Big Idea:
Inventions and Innovations are a result of evolutionary technological development and systematic research and development.
Teacher's Note: Big ideas should be made explicit to students by writing them on the board, reading them aloud, and/or posting them on worksheets associated with the lessons. For deeper understanding, have students write the Big Idea in their own Engineering Design Journal (EDJ), using their own words, if they choose.
This unit is designed to teach students to analyze the historic significance of technological advancements and to gain an understanding of the influences of technology on history. The use of technology has had profound effects on the course of history. As such, most inventions and innovations are the result of an evolutionary process. Have students understand how a series of refinements leads to an improvement in a technological device; that new technologies create new processes; have students be able to explain how a change in technology would change the process of creating a product; teach the students all the factors that lead to changes in technology, and that research and development is a problem-solving approach used by companies to prepare products and systems for the marketplace.