculum that is taught to students today. However, the article says it is not necessary to offer special courses that are called "Technology" or "Engineering", but instead are just asked to include those practices in their instruction of the science standards. The article gave different examples of lessons where teachers could explain the relationship between science and engineering to give the students a better understanding of the topic. The article also mentions how the biggest challenge will be how to make the difficult choice of what can be left out of the curriculum so teachers can effectively teach the core ideas and help them understand why they are important and how to apply the ideas to real-world scenarios. Overall, I think this is a great article that is very informative and something that I would recommend for others to read.

This is a MUST read!

This article, the second in a series of articles being released by NSTA in their Journals, is an overview of Chapter 3 in A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Con... See More

This article, the second in a series of articles being released by NSTA in their Journals, is an overview of Chapter 3 in A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (NRC 2011). It briefly discusses questions that teachers are beginning to ask about, such as; 1) How does the Framework define science, engineering, and technology? 2) What are the core ideas of Chapter 8? 3) Why is there increased emphasis on engineering and technology? 4) Is it redundant to have engineering practices and core ideas? 5) Do we need to have special courses to teach these core ideas? 7) Will teacher’s need special training? And 8) What will it look like in the classroom? Further into the article, each question is answered from four grade level groups; 1) By the end of the second grade, the student …, 2) By the end of the fifth grade, the student …, 3) By the end of the eighth grade, the student …, and 4) By the time they graduate from high school, the student … In the final paragraphs of the article, Sneider voices what he feels may be the greatest challenges to integrating engineering and technology into the curriculum. An excellent article to read and highlight.