Integrating science and technology in school practice through the educational reconstruction of contents

The focus of this chapter is to present a research-based framework aimed at integrating Science and Technology from the content knowledge perspective. The proposed framework identifies a common Science and Technology core, namely the scientific investigation and modelling of natural phenomena and the harnessing of their basic physics in technological objects. The Educational Reconstruction Model is adopted as a research-based route to elementarize Science and Technology contents in order to construct and adapt such common core for teaching. In the paper, first some unresolved issues of the Science and Technology interplay in current trends of Science Education curriculum reforms (Science-Technology-Society-Environment and Socio-Scientific Issues) are discussed. Then, the relevant aspects of Nature of Science and Nature of Technology that inform the framework are presented. Examples from Properties of Materials area, condensing aspects from both Science and Technology, are hence described to illustrate the enactment of the proposed framework. Finally, some implications are discussed.