Socially engaged engineering provides for student learning of the design, analysis, and practices of engineering as well as the ways that engineering is situated in sociocultural contexts. This paper provides a conceptual framework regarding socially engaged engineering for K-8 educators, researchers, and curriculum designers. The framework…

Over the last decade the daily experience of adolescents has been transformed by developments in electronic media, including the computer, the Internet, and cell phones. Relative rarities only a generation ago, they are the daily tools of communication, information, and amusement for a majority of adolescents. Beyond access, content and…

The French sociologist Jacques Ellul has had great influence on contemporary thought about the role of science and technology in the emerging global society. His books "The Technological Society" (1954) and "The Technological System" (1980) characterize the new social context as a tightly interlocked global technological system…

Described is a two-year course for non-college-bound high school students called Principles of Technology. The goals, design, and units of the course are discussed. Criticism of the course is reviewed. (CW)

Research which makes possible a quantification of the size, composition, and growth of the underclass is discussed. Trends in the quality of life and the growth of the underclass are presented. (CW)

Describes the Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP), a plan developed to help British secondary school students learn about microcomputers and the role of technology in society, and its successor, the Microelectronics Support Unit (MESU). Highlights include curriculum development, teacher training, computer assisted instruction and the…

Projections are analyzed for the future supply and demand of scientists and engineers. The demographics of the college-age population combined with estimates of the percentage of students who will pursue careers in science and engineering indicate significant shortfalls between the supply and demand for the next several decades. (CW)

Provided are projections for the scientific job market in the 1990s. Predicted are increases in the numbers of engineering positions above the rate of growth for all other occupations. The status and outlook for minority groups are highlighted. (CW)