Technology Rationale
Tech Standard 1
Tech Standard 2
Tech Standard 3
Tech Standard 4
Arizona Standards

Technology Standards
(Adopted 3/24/97)

Standard 3

Students evaluate the impact of technology (e.g., benefits, costs, risks) on individuals, society and the environment.

Students know and are able to do the following:

READINESS (Kindergarten)

  • Describe how technology is used in daily activities to meet personal needs
  • Describe changes in their local community because of technology (e.g., new bridges, new roads, traffic lights, new buses, new buildings, removal of trees and other growth in the natural setting)
  • Relate positive experiences with technology to new situations

FOUNDATIONS (Grades 1 - 3)

  • Identify technologies to reduce air pollution, clean water, reduce noise pollution and purify food
  • Describe the impact of various classroom technology applications on learning and the classroom environment
  • Understand the technological factors that have led to the rapid increase and dominance of the human population, its density and distribution
  • Explain how physical environments are changed by human activity (e.g., irrigation, building of dams and levees, offshore drilling)

ESSENTIALS (Grades 4 - 8)

  • Identify physical, psychological and economic impacts of technology on people, plants and animals
  • Identify technology (e.g., cars, trucks, tractors, microwave ovens, digital clocks, computers, video games) present in their environment and the impacts it has
  • Explain the role of technology in the human modification of the physical environment (e.g., building new roads, digging canals, installing underground pipes and cables)
  • Explain how technology (e.g., modern communication devices -TV, teleconferencing, desktop publishing, commercial products, satellite communication) affects perceptions of places and regions
  • Explain how changes in transportation, communication and other technologies (e.g., railroad cars, airfreight, telephones, facsimile transmissions, satellite-based communication systems) affect the location of economic activities
  • Understand proper etiquette for electronic mail and communication
  • Compare the transportation and communication systems of the present to those of the past in terms of factors such as quality, efficiency and speed
  • Understand the impact of information processing and communications, with emphasis on the impact of computers and electronic communications on contemporary society
  • Analyze how the introduction of a new technology (e.g., invention of the telescope, applications of modern telecommunications) has affected or could affect human activity
  • Explain the need for laws and policies to govern scientific and technological applications, such as in the safety and well-being of workers and consumers
  • Describe the worldwide distribution and use of resources and how technology affects the definition of, access to and use of resources
  • Measure differences in time, speed or distance required to perform various tasks using various devices (e.g., sensors, linear measuring devices, timing devices)

PROFICIENCY (Grades 9 - 12)

  • Research an existing career plan (e.g., researching choices and the education, skills and knowledge needed)
  • Analyze significant events, inventions, discoveries, etc., in the history of technology (e.g., the Gutenberg press, agrarian movements/age, industrial age, world wars, information/light age, space travel/exploration, Sputnik, transistor radio, wheel, gunpowder, steel) and their effects on beliefs, attitudes and behavior in business, society or culture
  • Identify current problems facing our society (e.g., mass transit, distributing natural resources, conservation, uses of natural resources) and how technology might address them
  • Analyze a recent technological innovation and develop an impact statement
  • Serve as a member of a student panel which presents concerns and proposed technology-based solutions to a community/social issue
  • Identify and analyze the stress of technology on the environment, people and society
  • Analyze benefits, limitations, costs and consequences involved in using technology or resources (e.g., x-rays, agricultural chemicals, natural gas reserves)
  • Understand the nature of technologies, including agriculture, with emphasis on both the agricultural revolution in ancient times and the effects of the use of biological and chemical technologies on 20th century agricultural productivity
  • Evaluate ways in which technology has expanded the human capacity to modify the physical environment
  • Describe the effects of technology on the development and change of culture
  • Identify and describe the everyday impact of recent space technology (e.g., more sophisticated computers, remote sensing, medical imaging)

DISTINCTION (Honors)

  • Automate a simple task and evaluate its impact on employment, worker skills and employee satisfaction
  • Evaluate and design the ergonomics of workstations
  • Evaluate the impact of emerging technologies on employment, worker skills and employee satisfaction
  • Research how government agencies evaluate safety through the use of technology (e.g., satellites, surveyor transit, x-ray equipment, sonic testing equipment, stress analyzers, food processing)
  • Evaluate the social, environmental and economic impact of a planned engineering project
  • Define a problem that can be solved by an engineered project; include statements about social, environmental and economic impacts
  • Share innovative technological discoveries with others using various resources
  • Compare and contrast the personal benefits and liabilities associated with a technological innovation (self-driven vehicles, human-implanted identification devices, cures for all cancer diseases, open access to instant communication devices)
  • Assemble a community-based needs assessment, utilizing existing technology, and create an action plan for improvement
  • Identify the legal aspects of managing a technological enterprise (organizing personnel, setting up day-to-day business operating functions, applying for permits and licenses, establishing a marketing plan)