Your child is currently enrolled in "Technology Education." This class uses the Middle School Technology Center, a laboratory designed to provide students with a "hands-on" experience. Lab Volt, the name of our lab equipment provider, has a two-part methodology that supports the district curriculum. The first part is the Design Brief, a situation that requires student research and critical thinking. Students seek solutions to problems/ dilemmas where the 'need to know' is enhanced by the solution they create. The second part, the Technology Learning Activity (TLA), is a self-contained activity designed to teach a skill or develop a concept.

Teams of two students, working cooperatively are guided through an eight to ten day curriculum that focuses on a particular technology. Each student will have the opportunity to develop lower order skills in the Pre-Test and Post-Test as well as higher order thinking skills in the Design Brief and TLA activities.

The primary objective of this program is to expose students to the wide variety of productivity tools and techniques that make up today's technology. Students use and learn about technology to become efficient information researchers, effective tool users, creative problem solvers, critical thinkers and productive citizens.

The uniqueness of the program presents new challenges to the student as well as the teacher. The teacher goes from a lecturer to a facilitator of student learning. The instructor is there to facilitate a proficient use of materials, tools and research techniques and less so, to provide the questions and the answers. The instructor may have to supervise as many as fifteen different activities at the same time. Students will become more reliant on themselves and the resources available to them.