Abstract:

This paper will explain a new curricula initiative in the United States (US) that brings 21st century skills to technology and engineering education by incorporating computational modeling and the use of scientific and technical visualization as a way to teach scientific, technological and visual literacies.

Over the years, technology education has experienced several changes in the information taught in both secondary and post-secondary educational environments, as well as the way the discipline is presented as a part of Career Technical Education (CTE) in the United States. From the early stages of the manual arts movement in the US and the Swedish Sloyd system of technical instruction, to the international influence of the Jackson Mills Project in the 1980s, change and the ability to refocus curricula has been central to the identity of the technology and engineering education profession. One of the reasons students and society benefit from modernized technology education is because of its willingness and ability to anticipate and identify necessary change. This capability to identify areas of change, allows the profession to grow and take on new innovations in curricula content that have resulted in the discipline remaining contemporary and state-of-the-art.

Computational modeling is one of these new contemporary technologies that can be taught in the technology and engineering education classroom and allow students to acquire 21st century skills. These new skills will help companies and communities become more productive and efficient with the use and understandings of visualizations. Computational science will allow for the integration of science and technological literacy to occur though the study of visualization and the development of both virtual and physical models. Although this concept has been around for years, the technology has just recently become cost effective and has an intuitive interface so that it can be used in mainstream areas of education and industry.

Since 1996, the authors of this paper have been working on three projects to bring about these innovations in the classroom and support the initiatives through comprehensive research. The three projects that bring about computational modeling as a pedagogical strategy will be presented in this paper, as well as over-arching data and findings found for each project. The three projects to be presented are as follows: Scientific and Technical Visualization and the Game Art and Design curriculum projects, and the development of the VisTE: Visualization in Technology Education project sponsored by the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. All projects were managed by one or both authors; funded by either local, state and US federal agencies, and have data to support their role in technology education. An overview of each project and the overall research findings will be the main focus of this paper.

Keywords:

Education, computational, modeling, visualization, technical, technology, gaming, curriculum.