The Nature of Technology Strand Explanatory Papers Updated May 2010
Characteristics of Technology
Junior Primary (NE-Year 4)
Possible learning experiences
The learning experiences suggested below have been provided to support teachers as they develop their understandings of the Characteristics of Technology component of the Nature of Technology strand and how this could be reflected in student achievement at various levels. There is no expectation that these would form the basis of any specific unit of work in technology. The learning experiences have been written in such a way as to support student learning across a range of levels. This stance reflects the majority of classrooms where it is expected that students will demonstrate a range of levels of achievement.
Students are asked to look around them and discuss what they see in terms of them belonging to the made world, the natural world, or the social world. Select a range of Technological Outcomes (things that belong to the made world) and ask students to discuss what they think the purpose of each Technological Outcome is and why they think it was developed. Encourage them to think about what life may have been like before it was developed and how it has changed things for different groups of people – children, adults, teachers, etc., as appropriate to the example. Students could work in groups and select a particular example and see if they can work out how and why it might have been developed. They could think about the types of things the technologist would have needed to know to make the selected example appropriate for particular users and environments. Ongoing discussions encourage students to reflect on their own Technological Practice (past and present if appropriate) and make links between what technologists do and what students can and should be doing.
Students achieving at level 1 could be expected to:
- identify things around them that belong to the made world and suggest why they may have been developed; and
- identify the types of things a technologist would have had to take into account when developing a Technological Outcome.
Students achieving at level 2 could be expected to:
- identify the year their selected Technological Outcome was made and discuss what factors might have impacted on its development at this time;
- identify how their outcome changed how people do things and discuss any positive and/or negative impacts it has had on society and/or the environment; and
- make suggestions as to how the Technological Outcome may change in the future and describe how this may impact on the made, social, and natural world.
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