What’s the Purpose of Technology?

Lesson Plan | August 2020

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the purpose of technology. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize that technologies are developed to meet human needs and preserve…

Science, Technology, and National Security: Helping Students Explore Vital Connections Between Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy

Journal Article | April 1997

In this article, the author grafted discussion of scientific ideas onto students' natural enthusiasm for public policy issues and selected scientific concepts as the front end for a course that explores issues in…

Research on the River: High school and university students use technology and integrated science to study the quality of the James River

Journal Article | August 2000

This project—the JAMES (Joining Across Miles Environmental Systems)—gave high school students the chance to do research involving technology and integrated science and allowed university science methods students the…

Computer-Assisted Microscopy in Science Teaching and Research: A Technological Approach to Teaching the Relationships Between Biological Form and Function

Journal Article | January 1997

Microscopes have been the main tool for analyzing tissue form in both university and research laboratories for decades. However, biological microscopy has entered a new era with the advent of desktop computers and…

Technology, System, or Both?

Lesson Plan | August 2020

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about technological systems. The probe is designed to determine if students are able to envision how a system is made up of parts and can do something…

When to Integrate Technology

Reports Article | July 2020

Making Connections with Digital Data: Digital camera technology helps students draw connections between their hypotheses, data, and inferences

Journal Article | December 2003

Digital cameras can provide added value to classroom data collection allowing the students to make visual connections between their hypotheses, data, and inferences. Digital data appears more concrete and "real" to…

Research and Teaching: Small Group Instruction in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology—A Discipline Status Report and a Teaching Agenda for the Future

Journal Article | April 1998

This paper is an attempt to place the recent flurry of activity into context for SMET faculty. It contains nearly 100 resources which may be useful to researchers, theorists, and practitioners in this area. The…

Using new technologies

Blog Post | March 2014

Watching children and teenagers use computers, tablets, and smartphones, it’s easy to assume that these digital natives are very familiar with all of the new technologies. I’ve found that while they know what relates to…

Science, engineering, and technology

Blog Post | February 2013

To illustrate the interconnectedness of science and engineering, the editor’s note this month is a crossword puzzle. I think I need to review the K-12 Framework in more detail to solve it. Or else I can see this…