Technologies Today
Subject Area:
Media and Technology
Age or Grade:
6th through 12th
Estimated Length:
1 Full Class period. Monthly Homework assignments
Prerequisite knowledge/skills:
Familiarity with a few areas of technology for students to further investigate
Description of New:
Students track news relating to a scientific or technological area of his or her choice and any contributing factors such as political, social, economic and natural events
Students will lean about:
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•The numerous factors involved with the development of technology
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•New technologies emerging right now
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•Problems with various technologies
Materials Needed:
Copies of handout, memo template, grading rubric and a current technology news article to use in class as an example. Circulate a list with possible topics for students to sign up.
Procedure
Opener:
Give students the handout and have volunteers read out loud. Have a discussion about why it is important for a company in a particular science/technology field to keep up to date with the news relating to the field in terms of new technologies and any related social, political and economical impacts.
Go over the template and what is expected of the monthly memo. Explain that the purpose of the memo is to summarize the key points of the article because your boss is very busy and does not have the time to read through the article.
Development:
As a class have students read the example news article out loud. Throughout the article, highlight the key elements of the article as required in the template with the class.
Closure:
Make sure that students have chosen a topic and discuss any questions students may have about a topic.
Explain that all of the questions required by the template may not be answered in the news article and a little additional research may be necessary. For example, a news article on stem cell research may discuss more of the political and ethical issues related to the subject but not how stem cell research works or what it is good for. This article is adequate for the assignment, but the student will need to use additional sources to fulfill the assignment requirements.
Evaluation:
Make sure that student memos focus on the facts of the article and make it clear why this information is important to the "company." Students should not be using encyclopedia articles because the focus should be on new and emerging technologies.
Resources: