Scientific visualization: a new basic in design and technology

Since 1995, the authors have been developing a new secondary school curriculum in Scientific Visualization. This curriculum is currently part of the Technology Education area in North Carolina, USA. The goal of this two-course curriculum is to help develop student's ability to communicate technical and scientific information to a variety of audiences. The development of this curriculum has been motivated by a belief that graphics, as a means of communication, has been growing rapidly as a means of communication worldwide, but has been largely neglected as a course of study in US secondary schools. This presentation will give an overview of the Scientific Visualization curriculum. As part of this overview, how this curriculum supports the goals of design and technology education and constructivist education philosophy will be presented.