October 2004 - Vol 64, No.2 - International Technology and ...

PLANNING ACTIVITIES ACROSSTHE CURRICULUMDoug HauserRonald D. Yuill, DTEAt Tecumseh Middle School in Indianathe technology education teachers arepart of a team consisting of languagearts, math, social studies, and science.Teachers work together on items ofcommon interest and student needs.There is a scheduled period each dayfor instructors to meet to developplans and activities to help studentsbecome more productive.Science teacher Doug Hauser wantedto develop an activity that would providethe students with hands-on,inquiry-based learning. He studied theIndiana State Science Standards anddetermined that the area least coveredwas physical science, specificallyforces and motion. He rememberedproducing a Pinewood Derby Car whenhe was younger, and really liked itspossibilities. He purchased two of thekits and started looking for grants topurchase kits for the students.A student drills holes for axles.When developing items that are interdisciplinary,care must be taken to ensure that theactivities align with the standards of all thedisciplines involved.At this point, Doug contacted technologyinstructor Ron Yuill, and theplanning soon became cross-curricular.What can we do to get this going?What will the students do and learn?How much will it cost? How long willit take? These were some of the questionsthat needed to be addressed atthe outset. There must be communicationbetween teachers if an activity isto produce positive results.As Doug and Ron viewed the car kit,they shared possible activities—like selection of students workingin teams, research of designs,development of working designs,production, items to test, calculationsto be made, what to do with the data,and how to share the informationwith others.The activity was introduced in thescience lab, with a brief overview ofwhat was to happen in the car’sdevelopment process. There wasmuch excitement exhibited by thestudents at this time. They were todesign, build, and test the performanceof a wooden car. They wouldalso share the data with their classmates.To make this job easier andmore accurate, they were to keep ajournal of each day’s summary, whichbrings language arts into the process.During science class, the studentswent to a “build your own racecar”site (www.pbs.org/tal/racecars/index.html) and were introduced toaerodynamics and car design. Thissite also lists other sites to searchfor related information. Studentsinterested in racing can really have funwith some of these. The next stepwas the assignment of students toteams by the science teacher. Theteam’s members were divided duringthe technology education classes. Thiscould have been a problem, but thestudents communicated very well andno problems were exhibited.After two days of research, studentscommitted their best possible designFEATURE ARTICLETHE TECHNOLOGY TEACHER • October 2004 25