Title: Designing Your Own Technology Revisited

Overview & Outcomes:

In Foundations/Awareness Lesson 5 students designed a piece of technology. In this lesson, they will examine the social implications of that piece of technology. Citizens are not always aware that technology comes at a cost. That is the focus of this lesson. In F/A Lesson 7 students examine the origins of STS issues and the influence viewpoints have on STS issues.

This lesson helps learners:

• identify the benefits, drawbacks, and risks associated with the technology invented in the prior lesson.

The concept map found in Foundations/Awareness Lesson 1 shows model relationships among concepts Foundations/Awareness Lessons 1 through 7 plus 9 and 10 seek to develop.

Background Notes for the Teacher:

Content. The questions posed in this lesson will stimulate further discussion of issues raised in The Lorax.

Materials:

For each student.

1. Questions to Ask of a Newly Proposed Technology
2. Student technology designs (displayed in classroom).

Preparation:

Day of Lesson. Reproduce necessary number of student worksheets.

Instructional Procedure: (1 Day, 40 minutes)

1. Conduct class discussion of worksheet questions as they relate to student inventions.

Assessment/Portfolio Items:

In addition to the design project which was previously included in the Assessment/Portfolio, the following item may be included.

Journal Entry. What is the worst possible problem your technology might cause, who should be held responsible for the problem, and how could the trouble be reversed or limited? (These questions are adapted from Rutherford's and Ahlgren's Science for All Americans.)

Rutherford and Ahlgren (1990) propose that the following questions be asked of anyone newly proposed technology:

1. What are alternative ways to accomplish the same ends?

2. Who are the main beneficiaries? Who will suffer as the result of the proposed new technology?

3. What will the new technology cost to build and operate?

4. What risks are associated with the proposed new technology?

5. What people, materials, tools, knowledge, and know-how will be needed to build, install, and operate the proposed new technology?

6. What will be done to dispose safely of the new technology's waste materials?

Rutherford, F. J. & Ahlgren, A. (1990). Science for All Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 32-33.

Click Here to go to Lesson 7: Examining STS Issues

This unit was produced by the editors listed on the masthead.