9618767 Benenson Technology is broadly defined to include the entire array of artifacts, systems and processes which constitute the designed - as opposed to the natural - world. Examples in the lives of students include the toys, appliances, utensils, furniture, clothing, timepieces and fastening devices of everyday life, the arrangements of furniture, the organization of the school day, and methods of facilitating smooth flow of traffic within the school. City Technology Curriculum Guides provide ideas for helping children to analyze existing technologies and to develop, build, and test their own designs. Topics include Structures, Mapping, Mechanisms, Environmental Analysis and Design, Coding Information, Fixing and Fastening, Electrical Appliances and Toys, and Measuring Time. A parallel Workshop Leader's Guide is intended for teacher educators responsible for professional development workshops. The development of the Guides is a collaborative effort of engineering and education faculty at CUNY City College and elementary and middle school teachers in New York. Summer workshops introduce the existing materials and the new topics to a group of experienced teachers. Each of the first two academic years, they will pilot test four Guides in their classrooms. During the third year of the project, the new Guides will be field tested in two sites in the New York City area, two sites in the Northeast, and two sites in other locations across the nation. Upon completion of field testing and editing, the Guides will be available commercially.
