San Marino Scuola Media Curriculum (Third Year) - Technology

The Technology curriculum at the Scuola Media level in San Marino aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills to navigate the increasingly technological world. It emphasizes the connection between science, technology, and society, promoting responsible and informed use of technology. The curriculum covers the following key areas:

Knowing and Observing:

• Recognizing major technological systems and their interaction with natural environments.
• Understanding the principles of responsibility and precaution in technology use.
• Critically analyzing the link between science, technology, and the economic system.
• Understanding the historical development of technology across different regions.

Imagining and Transforming:

• Designing and creating artifacts and tools, explaining the process.
• Creating technical drawings, graphic representations, or infographics of systems.
• Using multimedia languages to summarize learning outcomes.
• Applying appropriate procedures and giving technical instructions for tasks.
• Using various resources (materials, IT) and conceptual schemes for product design, including digital products.

Skills and Knowledge:

The curriculum focuses on developing the following skills and knowledge:

• Identifying construction materials, functions, and safe use of tools and machines, understanding their historical evolution.
• Understanding artisanal and industrial production processes, recognizing raw materials and energy sources.
• Knowing the characteristics of technological systems, considering their utility and environmental impact, and developing awareness of sustainability.
• Recognizing human responsibility for a gender-neutral approach to technology.
• Planning and executing the creation of artifacts using various materials.
• Designing and creating graphic representations or infographics of objects, processes, and artificial systems using technical drawing tools or digital languages.
• Developing computational thinking through coding activities.
• Using simple procedures for experimental tests in food preparation, preservation, and cooking.
• Hypothesizing the consequences of technological choices, recognizing advantages and risks.
• Arguing theses related to technical-scientific problems by finding reliable evidence and data from the web and other sources.

Methodologies:

The teaching methodologies encourage active and responsible student involvement through practical activities, study, and research. The curriculum takes an interdisciplinary approach, connecting technology's evolution to different fields of knowledge and geographical, economic, and cultural contexts. It covers both theoretical and laboratory domains, avoiding gender stereotypes and confinement to single fields of experience. The curriculum goes beyond the technical functioning of tools, exploring the logic and processes behind them and the choices driving their construction and use. Students are encouraged to use tools critically and consciously, reflecting on the objectives and consequences of their use. For information technology, the development of computational thinking and greater autonomy in using digital tools is accompanied by constant attention to their social and cultural effects.