Texas Administrative Code › Title 19 - EDUCATION › Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY › Chapter 127 - TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION › Subchapter O - SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS › Section 127.745 - Principles of Technology (One Credit), Adopted 2015

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) General requirements. This course is
				  recommended for students in Grades 10-12. Prerequisites: one credit of high
				  school science and Algebra I. Students must meet the 40% laboratory and
				  fieldwork requirement. This course satisfies a high school science graduation
				  requirement. Students shall be awarded one credit for successful completion of
				  this course.
(b) Introduction.
(1) Career and technical education
				  instruction provides content aligned with challenging academic standards and
				  relevant technical knowledge and skills for students to further their education
				  and succeed in current or emerging professions.
(2) The Science, Technology, Engineering, and
				  Mathematics (STEM) Career Cluster focuses on planning, managing, and providing
				  scientific research and professional and technical services, including
				  laboratory and testing services, and research and development
				  services.
(3) In Principles of
				  Technology, students will conduct laboratory and field investigations, use
				  scientific practices during investigations, and make informed decisions using
				  critical thinking and scientific problem solving. Various systems will be
				  described in terms of space, time, energy, and matter. Students will study a
				  variety of topics that include laws of motion, conservation of energy,
				  momentum, electricity, magnetism, thermodynamics, and characteristics and
				  behavior of waves. Students will apply physics concepts and perform laboratory
				  experimentations for at least 40% of instructional time using safe
				  practices.
(4) Science, as defined
				  by the National Academy of Sciences, is the "use of evidence to construct
				  testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena, as well as the
				  knowledge generated through this process." This vast body of changing and
				  increasing knowledge is described by physical, mathematical, and conceptual
				  models. Students should know that some questions are outside the realm of
				  science because they deal with phenomena that are not currently scientifically
				  testable by empirical science.
(5)
				  Scientific inquiry is the planned and deliberate investigation of the natural
				  world. Scientific methods of investigation are experimental, descriptive, or
				  comparative. The method chosen should be appropriate to the question being
				  asked.
(6) Scientific decision
				  making is a way of answering questions about the natural world. Students should
				  be able to distinguish between scientific decision-making methods (scientific
				  methods) and ethical and social decisions that involve science (the application
				  of scientific information).
(7) A
				  system is a collection of cycles, structures, and processes that interact. All
				  systems have basic properties that can be described in terms of space, time,
				  energy, and matter. Change and constancy occur in systems as patterns and can
				  be observed, measured, and modeled. These patterns help to make predictions
				  that can be scientifically tested. Students should analyze a system in terms of
				  its components and how these components relate to each other, to the whole, and
				  to the external environment.
(8)
				  Students are encouraged to participate in extended learning experiences such as
				  career and technical student organizations and other leadership or
				  extracurricular organizations.
(9)
				  Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be
				  mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible
				  illustrative examples.