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Knowledge and Skills Statement

Recurring themes and concepts. The student understands that recurring themes and concepts provide a framework for making connections across disciplines.

Patterns in engineering: engineers use scientific knowledge to develop or improve objects, systems, or processes. Engineers use patterns found in scientific data to make data-informed decisions during the engineering design process. Engineers may diagnose patterns of failure in a designed system and improve the design or analyze patterns such as daily and seasonal use of power to design a system that can meet fluctuating needs.

regular sequences that can be found throughout nature

detectable events that are observed through the senses or technology; can be explained through scientific laws, ideas, principles, and theories

a set of ideas that provide a connective structure which facilitates students’ comprehension of the phenomena under study in a particular discipline and support student sensemaking across larger themes in science

Research

Gifford, Sue. Developing Pattern Awareness With Young Children. 2017. University of Cambridge: NRICH. nrich.maths.org/13362

Summary: This article explains the importance of pattern recognition in children and how it can help them understand the underlying relationships of problems. This allows them to make connections and find solutions to difficult problems and is a valuable tool for solving increasingly complex scientific phenomena throughout their education. Students should be taught patterns in a variety of formats so that they can more effectively make these connections.