NJ Technology Standards

The 8.1 & 8.2 sections of the NJ Technology Standards outlines the technological knowledge students are expected to have by the time they finish a certain school grade, anywhere from K-12. I expect to be teaching High School, and following the technology standards that should be completed by grade 12 in the educational technology guidelines, I will discuss and integrate them into a Biology project to accomplish these goals.

The educational technology goals are broken down into six separate strands, the first being Technology Operations and Concepts. The goal for this strand for 12th grade is to be able to construct a spreadsheet using a desktop publishing software, which includes data compiling, math functions, and charts to be able to interpret the results. Students should participate in online communities such as a social network, and be able to create a digital portfolio. 

In the Creativity and Innovation strand students are expected to know how to construct a digital game where they can demonstrate that they can relate their skills to work on or solve a real problem. 

Under Communication and Collaboration students should be able to work with others in an online community forum, and share "innovative solutions " to a real world problem.

For the Digital Citizenship requirement students must be able to analyze policies on privacy disclosures, hacking and cyber crimes impact on society, and international government policies on censorship for different countries. While also understanding the appropriate use of copyrighted materials.

The Research and Information Literacy strand requires the development of a team and global expert investigation plan, to synthesize a new solution to a world problem. Considering in field research, hypothesize the impact on society because of improper tools usage. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making requires students to use advanced research databases to find solutions to world problems. Students should also be able to analyze the good and bad aspects of emerging technologies such as cell phones and blogs on educational and personal needs. In the scientific field, such as biology, everything that is learned applies to real life, after all biology is the study of life. In science it is very important to know how to work in teams, and communicate well with others since research takes places all over the world, and someone else's research might help you with yours. I want to plan a 2 person group experiment where it is applied to a common problem that can be experienced locally, and in other places around the world. Every winter when we have a snow storm, the state sends out the plows to dispense salt pellets on the road. As the snow melts, or cars drive over them they break down and end up in the grass, plants, trees etc. How does all of this salt content affect the roots of the plants or grass that where there before and will be there again as summer approaches ?   I would supply a few plants of the same kind, and they would need to water each plant every time needed, with water and water mixed with different concentrations of salt. At the beginning, I would ask them to hypothesize how the plants would look every 1-3 months, using a program such as Photoshop. At the conclusion of the experiment I would expect them to have a digital portfolio, including a conclusion with supportive materials from other experts found online, a spreadsheet with data collection, predictions, results in a chart, and answers on how this problem affects the plants, and what impact it could have on society. This kind of simple project has the ability to allow students to work as a team, build their knowledge, apply knowledge to a real world problem making science more interesting, and build on their technological skills.