Georgia Academic Standards for Technology Education

Top Rated Standards Items

 

Content Standard

Human Ingenuity

Rationale: Humans have historically been involved in technological activity. We use our knowledge, physical ability, and technology to solve problems and seize opportunity. The design, development, and use of technological items are direct results of human resourcefulness. When a new technology is introduced and opportunities are acted upon, the technology begins to evolve bringing more opportunity and still more problems to solve.

Technological items and processes are inspired by a need, an end result, or just out of human curiosity. Students must be challenged to solve technological problems by drawing upon their knowledge to plan a solution, select the proper resources and processes, create, and then evaluate the solution.

Performance Standards

By the end of 5th grade, students will:

  1. Follow step by step directions needed to solve particular technological problems.
  2. Describe why teamwork is important when designing and producing products.
  3. Identify career opportunities associated with technological systems.
  4. Describe how modern inventions and innovations have evolved as a result of new knowledge and technology.
  5. Examine products and processes and communicate how that product or process solved a human need or want.

By the end of 8th grade, students will:

  1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of working in a team as compared to working individually in design and problem-solving activities.
  2. Identify career opportunities associated with problem solving and invention, as well as career opportunities that are created by technological change.
  3. Apply a formal problem-solving process to arrive at a satisfactory solution to technological problem.
  4. Develop a timeline of advancements in technology.
  5. Define the concepts of invention and innovation and discuss how each affect technological development.

By the end of 12th grade, students will:

  1. Apply a formal problem-solving process to arrive at a satisfactory solution to a research-based technological problem.
  2. Identify career opportunities associated with technology and are created by technological change.
  3. Apply basic engineering concepts in the design and creation of solutions to various problems or opportunities.
  4. Solve technological problems and explain what actions were needed to reach the desired solutions.
  5. Demonstrate the ability to convey technical data and information to other individuals through documentation and various methods of communication.

Content Standard

Impact of Technology

Rationale: People develop and use technology to enhance their quality of life. Technologies like the automobile, nuclear power, genetic engineering, and factory automation have enhanced our mobility, enabled us to harness new energy resources, increased food production, reduced disease, and freed people from tedious or dangerous tasks. While each of these technologies has very distinct advantages, they also have clear disadvantages that need to be weighed carefully by those who live in a technological society. Given the rapid growth in technological capability, it is important that every citizen take an active role in promoting the common good by making informed decisions about risks and benefits of technology. To be active citizens, students need to understand the positive and negative impacts of technology on society and the environment. They need to weigh carefully the benefits and risks of technologies, and make informed decisions about technological issues.

Performance Standards

By the end of 5th grade, students will:

  1. Describe how given technologies make life and work easier, but also how they may make them more complicated.
  2. Identify the benefits and risks/damages of technology in their homes, schools, and communities.
  3. Identify the technological tools that may impact career choices (e.g., computers, robotics, CAD).
  4. Evaluate how advancements in technology has changed communication, construction, manufacturing, and transportation.
  5. Investigate how technology has emerged to change society now and in the future.

 

By the end of 8th grade, students will:

  1. Explain how the use of technology has changed many professions.
  2. Discuss major technological developments and explain how these developments have shaped the world in which we live.
  3. State the relationship technology has with other subject areas (language, math, science, and social studies).
  4. Identify and explain the impact of technological advancements on historical events (e.g., automobile, television, telephone).
  5. Identify ways to effect change in society through the use of technological advances.

By the end of 12th grade, students will:

  1. Discuss the evolutionary processes of different forms of technology.
  2. Identify ways to effect change in society through the use of technological advances while considering the impacts on society and the environment.
  3. Investigate, collect data, analyze, and synthesize technology with regard to impacts and consequences.
  4. Identify ways in which technology threatens to dominate human activity in modern society.
  5. Investigate, collect data, analyze, and synthesize impacts of technological consequences.

 Content Standard

Technological Systems

Rationale: Technological systems have always been a part of daily life. Recently, they have become more apparent because of their sophistication and influence. By coordinating and processing resources, these systems help to provide products and services such as food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, health care, security, and other necessities and comforts of life. Though often subtle, these systems are everywhere in our world and, without exception, they impact all of us.

Performance Standards

By the end of 5th grade, students will:

  1. Differentiate between the terms products and services.
  2. Describe various reasons technological systems may fail; such as, overuse, lack of proper maintenance or management, improper design, or other natural or unnatural factors that may occur.
  3. Utilize tools to observe, measure and make technological artifacts.
  4. Identify parts of a technological device (e.g., mechanical, fluidal, electrical, thermal).
  5. Identify the parts of a system and explain how the parts working together allow the system to do things the individual parts are unable to do alone.

By the end of 8th grade, students will:

  1. Explain how technological systems impact the world of work as well as normal daily life.
  2. Discuss career opportunities related to technological systems.
  3. Evaluate solutions to technological problems.
  4. Develop a systems solution for common technological problems.
  5. Disassemble a technical device and research the processes that were used in its development.

By the end of 12th grade, students will:

  1. Apply the technological systems model to an integrated activity that encompasses communication, energy, manufacturing, construction and/or transportation technologies.
  2. Apply technological knowledge through technical drawing, planning, building, testing, and improving solutions to technological systems.
  3. Develop a technological system to solve a given technological problem.
  4. Design a management system to solve a research and development technology problem through lab based activities and formalized problem-solving methods.
  5. Analyze and critique a technological system for efficiency.

Content Standard

Nature of Technology

Rationale: "As long as there have been people, there has been technology. Indeed, the techniques of shaping tools are taken as the chief evidence of the beginning of human culture. On the whole, technology has been a powerful force in the development of civilization, all the more so as its link with science has been forged. Technology, like language, ritual, values, commerce, and the arts, is an intrinsic part of a cultural system and it both shapes and reflects the system’s values. In today’s world, technology is a complex social enterprise that includes not only research, design, and crafts but also finance, manufacturing, management, labor, marketing, and maintenance.

"In the broadest sense, technology extends our abilities to change the world: to cut, shape, or put together materials; to move things from one place to another; to reach farther with our hands, voices, and senses. We use technology to try to change the world to suit us better. The changes may relate to survival needs such as food, shelter, or defense, or they may relate to human aspirations such as knowledge, art, or control. The results of changing the world are often complicated and unpredictable. They can include unexpected benefits, unexpected costs, and unexpected risks, any of which may fall on different social groups at different times. Anticipating the effects of technology is therefore as important as advancing its capabilities." (Science for All Americans, 1992)

Performance Standards

By the end of 5th grade, students will:

  1. Define and discuss technological literacy (appropriate levels).
  2. Define technology (appropriate level).
  3. Describe the difference between invention and innovation.
  4. Investigate the concept of technological resources.
  5. Describe the impacts of technology on careers (appropriate levels).

By the end of 8th grade, students will:

  1. Define technology (appropriate levels).
  2. Define and discuss technological literacy (appropriate levels).
  3. Identify and contrast the connections and differences between technology and other school disciplines.
  4. Describe and discuss how technology involves the ability to solve problems logically and creatively.
  5. Employ basic principles of technology to solve technological problems.

By the end of 12th grade, students will:

  1. Define and discuss issues associated with technological literacy.
  2. Evaluate the moral and ethical issues humans face because of the significant modifications technology is having to the natural world.
  3. Make logical career choices based on individual strengths and weaknesses.
  4. Investigate how technology has emerged to shape the environment and society in the past, present, and future.
  5. Define appropriate technology and suggest applications to various problems or opportunities.