Overview of NASA/STEP Curriculum Module-Summer 2003
I. Title of Module:
- Technology and the Future:
Where we’ve come from, where we’re going and the classroom of the future
II. Author:
III. Grade Level:
IV. Students:
V. Purposes/Overview
- This 8-day class will explore
the future of computers and technology and the impact these changes may have
on our lives. The course will begin with a brief history of computers, the
Internet and current technology (cell phones, PDA’s, digital cameras,
etc.) to insure that the students are conversant in the language of
technology and have a basic perspective on where these innovations have come
from. We will then use the New York Times on-line and other technology news
services to explore the changes themselves and on the moral implications of
these changes. For example, the questions of necessity and
"progress" will be discussed. The students will be responsible for
reading and summarizing articles each day and reporting their findings to
the class. We will try to have each student, or each team if that is deemed
more suitable to our purpose, concentrate on one particular area. One of the
sources for these articles will be the website www.howstuffworks.com,
which explains in detailed, but comprehensible language, how these items
work.
At the end of the course, students will create a
PowerPoint presentation on their research, including personal predictions based
on the information garnered, on the future of technology and its potential
impacts on our lives. The particular subject of this presentation will be “The
Classroom of the Future.” It is hoped that this experience will direct many of
the students to think seriously about careers in this field.
NASA/STEP Module – Technology and the Future - Lesson 1/ Day 1
- Computer lab rules
- Introduction to Computers:
Hardware, Software, Terms and Acronyms (e.g. PARC, GUI, DOS, URL, Browser,
ISP, Search Engine, Root server, DNS, Host, HTTP, HTML,Java, etc. )
- Assessment of skills and
computer knowledge
- History of the Internet and
the World Wide Web-
- Its Structure and Conventions
- Sample Browsing and exploring
different types of web pages
NASA/STEP Module - Technology and the Future - Lessons
2-4/ Days 2-4
- Six lessons, two each day,
selected from the list below to supply background, the appropriate critical
skills, and aid the students in thinking about their own topics
NASA/STEP Module - Technology and the Future - Lessons 5-8/ Days 5-8
- Students will select an area
of concentration and begin their research, as noted in the introduction
above
Note: Lesson plans were selected from the following list, as seen on the
New York Times website, The
Learning Network
When you click on the title of the unit it takes you to the complete lesson
plan, which is what I used, and a link to the article that was read and
discussed. The three lessons we did were:
1: Wheeling and Dealing (Mobile Technology)
2: Home Smart Home (Technology to aid the elderly and disabled)
3: Dream Machines (Robotics)
In addition, the following articles from www.howstuffworks.com
were used:
1: Digital Cameras
2: PDA’s
3: Cell Phones
4: Virtual Reality
5: Holographs
6: Wi-Fi
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Last Updated July 22, 2003 by Roz Krakowsky
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