STEPWISE+framework

=The STEPWISE Framework =  'STEPWISE' is a curriculum and teaching framework that organizes teaching and learning towards encouraging and enabling students to use their science and technology education for taking action(s) that might improve the wellbeing of individuals, societies and environments (WISE). The framework is given below:

 As indicated above, all teaching and learning goals in STEPWISE are related to each other but, crucially, all oriented towards encouraging and enabling students to carry out WISE/STSE Actions  . Activism is an important orientation for science and technology education because of the severity of personal, social and environmental WISE/STSE issues  that appear to be related to uses (mainly) of professional science and technology. For example, poverty is increasing worldwide (e.g., partly due to automation), many people have developed a dependency on for-profit products and services (e.g. forms of popular culture), and the consumption and disposal of many of products and services is contributing to significant environmental problems. Societies need to be oriented towards addressing such problems. STEPWISE is an educational response to these WISE issues ( STEPWISE rationale ).

Due to the severity of WISE/STSE Issues, this f ramework asks students to take a <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">communitarian <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> view of knowledge and other intellectual benefits (e.g., skills), thinking of it as belonging to societies past and present, as well as to individuals holding it. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">For example, students might use their science and technology education for lobbying their school to provide nutritious cafeteria foods and beverages, or to encourage students to use bicycles rather than cars, or to help less advantaged students.

In order for students to be able and motivated to take action(s) to address WISE/STSE issues, they need to draw on many strengths - including a broad and deep education in and understanding of science and technology. The STEPWISE framework is intended to provide students with such an education, in each of the following domains:

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">NoST Education __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;">This is the **N ature of **S cience and **T echnology, and refers to characteristics of processes and practices in fields of science and technology. Students might learn, for example, that science inquiry and technology design often involve revisions and changes of direction, can be biased because of researcher preferences and may not be able to generate absolute truths and/or unproblematic inventions. NoST also is related to STSE Education (below), in the sense that the nature of scientists' and engineers' work often interrelate and are greatly influenced by societal factors such as influences from powerful people who fund research and development. NoST Education is crucial to STSE Education, because it is difficult to relate the elements of STSE without understanding the nature of each of its components. More importantly, citizens need to understand the nature of fields like science and technology that greatly influence their lives and that of other living and non-living things. ** ** ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 121%; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 121%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">STSE Education <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 121%; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">This refers to relationships among fields of <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">S ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">cience and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">T ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">echnology and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">S ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">ocieties and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">E ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">nvironments. Students might learn, for example, that many developments in the sciences depend on the existence of various technologies, e.g., knowledge about cell structure depended on development of improved microscopes. Of particular interest to many who emphasize STSE Education, however, are <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE/STSE issues or problems <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">that often are associated with fields of science and technology and their products. A clear example of this pertains to weapons systems, with massive loss of life for humans and other creatures. Products using petroleum, such as cars and airplanes, also appear to be contributing to many personal, social and environmental problems - not the least of which seems to be Climate Change. STSE research can, as well, reveal problems with the integrity of knowledge production and dissemination stemming from an excessive focus on production and consumption of for-profit goods and services. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 121%; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 121%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Skills Education <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 121%; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 96.8%; text-align: left;">This refers to 'expertise' (e.g., skills, attitudes, ideas) that enable people to participate in knowledge building and dissemination activities that are common to fields of science and technology. Students might gain confidence and skills enabling them to conduct controlled experiments and correlational studies and to develop and evaluate technologies and inventions. They might also develop expertise for defending their project findings in presentations with other experts and the general public. Such skills might also include those useful for WISE/STSE Activism, such as for lobbying governments, school administrators, parents and others to make changes that might improve WISE. Skills Education that is set in <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE/STSE issues contexts can motivate students to conduct science and/or invention projects that deal with possible WISE problems. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 100%; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: inline; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Products Education <span style="display: inline; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 100%; text-align: left;"> This refers to 'products' (e.g., laws, theories & inventions) of fields of science and technology, including those in biological, chemical, and physical science and engineering. Students might learn, for example, ideas about cell structure and function, explanations for chemical reactions, and properties of light and other wave-like phenomena. Also, they might learn the functioning of such technologies as microscopes, computers, sewage treatment systems, telescopes, genetically modified food production, etc. Using the STEPWISE framework, teachers might first introduce STSE Education and associated WISE Problems as a way of motivating students to develop understanding of 'products' of science and technology. <span style="display: inline; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Students' Projects <span style="display: inline; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 100%; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> This is an aspect of education driven by students. Students may conduct science inquiry and/or technology design projects to generate knowledge that might inform their actions. Students could, for example, conduct a study to determine effects on students of listening to music from digital players (a possible <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE Problem <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">) and use their findings for making recommendations (a form of <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE Activism <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">) for use of digital music players. For various reasons, including to enable students to freely develop their own knowledge, these projects should be <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">student-directed and open-ended <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">; that is, within safety and materials limits, students should have control over topics, methods, conclusions and dissemination of these projects. We believe, and have data to support the claim, that students are likely to be more motivated to learn science- and better know what directions to take - if they have conducted their own primary and secondary research that indicates the existence of <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE issues <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">. Some general resources for this are at: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE Activism <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> These are action(s) people take to improve the wellbeing of individuals, societies and/or environments (WISE). This, along with Students' Projects, is perhaps the defining feature of STEPWISE. WISE Activism is intended to address <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE Issues <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">. Forms of activism that students might take are described at <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE Activism <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">. It is common for students to choose to educate others (e.g., via posters) or lobby power-brokers (e.g., via letter-writing campaigns). But, there is recent interest in ' <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">bright green <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ' activism; which urges us to invent/create/design, etc. better technologies, systems, etc. An interesting twist on this is ' <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">fun theory  <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ,' and a great example of this is: <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Piano Stairs  <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">PRIMARY RESEARCH: i.e., science inquiries that students conduct to investigate possible <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WISE issues <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">, such as an experiment to test effects of concentrations of road salt on plant germination or a correlational study to explore possible relationships between students' iPod use and hearing levels.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">SECONDARY RESEARCH: i.e., accessing and organizing information that others have generated; e.g., Internet Searches, using <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Google <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">, to learn about issues surrounding salt in foods or <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">YouTube <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> to watch and listen to <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">a documentary on problems with uses of animals <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">.

A summary of the STEPWISE framework, along with a schematic of how teachers, graduate students and teachers educators may work together through this Wiki (and other 'Web 2.0' technologies, is provided at:.