Science Through Technical Understanding
- 1. SCIENCE THROUGH TECHNICAL UNDERSTANDING MAKING IT WORK Paul Hopkins Tuesday, June 16th, 2016.
- 2. STEM? What is Science? What is Technology? The House of Commons Standing Committee on Education (1995) has acknowledged the difficulty of defining technology, and of defining it in relation to science.
- 3. STEM? Whatistheoverlap? Science and technology are independent, with differing goals, methods and outcomes (the demarcationist view). Science precedes technology, i.e. technological capability grows out of scientific knowledge; this position, often called the technology as applied science view, is widely held and influential. Technology precedes science; this materialist view asserts that technology is historically and ontologically prior to science, that experience with tools, instruments and other artefacts is necessary for conceptual development. Technology and science engage in two-way interaction; this interactionist view considers scientists and technologists as groups of people who learn from each other in mutually beneficial ways. (Gardner 1994, p. 5)
- 4. Where do children’s ideas come from? Learning takes place in a social space The world in which they are living … Their home environment … The media to which they are exposed … The people they interact with …
- 5. Process of children’s ideas Elicitation: This starts with the naïve concepts of learning and then gets children to explore the ideas they have. Starting with a stimulus or a question. Normally rooted in conversations between the children and not between the children and the teacher - thought the teacher may intervene. Intervention: The idea is now to challenge or support the naïve views of the world the learner has. This may well involve the children in carrying out an investigation or experiment to test out some of their ideas from the elicitation stage. Reformation: Introducing children to key scientific/technological ideas or concepts and then asking them to think again about the questions they are asking and how their ideas link into the bigger picture. Evaluation: How successful were the ideas and activities to help the children develop their scientific/technological ideas and understanding?
- 8. What’s DT about? Ofsted, 2015
- 9. A technology model? 1 Craft, 2005
- 10. A technology model? 2 http://www.technologytom.com
- 14. Where’s the DT / Where’s the science?