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2004 NSF K-12 Math, Science, and Technology Curriculum Developers Conference

I3 - Invention, Innovation, and Inquiry

Presenters: Dr. Daniel E. Engstrom
Dr. Kendall Starkweather

I3 – Invention, Innovation, and Inquiry

Principal Investigators:

Dr. Daniel E. Engstrom, Assistant Professor, California University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Kendall Starkweather, Executive Director, International Technology Education Association

Grant Number: IMD-0095922

I3 is short for Invention, Innovation, and Inquiry: Units for Technological Literacy, Grades 5-6, a project funded by the National Science Foundation. This project is so named because invention and innovation are the hallmarks of technological thinking and action as inquiry is for science. Project activities include designing 8-10 day units that develop technological literacy in students, grades 5-6; developing teaching and learning resources based on selected technological and science literacy standards; and disseminating the units to teachers. Each unit has standards-based content, suggested teaching approaches, and detailed learning activities including brainstorming, visualizing, testing, refining, and assessing technological designs. Students will learn how inventions, innovations, and systems are created and how technology becomes part of people’s lives. The engineering design process is at the heart of each unit as they seek to integrate mathematics and science. The units are based on Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (ITEA, 2000). These K-12 educational standards were approved by the National Research Council and endorsed by the National Academy of Engineering as vital in the education of every child.

All units are developed through a rigorous process of writing, expert reviewing, and pilot and field-testing. Each unit is developed using the Understanding By Design approach (Wiggins and McTighe, ASCD, 1999). Then the units are pilot tested by technology education teachers in 5th and 6th grade classrooms. In the final phase units are field tested by general education 5th and 6th grade teachers. After each review, extensive revisions are made resulting in teacher-friendly units that focus on student learning of technological capabilities and understandings.

Both pilot teachers and field test teachers have given very positive reviews of the units and the student learning they engender. Through focus groups, site visits, and written reviews these teachers have reported that students expanded their understanding of technology, used the engineering design process to solve problems, developed basic design skills, and related mathematics and science to real-world situations. One teacher noted that because of the I3 units her students “can claim a much broader understanding of technological literacy, innovation, inspiration, and invention.”

The ten units listed below will be published by the ITEA and will be available beginning summer 2004.

1. Invention: The Invention Crusade
2. Innovation: Inches, Feet, & Hands
3. Communication: Communicating School Spirit
4. Manufacturing: The Fudgeville Crisis
5. Transportation: Across the United States
6. Construction: Beaming Support
7. Power and Energy: The Whispers of Willing Wind
8. Design: Toying with Technology
9. Inquiry: The Ultimate School Bag
10. Technological Systems: Creating Mechanical Toys

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. ESI-0352345). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.