The development of various technologies within the last 10,000 years of human history has been affected by and has affected the environment, human societies, and science. The Evolution of Technology module combines investigations of these aspects of technology with student projects that illustrate them in detail.
Students work in teams to complete a research project which focuses on one type of technology.
Supporting materials have been provided for the teacher, including a comprehensive poster assessment rubric, as well as help in managing projects and student teams and ideas and resources for managing the projects and student teams resources that cover project-specific and general areas of technology. Materials are also provided for the student, including the rubric, research help, general resources, and design suggestions. Students then examine and sort a variety of common gadgets to identify the major categories of technology according to the human needs they meet and then pose initial definitions of technology. A reader article on chopsticks and forks leads to a discussion of the effects of location and culture on the development of technologies. Technologies Over Time , lesson two, starts with the construction of a scaled timeline of major events throughout the history of technology in the context of the evolution of everything, beginning with the Big Bang about 15 billion years ago.