Knowledge and Skills Statement
Recurring themes and concepts. The student uses recurring themes and concepts to make connections across disciplines.
Further Explanation
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.
Supporting Information
Research
Gifford, Sue. 2017. “Developing Pattern Awareness With Young Children.” University of Cambridge NRICH Millennium Mathematics Project. Last modified 2019. https://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 over the course of their education. Students should be taught patterns in a variety of formats so that they can more effectively make these connections.
Research
National Research Council. 2012. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington: National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.
Summary: This chapter describes the crosscutting concepts (called recurring themes and concepts in Texas) that expand across multiple science disciplines. These themes help students understand the connections among the K-12 science concepts. These concepts are applied in science and engineering and provide students with a better conceptual understanding of both fields. Younger students can begin recognizing patterns in their everyday life. This can be connected to other scientific topics, such as seasonal patterns or similarities between parents and their offspring.