There have been a few comments on through twitter around Technology and the New Zealand Curriculum.
Am thinking about how we can unite and break down the silos within #NZCTech Knowing the #NZCTech is No1
This is an interesting comment, there has seemed to be a number of schools that don't let their teachers look at the New Zealand Curriculum around the Digital technologies subject area. As digital technologies was computing, there was not a need around it. It was developing a skill set, something that was only reported on in school reports.
Another comment outlined another aspect, but 'manual training' just seemed to morph into technology.” "It's complicated"
Though, I have been thinking today about another issue. When the curriculum was developed there was a number of issues. Digital technologies did not exist, and Design and Visual Communication teachers had there own area already at a secondary level. The resources and material that were written for the area focussed around some knowledge and skills, however a more detailed strategies for engaging students could be written to support this. Material has been difficult to transfer into the different contexts as some areas of Technology are not Generic.
I have a project that I have to work on in the next couple of days. I aim for Level 3, 4 and 5 of the Technological Systems strand.
A couple of resources come to mind, some of these I trialled last year with the hour of code. Now the aim of this was to get students to do development of ideas that did not require a computer.
The first one is getting a student to develop a robot using simple input, output, processing. Getting students to develop a method for programming the robot
The other looks at storing data in binary
What does this have to do with the technology curriculum? Get students to understand that there is something happening in the black box. Maybe we could look at DNS and what happens when someone goes to a website.
Though I do like the idea of the black box being the washing machine at home, how many students know what happens in the cycle?
Though I do like the idea of the black box being the washing machine at home, how many students know what happens in the cycle?
Technological Systems Level 3
Achievement Objective
Students will:
Teacher Guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological systems at level 3, teachers could:
- provide students with the opportunity to investigate a range of technological systems and guide them to understand that technological systems do not require further human design decision making during the transformation process for the inputs to be transformed to outputs. That is, a technological system will produce particular outputs in an automated fashion once the inputs have initiated the transformation process;
- guide students to understand that a 'black box' is a term used to describe a part of a system where the inputs and outputs are known but the transformation process is not known;
- provide examples of technological systems that contain unknown transformation processes (black boxes) and guide them to understand the role these play in terms of the advantages and/or disadvantages for developers and users;
- provide opportunity for students to discuss that the fitness for purpose of a technological system relies on the selection of components, and how they are connected to ensure the system is technically feasible and acceptable (safe, ethical, environmentally friendly, economically viable, etc -as appropriate to particular systems);
- provide students with examples of how technological systems can be represented and guide students to interpret the specialised language and symbol conventions used;
- provide students with opportunity to use specialised language and symbol conventions to represent technological systems to others.
Indicators
Students can:
- describe what 'black box' refers to within a technological system and the role of particular black boxes within technological systems;
- identify possible advantages and disadvantages of having black boxed transformations within particular technological systems;
- describe how the components, and how they are connected, allow particular systems to be technical feasible and socially acceptable;
- describe particular technological systems using specialised language and symbol conventions.
Technological Systems Level 4
Achievement Objective
Students will:
- Understand how technological systems employ control to allow for the transformation of inputs to outputs.
Teacher Guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological systems at level 4, teachers could:
- provide students with the opportunity to investigate a range of technological systems and guide them to identify how transformation processes are controlled;
- support students to understand that control mechanisms can function to enhance the fitness for purpose of technological systems by maximising the desired outputs and minimising the undesirable outputs;
- provide students with a scenario outlining technical and acceptability specifications for a system and support them to explore and research components and connectivity factors to determine what components would be suitable and how they could be connected to meet system specifications;
- support students to communicate system related details effectively. System related details include such things as what components would be feasible, layout requirements, and how they would need to be connected. Effective communication uses specialised language and symbols.
Indicators
Students can:
- explain how transformation processes within a system are controlled;
- describe examples to illustrate how the fitness for purpose of technological systems can be enhanced by the use of control mechanisms;
- communicate, using specialised language and drawings, system related details that would allow others to create a system that meets both technical and acceptability specifications.
Technological Systems Level 5
Achievement Objective
Students will:
- Understand the properties of subsystems within technological systems.
Teacher Guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological systems at level 5, teachers could:
- guide students to understand that the properties of a subsystem relate to its transformation performance and its level of connective compatibility and that additional interface components may be required to ensure a subsystem can be effectively integrated into a system;
- provide students with the opportunity to analyse a range of examples of complex technological systems that contain at least one subsystem. Complex technological systems are those designed to change inputs to outputs through more than one transformation process;
- guide students to identify subsystems within technological systems and explain them in terms of their properties;
- support students to use examples to gain insight into how the selection and interfacing of subsystems relies on understanding the transformation and connective properties of subsystems to ensure the best 'fit' with the required system specifications. Examples should include the subsystem selection and interfacing practices of technologists.
Indicators
Students can:
- identify subsystems within technological systems and explain their transformation and connective properties;
- discuss how transformation and connection properties of subsystems impact on system layout and component selection;
- discuss examples to illustrate how interfaces take into account the connective compatibility between subsystems and other system components.
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