This post relates to the technology and science content standards for grades 5 through 8 of the 2005 National Science Education Standards from the National Research Council. We’ll look at how Real Science-4-Kids (RS4K) and Kogs-4-Kids (K4K) texts align with these.

National Science Education Standards; Technology:  

ALL STUDENTS SHOULD DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ABILITIES OF TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN

·   Identify appropriate problems for technological design

·   Design a solution or product

·   Implement a proposed design

·   Evaluate completed technological designs or products

·   Communicate the process of technological design

ALL STUDENTS SHOULD DEVELOP UNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A.    Scientific inquiry and technological design have similarities and differences. Scientists propose explanations for questions about the natural world, and engineers propose solutions relating to human problems, needs, and aspirations. Technological solutions are temporary; technologies exist within nature and so they cannot contravene physical or biological principles; technological solutions have side effects; and technologies cost, carry risks, and provide benefits.

B.    Many different people in different cultures have made and continue to make contributions to science and technology.

C.   Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides principles for better instrumentation and technique. Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed. Technology also provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.

D.   Perfectly designed solutions do not exist. All technological solutions have tradeoffs, such as safety, cost, efficiency, and appearance. Engineers often build in back-up systems to provide safety. Risk is part of living in a highly technological world. Reducing risk often results in new technology.

E.    Technological designs have constraints. Some constraints are unavoidable, for example, properties of materials, or effects of weather and friction; other constraints limit choices in the design, for example, environmental protection, human safety, and aesthetics.

6. Technological solutions have intended benefits and unintended consequences. Some consequences can be predicted, others cannot.

Real Science-4-Kids meets this standard in the following ways:

Because each level of the RS4K curricula covers subjects in the same order (with more depth added for higher levels), the following alignments are generally true for Pre-Level I and Level II as well as Level I. However, specific examples are taken from Level I RS4K texts and Kogs-4-Kids™ workbooks since that age range most closely matches that of the National Standards presented here. Kogs workbooks match the subject matter of each chapter but expand that subject in the context of the book’s category (philosophy, critical thinking, history, etc.). Because information is built upon with each chapter, many types of knowledge in the standards show up in virtually all chapters. However, the key chapters for each section are shown below.

The Gravitas Kogs series has an entire workbook titled Chemistry Connects to Technology. The Kogs series also incorporates many of the knowledge points for Science and Technology in other Kogs workbooks for history, the arts, philosophy, critical thinking and language.

Understanding of the Abilities of Technological Design:

The introduction and 10 chapters of Chemistry Connects to Technology discuss how discoveries and technology design have been interwoven throughout history as technology was invented to address various needs. At the end of each chapter, the student is asked a series of questions encouraging the evaluation of how certain inventions were designed and why. At the end of the introduction, for example, the student is asked to choose one piece of technology he or she uses often, then make a list of the material used for each component. Further questions ask the student to break down one component even further: to think and write about things such as where it was made, who might have designed it, and which scientific principles would have been used in its design process.

Understandings about Science and Technology:

1. In the Kogs-4-Kids workbook Chemistry Connects to Technology, each chapter relates to the science subject in the corresponding Real Science-4-Kids textbook. This allows students to understand how the scientific knowledge is translated into useful technology. Benefits and side effects are discusses as appropriate to each subject. For example, chapter 8 in the chemistry text explains energy molecules. The related Kogs chapter specifically discusses fats as a source of energy. The story of the development of margarine is used to illustrate several points, including that harmful side effects of hydrogenating oil were discovered years later.
2. Inventors and scientists from numerous countries – including Sweden, Russia, Italy, Greece and the U.S. – are identified specifically throughout both Gravitas’ textbooks and Kogs workbooks.
3. The introduction to Chemistry Connects to Technology specifically addresses the reciprocity of science and technology. An example that is used is how the accidental discovery of glass allowed magnification. That magnifcation, in turn, allowed the use of telescopes in the study of the cosmos, which developed as a branch of science. The later use of curved mirrors demonstrates the progression of technology for even better scientific discoveries.
4. Just one of many examples is chapter 4 in the Kogs workbook Chemistry Connects to History. It discusses the ups and downs of developing a way to test acidity: from early glass probes that broke too easily, all the way through the business success of California professor Arnold Beckman, the inventor of the first modern pH meter.
5.  and F. The story of the development of margarine [Chemistry Connects to Technology, chapter 8 (Fats)] is again a good example of how Gravitas books meet this part of the standard. Hydrogenation of oils provided a long list of benefits and harmful side effects were discovered years later. Benefits and drawbacks of dozens of technology inventions are discussed throughout the textbooks and Kogs workbooks.