The Nature of Technology Strand Explanatory Papers Updated May 2010
Characteristics of Technological Outcomes
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 Technological Outcomes 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.
Small groups of students could be provided with a range of familiar objects (for example, concrete block, rock, pen, Weet-Bix, apple, plant, potato, potato chips, stick, walking stick, etc.) and asked to select which of these they consider to be technological outcomes – giving reasons for their selections. Some of the objects could be the same for each group to see if different groups categorise the same object differently.
Students discuss their reasons for selecting objects as being technological outcomes as a class, and the teacher draws out a shared definition of a technological outcome from these discussions. Students could be asked to select a technological outcome and describe this to the class while the rest of the students close their eyes. The remaining students then try to guess what the outcome is. The teacher models questions that get the students thinking about describing both the physical and functional nature of the outcome.
The teacher could then provide students with two sets of technological outcomes. One set could be technological outcomes that have been developed for a similar purpose and environment but from different historical eras (for example, chalk, quill, pencil, pen, and handheld computer tablet). The other set could include technological outcomes that have been developed for a similar purpose and in a similar era, but for different environments (for example, make-up brush, toothbrush, hairbrush, nail brush, hearth broom, and yard broom). Ask students to describe the physical and functional nature of each of the technological outcomes and make links to how and why the outcomes within each set differ.
Students achieving at level 1 could be expected to:
- identify technological outcomes;
- identify possible users of identified technological outcomes;
- describe a technological outcome in terms of what it looks like; and
- describe a technological outcome in terms of what it does.
Students achieving at level 2 could be expected to:
- identify technological outcomes and explain how they differ to other objects;
- identify a technological outcome and describe the relationship between its physical and functional attributes; and
- describe the physical and functional attributes of a technological outcome, with the description implying who possible users may be.
