Standards for K-12 Engineering Education? (2010) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: Commissioned Papers
Appendix B: Commissioned Papers
Pages 53-142
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Appendix B1 Commissioned Papers 1 The commissioned papers have been lightly edited to remove spelling and other typographical errors but are otherwise the authors' original work.
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Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS)
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In general, discussions of academic standards and current considerations of engineering education standards refer to CONTENT STANDARDS -- learning outcomes described as knowledge and abilities in a subject area. For example, students should learn concepts, such as systems, optimization, and feedback;
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A description of the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn by the end of their schooling in a certain subject. Content standards describe learning outcomes, but they are not instructional materials (i.e., lessons, classes, courses of study, or school programs)
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, in 1993 the AAAS published Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy, and in 1996 the National Research Council published National Science Education Standards. These three documents include recommendations and standards related to engineering and technology.
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Using the science education standards as a basis for the review by Education Week provided insights into which states did not mention evolution. The review also indicated the significant variations in the presentation of evolution, a major finding.
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I begin with the societal perspective by looking first at history, in particular the 20th century. One stunning example supports the case for engineering education standards.
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APPENDIX B 61 Table 2 Engineering/Technology-Related News Stories of the 20th Century* Engineering/Technology Top 100 Ranking Ranking Year Headline 1 1 1945 U.S.
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I realize that individual curricula have goals. We can, for example, cite the historical goal of technological literacy from the 1970s Engineering Concepts Curriculum Project.
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learn about careers in engineering. Overall, experience with engineering design would probably raise the level of students' understanding of engineering and, by so doing, expand their interest and motivation, so that many of them may one day pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.
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Another potential problem is that national standards for the E in STEM could create another "silo." Because national standards for science, technology, and mathematics already exist and dominate the educational system, engineering education standards developed with little or no recognition of other STEM disciplines could be a disservice to STEM education, especially when one considers engineering's natural connections to science, technology, and mathematics. Finally, engineering education has little leadership or political power to take advantage of critical leverage points in national, state, and local educational systems, such as international assessments, national assessments, state teacher certification requirements and teacher education programs, state standards and assessments, and programs for the professional development of current classroom teachers.
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1995. National science education standards in the United States: A process and a product.
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1996. National Science Education Standards.
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More positively, there is a growing awareness that a well crafted engineering presence in the K–12 curriculum provides a rich contextual base for teaching and learning mathematics and science concepts. A variety of engineering-oriented programs have been developed, particularly at the secondary level, ranging from programs designed to promote general engineering/technological literacy (designed for all students)
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5. What engineering concepts are considered to be core concepts for secondary level education by practicing engineers and engineering educators?
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. Many instructors have taught engineering design problem solving by implementing a prescriptive, step-by-step approach, typically through a design process model.
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improving the formation of the conceptual knowledge by elaborating further the schematic structure of relational concepts; and (c) improving development of procedural knowledge skills.
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Joe Meyer worked as a civil engineer before pursuing a master's degree in science education and teaching secondary math and science. Thus he is familiar with the technical and professional aspects of engineering as well as the institutional, social, and curricular challenges of teaching secondary level math and science students.
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, National Science Education Standards, (NRC, 1996) , Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000)
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The focus groups consisted of engineering education faculty and practicing engineers from selected departments of engineering and local engineering firms. A point person at each university familiar with the issues involved in secondary level engineering education identified individuals to participate in the focus groups based on guidance from the research team.
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Then the team met and engaged in extensive discussions to compare ratings and arrive at a consensus on the items that met all three criteria. This process generated a list of core engineering concepts for each set of materials.
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Although these themes are important to engineering, the goal of this study was to identify ideas judged to be the most conceptually robust. Discussion and Implications The review and synthesis process used for this study generated a list of core engineering concepts appropriate for the curricular and professional development needs of secondary level engineering educators.
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. Engineering design could provide the "portal" for all other engineering concepts and themes appropriate for K–12 students.
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, and contextual issues must be taken into consideration for core engineering concepts to be formulated and understood in a meaningful way. Two additional conceptual distinctions emerged in the analysis.
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. Core engineering concepts foundational for the study of technology in grades 6-12.
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. Coming to terms with engineering design as content.
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(1996) National science education standards, Washington DC: National Academy Press.
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My conclusions were that there are some initiatives outside the United States, and to varying degrees they attempt to integrate science and math, serve pre-vocational and general education purposes, cover a spectrum of engineering domains, contain basic engineering concepts, and attempt to improve the public image of engineering. In this report, I investigate standards for pre-university engineering education, also from outside the United States.
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In these stages, the use of math and science is rather superficial, and the use of general engineering concepts is implicit, if present at all. In the fifth year of secondary education, students take General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)
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. In the AQA materials, we find tables titled "Assessment Evidence," which describe actions candidates must be able to perform ("At this level candidates have .
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Students also learn basic engineering concepts, the social dimensions of engineering, and problem solving skills through a modular approach. Preliminary modules, which deal with systems that are familiar to students, such as household appliances, landscape products, braking systems, and simple biotechnology, take about 120 hours of study.
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standards. Table 2 A Sample of Standards in Western Australia The same can be seen in the New South Wales document.
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Use basic engineering concepts to plan the VBN776 030101 none 20 manufacture of engineering components. VBN777 030799 Handle engineering materials.
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For each engineering domain, there is a list of standards for each of the four learning outcomes and a list of content/contexts for the same four groups. Like the standards, the content/contexts are generally described in behavioral terms ("understand," "evaluate," make," etc.)
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junior high schools. The final four years of secondary education prepare students for the baccalauréat (known as the bac)
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Most pupils choose the baccalauréat general. In the série scientifique the subjects in the schedule are French language, math, physics and chemistry, earth and life sciences, engineering sciences, biology/ecology, history and geography, two foreign languages, philosophy, and physical education.
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In secondary education, there are different school types, representing different (cognitive) levels.
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The South African standards are explicitly based on the conviction that every standard must be assessable by means of the behavior that demonstrates that knowledge or a capability has indeed been mastered. This is expressed in the term outcomes-based education (OBE)
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Let us take, for example, Learning Outcomes 1 in the Civil Engineering Standards: Technology, Society and the Environment. The Table of Standards is preceded by the following sentence: "The learner is able to demonstrate (my italics)
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Standards for Technological Literacy, for which all 20 standards have been elaborated for grade levels K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
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The standard document states: "The progression across the grades is reflected in the degree of complexity of the content in Learning Outcomes 3 and 4." But those are Knowledge and Understanding and Application of Knowledge, so evidently no progression is defined for the process in which the knowledge is learned and/or used. Looking at the whole set of South African standards, one soon finds that no attempt has been made to formulate progression for some of the other standards.
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The U.S. Standards for Technological Literacy clearly are most akin to the South African standards, which use a combination of approaches to indicate progress.
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. The South African materials contain the most detailed descriptions.
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In the South African materials, however, there is a real separation between assessment standards and content and contexts for the attainment of assessment standards. The meaning of the term context, however, appears to be different from the meaning in the recent educational theories mentioned above, in which context is a social practice (e.g., taking part in traffic by going from home to school or participating in electronic communities)
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standards in the survey, the South African standards, which are the most similar to the U.S. Standards for Technological Literacy, are inconsistent in the way they define the differences between levels.
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This paper outlines the process Massachusetts has undertaken and some of the successes and challenges related to the implementation of engineering concepts in K–12 education. The development of state technology/engineering standards was initially made possible through the Massachusetts 1993 Education Reform Law but was only carried out through the advocacy of technology education educators and engineers with an interest in education.
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and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996)
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Influential Reference Documents The development of the initial 1996 MA Science and Technology Curriculum Framework drew upon the nation's seminal standards documents for science education, including the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) and the Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy (AAAS, 1993)
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2001 Framework Technology/Engineering Topics and Sample Standards With the advocacy of engineers interested in education, a number of changes were made to the technology topics and standards in the framework. Specifically, technological design was modified to become the engineering design process, additional topics for energy and power systems were added, and the social implications of technology were removed.
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Students should demonstrate the ability to use the engineering design process to solve a problem or meet a challenge in construction technology. 2.1 Identify and explain the engineering properties of materials used in structures (e.g., elasticity, plasticity, R value, density, strength)
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People watching this process, including school and district science staff, curriculum coordinators, and administrators, took the split as one reason to delay the incorporation of technology/engineering concepts into school programs. Between 1996 and the mid-2000s, science staff and organizations generally did not take ownership of technology/engineering standards, which they viewed as the responsibility of technology education teachers.
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This arrangement provided a pool of teachers qualified to teach the new subject, but it also led to confusion by administrators about whether those teachers were really qualified. Finally, since the state recognizes technology/engineering as a core academic science option, schools and districts can award science credit for these courses and apply them to high school graduation requirements.
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Implementation by Schools, Districts, and Institutions of Higher Education Implementation Successes Schools and districts have implemented a range of changes in the K–12 curriculum aligned with the technology/engineering standards. Although the Department has not collected unit lessons or syllabi, evidence of successful implementation can be seen in inquiries made by schools to the Department about implementation issues and curriculum development, newspaper articles about technology/engineering offerings, and students taking the high school technology/engineering MCAS test.
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The five lessons outlined below reflect the perspective of the author and are based on the particular circumstances in Massachusetts: • Determine how the subject will be classified early on, because all policy decisions are based on that initial determination. For example, will engineering concepts be incorporated into a core academic subject, such as science, treated as an elective, or
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The efforts of professional organizations were crucial in making change happen, although closer attention to organizational relationships over the past 10 years would have helped to facilitate change. As the first state to include engineering concepts in state academic standards, we hope our experiences will be helpful to those making similar efforts in other states.
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. National science education standards.
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, let alone engineering. Thus engineering need not rush to come up with national K–12 engineering education standards.
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Step 5. Create standards for "curriculum blocks." Middle school and high school courses and elementary school subjects were the building blocks of 20th century school curricula.
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of the engineering education materials being developed should provide an experiential basis for developing overarching Engineering Education Standards. About Curriculum Blocks15 A curriculum block is a self-contained sequence of instruction that could be taught in a range of time dimensions and instructional formats, could relate to one discipline or several, and would be fully described to enable curriculum designers to make informed choices.
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The curriculum must be reshaped accordingly. The engineering community can take the lead in making that a reality.
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Rosen, Education and Management Innovations, Inc. June 26, 2009 Abstract Improved education standards will not, by themselves, lead to the scientifically and technologically literate citizenry we need for our nation to prosper in the 21st century.
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That was the approach in chapters 3 and 8 of SFAA in the 1980s, and it is the approach being taken now by the team writing a framework for technological literacy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress. A second approach would be to comb the international literature, using sources such as Technology's Challenge to Science Education (Layton, 1993)
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; NRC, 1996) , technology was given a prominent place in science education, and a distinction was made between scientific inquiry and technological design: Although these are science education standards, the relationship between science and technology is so close that any presentation of science without developing an understanding of technology would portray an inaccurate picture of science.
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The technologist's role is to determine what can be, and the engineer's role is to recommend what should be. Because the engineer's role in decision-making may profoundly affect society, engineers need to be well educated in the humanities and social sciences as well as in science, mathematics, and engineering design" (Foecke, 1970)
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Benchmarks for Science Literacy: Chapter 3B Design and Systems Grades People can use objects and ways of doing things to solve problems. K–2 People may not be able to actually make or do everything they design.
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Although the authors of Benchmarks indicate that they expect students to learn by engaging in design and technology projects, their focus is on what students should know about engineering. The National Science Education Standards (NSES)
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National Science Education Standards: Abilities of Technological Design Identify a simple problem: In problem identification, children should develop the ability to explain a Grades problem in their own words and identify a specific task and solution related to the problem. K–4 Propose a solution.
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9. Engineering design.
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Grades The engineering design process includes identifying a problem, looking for ideas, developing solutions, K–2 and sharing solutions with others. Expressing ideas to others verbally and through sketches and models is an important part of the design process.
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Standard 11. Students will develop the abilities to apply the design process.
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Engineering Tools A Engineering Paradigm [engineering design process]
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The Engineering Paradigm is a systematic methodology that allows a technically literate person to gain perspective into the logical decomposition of a problem and its iterative procedure toward a solution. The topics covered in these content standards can only be explicitly understood in this context.
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In this report, the mathematics education community first equated knowledge of technology with knowledge of appropriate use of calculators and computers. Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989)
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Mathematical connections Grades The study of mathematics should include opportunities to make connections so that students can: K–4 • Link conceptual and procedural knowledge; • Relate various representations of concepts or procedures to one another; • Recognize relationships among different topics in mathematics; • Use mathematics in other curriculum areas; • Use mathematics in their daily lives. Grades The mathematics curriculum should include the investigation of mathematical connections so that 5–8 students can: • See mathematics as an integrated whole; • Explore problems and describe results using graphical, numerical, physical, algebraic, and verbal mathematical models or representations; • Use a mathematical idea to further their understanding of other mathematical ideas; • Apply mathematical thinking and modeling to solve problems that arise in other disciplines; such as art, music, psychology, science, and business; • Value the role of mathematics in our culture and society.
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Chapter 2 includes six principles -- equity, curriculum, teaching, learning, assessment, and technology -- that describe features of high-quality mathematics education, PreK–12. In the remaining chapters, there are five standards -- number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurements, and data analysis and probability -- that describe mathematical content goals.
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In this section we look first at how technology and engineering fared in science standards and then how they fared in mathematics standards. Recognizing the importance of technological literacy for all citizens, a number of states incorporated technology and engineering standards into their science standards.
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Both New Hampshire and Washington State decided to include a strong component of engineering in their standards, but both preferred the term "technological design" rather than "engineering design" because teachers fear engineering as a subject they may not be able to comprehend, but are comfortable with the pairing of terms "science and technology." Also, a new framework for a national test of technological literacy beginning in 2012 is currently being developed (NAGB, in press)
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Table 6 offers a recommendation for big ideas in three dimensions of engineering education: critical knowledge about the engineering design process, skill sets that enable students to apply the process, and habits of mind that frame the way students approach problematic situations. The meaning of these big ideas and how they might play out at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels is elaborated in Appendix B, p.
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Conclusion The preliminary ideas offered here do not even begin to address the deeper issues of implementation. In Massachusetts, which enacted the strongest set of technology and engineering standards in the nation in 2001, considerable progress has been made in many school districts to implement the standards.
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. National Science Education Standards.
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. Science Content Standards Revision Draft.
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38% of respondents "Not at all familiar" Grades K–4 31% of respondents "Somewhat familiar" 21% of respondents "Fairly familiar" 10% of respondents "Very familiar" 27% of respondents "Not at all familiar" Grades 5–8 24% of respondents "Somewhat familiar" 30% of respondents "Fairly familiar" 19% of respondents "Very familiar" 15% of respondents "Not at all familiar" Grades 9–12 31% of respondents "Somewhat familiar" 35% of respondents "Fairly familiar" 19% of respondents "Very familiar" 2a. How familiar are you with the National Science Education Standards, published by the National Research Council?
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These big ideas would provide a means of deciding what to include and what to exclude from the standards. The following table is a suggested list of big ideas in three dimensions of engineering education: critical knowledge about the engineering design process, skill sets that enable students to apply the process, and habits of mind that frame the way students approach problematic situations.
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Grades 9–12: When asked to describe technologies around them, high school students recognize that almost everything that they see, touch, hear, or otherwise experience has been designed by people using the engineering design process. One way of demonstrating this knowledge is by "reverse engineering" an everyday example of technology.
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4. Designing under constraint is the ability to apply all of the steps of the engineering design process in real-world contexts.
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Grades 9–12: While high school students can be expected to bring additional skills (algebra, geometry, trigonometry and possibly elementary calculus) to the engineering design process, the major focus should be on determining whether or not students have developed advanced skills in determining the most appropriate operations to address various steps of the process -- defining problems quantitatively, creating engineering drawings with scale factors, using tools to accurately
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Habits of Mind The engineering design requires a different mind set from the mind set appropriate to science, mathematics, or any other academic field. We've divided these "habits of mind" into three areas: (7)
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Consequently, decisions involving technology should be made with possible societal and environmental impacts in mind. Grades 5–8: At the middle school level students should show evidence of a more sophisticated understanding of the pros and cons of technological changes.
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