Model Core Curriculum Content Standards for Technology

The following vision and curricular standards are from the draft of the State of Michigan Model Core Curriculum Content Standards (1995). This vision and the accompanying standards are only a portion of the entire document. Those listed here are the objectives which are related to the use of technology in the educational practice. Final approval of these standards is expected before the 1995-96 school year.

Vision: Technology is the systematic application of knowledge, materials, tools, and skills to extend human capabilities. Learning with and about technology prepares learners to live responsibly in a democratic, technologically driven society. Learners will use technology for knowledge and skill acquisition, communication, and information management, problem solving, creative expression, research, design, and product development. Learners become technologically capable when they apply technology across curricular areas and when technology is used throughout the learning process.

A technologically capable learner:

• applies ethical, responsible, and legal standards;
• develops knowledge, ability, and responsibility in the use of resources, processes, and systems of technology;
• acquires, organizes, analyzes, and presents information;
• expands the range and effectiveness of communication skills;
• solves problems, accomplishes tasks, and expresses individual creativity; and
• explores, evaluates, and uses technology to accomplish, independently and cooperatively, real world tasks.

All students will:

• apply ethical and legal standards in planning and implementing technology;
• evaluate the societal and environmental impacts of technology to make informed civic, social, and economic decisions;
• prepare for life roles by becoming an educated consumer using a wide application of technology;
• demonstrate the appropriate technology to obtain, organize, manipulate, evaluate, and communicate information in any learning environment;
• use a systematic approach to using appropriate technology to solve problems and to enhance critical thinking, creative expression, and decision making skills; and
• analyze and predict the growth and evolution of technology.

Associated Standards:

The following standards are taken from the core curriculum portion of the draft of the state's Standards document. These are the content area standards within the core curriculum which apply directly to the use of technology. Notation following each standard denotes the related technology standard from the previous page which is linked with that standard. More specific benchmark statements can be obtained from the original document. The central office of this district maintains a copy of this document.

Following this list is a copy of the benchmark standards specific to technology. This copy is taken directly from the draft document.

In grades K-12, the English language arts standards will ensure that all students have opportunities to engage successfully in discovering, creating, and analyzing spoken, written, electronic, and visual texts which reflect multiple perspectives and diverse communities. All students will:

• take action that affects their lives and the lives of others based on their understanding of ideas and issues from texts; [T1, T2, T3] and
• use various technological and non-technological tools and resources for exploring and creating texts, individually and collaboratively, as they investigate important issues and problems. [T1, T2, T3, T4, T5]

In grades K-12, the social studies standards will ensure that all students have opportunities to acquire the requisite capacities for effective, responsible citizenship through study of history, geography, economics, and civics which reflects multiple perspectives and diverse communities. All students will:

• evaluate key decisions made at critical turning points in history by assessing their ethical implications and long term consequences; [T1, T2]
• describe how economic forces shape consumer decisions regarding the purchase, use, and disposal of goods and services and how the decisions of individuals respond to scarcity and involve opportunity cost (the cost of what you give up when a choice is made); [T2, T3]
• explain how businesses confront scarcity and opportunity costs when organizing, producing, and using resources, and when supplying the marketplace; [T2]
• describe how government decisions on taxation, spending, public goods, and regulation impact what is produced, how it is produced, and who receives the benefits of production; [T2]
• acquire information from books, maps, newspapers, data sets, and other sources, organize and present the information in maps, graphs, charts, and timelines, interpret the meaning and significance of information, and use a variety of electronic technologies to assist in accessing and managing information; [T4, T5]
• conduct investigations by formulating a clear statement of a question, gathering and organizing information from a variety of sources, analyzing and interpreting information, formulating and testing hypotheses, reporting results, and making use of appropriate technology; [T4, T5]
• engage their peers in constructive conversation about matters of public concern by clarifying issues, considering opposing views, applying democratic values, anticipating consequences, and working toward making decisions; [T1, T2]
• compose coherent positions on public issues that reflect consideration of alternative perspectives and express a decision justified with reasoned arguments; [T1, T2] and
• consider the effects of their actions on other people, act in accordance with the rule of law, and meet their ethical obligations as members of society. [T1]

The mathematics standards, and related benchmarks, identify the mathematics content of a K-12 program, so that each student will:

• recognize similarities and generalize patterns, use patterns, to create models and make predictions, describe the nature of patterns and relationships, and construct representations of mathematical relationships; [T4, T5]
• describe the relationship among variables, predict what will happen to one variable as another is changed, and compare patterns of change. [T4, T5]
• develop spatial sense, identify characteristics and define shapes, identify properties and describe relationships among shapes; [T3, T4, T5]
• identify locations of objects, identify location relative to other objects, and describe the effects of transformations (e.g. sliding, flipping, turning, enlarging, reducing) on an object; [T3, T4, T5]
• compare attributes of two objects, or of one with a standard (unit), analyze situations to determine what measurement(s) should be made and to what level of precision; [T3, T4, T5]
• collect and explore data, organize data into a useful form, and develop skill in representing and reading data displayed in different formats; [T3, T4, T5]
• examine data and describe characteristics of a distribution, relate data to the situation from which they arose, and use data to answer questions convincingly and persuasively; [T3, T4]
• draw defensible inferences about unknown outcomes, make predictions, and identify the degree of confidence they have in their predictions; [T3, T4, T5]
• experience counting and measuring activities to develop intuitive sense about numbers, develop understanding about properties of numbers, understand the need for and existence of different sets of numbers, and investigate properties of special numbers; [T3, T4, T5]
• recognize that numbers are used in different ways such as counting, measuring, ordering and estimating, understand and produce multiple representations of a number, and translate among equivalent representations; [T3, T4, T5]
• investigate relationships such as equality, inequality, inverses, factors and multiples, and represent and compare very large and very small numbers; [T3, T4, T5]
• understand and use various types of operations (e.g. addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) to solve problems; [T3, T4, T5]
• analyze problems to determine an appropriate process for solution, and use algebraic notations to model or represent problems; [T3, T4, T5]
• develop an understanding of the notion of certainty and of probability as a measure of the degree of likelihood that can be assigned to a given event based on the knowledge available, and make critical judgments about claims that are make in probabilistic situations; [T3, T4, T5]
• investigate practical situations such as scheduling, routing, sequencing, networking, organizing and classifying, and analyze ideas like recurrence relations, induction, iteration, and algorithm design. [T3, T4, T5]

The science curriculum has four specific goals for student learning: 1) developing depth of understanding rather than broad exposure to content, by emphasizing meaningful learning of the big ideas of science; 2) developing understanding that is useful and relevant outside the classroom, by placing scientific ideas in real-world context; 3) developing scientific literacy for all students, by recognizing and celebrating the contributions of diverse cultures and individuals to science; and 4) developing an interconnected understanding, both across science disciplines and throughout the curriculum. All students will:

• ask questions that help them learn about the world; design and conduct investigations using appropriate technology; learn from books and other sources of information; communicate their findings using appropriate technology; and reconstruct previously learned knowledge; [T1, T2, T3, T5]
• analyze claims for their scientific merit and explain how scientists decide what constitutes scientific knowledge; how science is related to other ways of knowing; how science and technology affect our society; and how people of diverse cultures have contributed to and influenced developments in science; [T2, T6]
• explain how parts of an ecosystem are related and how they interact; explain how energy is distributed to living things in an ecosystem; investigate and explain how communities of living things change over a period of time; describe how materials cycle through an ecosystem and get reused in the environment; and analyze how humans and the environment interact; [T2]
• describe the earth's surface; describe and explain how the earth's features change over time; and analyze effects of technology on the earth's surface and resources; [T2]
• investigate and describe what makes up weather and how it changes from day to day, from season to season, and over long periods of time; explain what causes different kinds of weather; and analyze the relationship between human activities and the atmosphere. [T2]

Note: The specific numbered benchmarks can be obtained from the State of Michigan Department of Education. These benchmarks have not been included in the Web publication, though they are found in the Plan for Technology Implementation document.