Introduction
Case studies: Making the problems clearer
Case 1: Standards for Technological Literacy (the USA)
Row | Phrase(s) | Page | Function(s) |
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1 | The selected design is modeled and tested, and then reevaluated. If necessary, the original design is dropped and another is tried | 6 | Testing, (re)evaluating |
2 | Students generally work in teams when building models of their design proposals, and, depending on the device, they may build working prototypes as well | 6 | Designing, prototyping |
3 | Each student sketched and determined the proper scale needed to make a model of the art[e]fact he or she had chosen | 7 | Designing |
4 | Computers are used to develop models before a product is actually made | 27 | Simulating |
5 | The process of making models, as well as modeling in virtual environment, is used to demonstrate concepts and to try out visions and ideas | 33 | Demonstrating, testing |
6 | Students should have opportunities to use simulation or mathematical modeling, both of which are critical to the success of developing an optimum design | 41 | Simulating, different types |
7 | Systems thinking … uses simulation and mathematical modeling to identify conflicting considerations before the entire system is developed | 42 | Simulating, different types |
8 | An optimum design is most possible when a mathematical model can be developed so that variations may be tested | 42 | Testing |
9 | To build models of each house and then test them for strength and durability | 46 | Testing |
10 | The students could then design a rocket and build a model to test their design | 48 | Testing |
11 | After building a model of an elevator, they could see how pulleys and counterweights work to create a machine that can move people and goods up and down | 59 | Demonstrating, simulating |
12 | Students could research, design, and build a model showing a cutaway view of their local terrain, complete with caverns, sand, soil, water flow patterns, ponds, and lakes. Such a model could be used to show how spilled fuels or other liquids affect watersheds and bodies of water | 71 | Simulating |
13 | Once they have gathered their information, the students could present it to the class in various formats, such as building a model, making a slide presentation, … | 83 | Demonstrating |
14 | By practicing these problem-solving methods, students acquire a number of other valuable skills … using a variety of tools, working with two- and three-dimensional models, … | 90 | Problem solving |
15 | They should have the freedom to model, test, and evaluate their designs before redesigning them | 94 | Testing |
16 | The process is intuitive and includes such things as creating ideas, putting the ideas on paper, using words and sketches, building models of the design, testing out the design, and evaluating the solution | 94 | Designing, testing, (re)evaluating |
17 | In searching for the best solution, the designer redesigns, tests, refines, and models again and again | 97 | Designing, testing, (re)evaluating |
18 | The design process includes … a model or prototype, testing and evaluating the design using specifications, refining the design, creating or making it, and communicating processes and results | 97 | Prototyping, testing, evaluating, communicating |
19 | To help evaluate the solutions, models and prototypes can be built and tested, and the result can then be used to determine how well the solutions meet the previously identified requirements | 99 | Prototyping, testing, evaluating |
20 | As they use the engineering design process, students should communicate their ideas and solutions … using sketches, models and verbal descriptions | 100 | Communicating |
21 | Expressing ideas to others verbally and through sketches and models is an important part of the design process … sketches are more efficient than words for conveying the size, shape, and function of an object, while models are effective in imparting a three-dimensional realism to a design idea | 100 | Communicating |
22 | Models are used to communicate and test design ideas and processes. Models are replicas of an object in three-dimensional form. Models can be used to test ideas, make changes to designs, and to learn more about what would happen to a similar, real object | 102 | Communicating, testing, simulating |
23 | A design proposal … can be communicated through various forms, such as sketches, drawings, models, and written instructions. Models allow a designer to make a smaller version without having to invest the time and expense of making the larger item. Physical, mathematical, and graphic models can be used to communicate an idea | 103 | Communicating, different types |
24 | Modeling, testing, evaluating, and modifying are used to transform ideas into practical solutions. Historically, this process has centered on creating and testing physical models. Models are especially important for the design of large items, such as cars, spacecraft, and airplane because it is cheaper to analyze a model before the final products and systems are actually made | 103 | Testing, simulating |
25 | A prototype is a working model that is conceived early in the design process | 104 | Prototyping |
26 | A prototype is a working model used to test a design concept by making actual observations and necessary adjustments | 105 | Prototyping, testing |
27 | Build or construct an object using the design process. Using the design process, students can build or construct it in three-dimensional form. This could include building a scaled-down model of the object | 116 | Designing |
28 | After the design proposal has been finalized and the model has been created, it is important to perform tests and evaluate the results as they relate to the pre-established criteria and constraints | 120 | Testing, evaluating |
29 | A model can take many forms, including graphic, mathematical, and physical | 121 | Different types |
30 | The major new skill students develop will be working with prototypes, which can be full-size or scale models, depending on the size of the final product or system | 123 | Prototyping |
31 | Prototype and other models should be used to test and evaluate the solutions | 123 | Prototyping, testing, evaluating |
32 | Students should be exposed to more sophisticated conceptual, physical, and mathematical models … | 123 | Different types |
33 | Refine a design by using prototypes and modeling to ensure quality, efficiency, and productivity of the final product | 124 | Prototyping |
34 | Evaluate the design solution using conceptual, physical, and mathematical models at various intervals of the design process in order to check for proper design and to note areas where improvements are needed | 124 | Testing, evaluating, different types |
35 | Evaluate final solutions and communicate observation, processes, and results of the entire design process, using verbal, graphic, quantitative, virtual, and written means, in addition to three dimensional models | 124 | Testing, evaluating, different types |
36 | Students could research various climate forecast models and project what could occur if the earth’s polar region warmed by 2 or 4 °C. they then could analyze a plan to address global warming and assess its potential solution | 138 | Simulating |
37 | In learning how different medical technology devices work, students could design and build models that would demonstrate how they are used | 145 | Demonstrating, learning |
38 | For example, students could study and learn how a laser works by making, testing, and evaluating a model and then relating its adaption to use in many surgical procedures | 147 | Testing, evaluating, learning |
39 | Students may test soil run-off for various pollutants and design and develop a system that might serve as a model for improving environmental conditions | 155 | Testing |
40 | They can then build models of their ideas and test them. | 162 | Testing |
41 | For example, in a unit of study about the solar system, students could use a computer to create a graphic representation of the planets, or they could apply their building skills to make a model of the stars | 168 | Simulating |
42 | [They could use a model of a hot air balloon] to explore how air transportation vehicles has changed throughout history … [and to] learn about the development of various air transportation vehicles and find out how a hot air balloon moves through the air | 177 | Learning |
43 | To increase their understanding of these subsystems, students may design and develop models of them. For example, the structural subsystem includes the framework and body of a vehicle. Students should design and develop a model of a new vehicle to be used on land, in the sea, in the air, or in the space in order to see firsthand how the structural subsystem is related to the environment in which the subsystem is used | 178 | Learning |
44 | Students design structures and make models of them. They should understand that certain structures can be thought of as part of a much larger system that underlies the functioning of the entire society | 195 | Learning |
45 | [S]tudents could design and construct a model of a wastewater treatment system that moves and filters contaminated water [to enhance their skill and comprehension level to tackle design and problem-solving activities that require attention to greater details for long periods of time] | 217 | Learning |
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Demonstrating That is to say, one of the primary goals of making models is to demonstrate (or represent) the provided design concepts, to try out the visions and ideas, or to show how different technological devices work or are used (see Table 1; rows 5, 11, 13, and 37).
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Designing Students learn to model their design proposals by being asked to sketch and determine the proper features and scales of their needed models. This function of models relates every so often to some other functions, such as testing and (re)evaluating, and frequently amounts to the action of redesigning (see Table 1; rows 2–3, 16–17, and 27).
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Testing and (re)evaluating Learners are taught that models are used for testing and (re)evaluating ideas, solutions, designs, and processes in order to determine how well they meet the identified requirements and targets. Designers, according to STL, should ensure the quality, efficiency, strength, or productivity of their designed models. They will also carry out at this stage any needed redesign and improvement to achieve their optimal model. Sometimes even the original design might be dropped and another tried (see Table 1; rows 1, 5, 8–10, 15–19, 22–23, 26, 28, 31, 34–35, 38–40).
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Prototyping Students learn about prototypes; that they are working models used to test a design concept by making actual observations and necessary adjustments, or to test and evaluate the solutions. All these too might be accompanied by redesigning and making any needed refinements (see Table 1; rows 2, 18–19, 25–26, 30–31, and 33).
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Simulating Learners should have opportunities to learn and use simulation as a method or tool that is critical to both the success of developing an optimum design and forecasting or foreseeing possible outcomes, consequences, benefits and risks. Simulations are used as well for learning about the complex systems in simpler ways (see Table 1; rows 4, 6–7, 11–12, 22, 24, 36, and 41).
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Problem solving Students learn to make and use models in specific problem-solving methods (see Table 1; rows 14 and 45).
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Communicating Since expressing ideas and solutions to others constitutes an important part of the design process, students learn how to communicate their ideas and design proposals through various forms of modelling without having to invest time or expense in making real or large items (see Table 1; rows 18, 20–23).
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Learning Students should be taught to design and build models to demonstrate how some technological devices are developed and/or used. They also increase their understanding of technological systems by the aid of designing and developing related models. Finally, engaging with modelling plans can help students to “enhance their skill and comprehension level to tackle design and problem-solving activities” (see Table 1; rows 37–38, 42–45).
Case 2: The New Zealand Curriculum
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First of all, it may take dissimilar names across different domains of technology (e.g., “as test or predictive modelling in biotechnology, animatics in film making, a toile in garment making, and mock-ups or mocks in architecture and structural engineering”). However the pivotal point of all these cases, as pointed out by TCS, is that “what is being modelled, or represented, is the yet-to-be realized technological outcome for the purpose of testing design concepts with regards to the physical and functional nature of the outcome required by the brief” (pp. 49–55);
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It can act as a tool to provide a conversant forecast of the yet-to-come future effects. In other words, through exploring and evaluating designed concepts, functional models enable decision takers to evaluate the technical feasibility of their proposal’s outcome, and take ‘go/no go’ decisions;
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Functional modelling enables technologists to reduce waste or resources, instead of taking a fast route toward the realization phase and “relying on a more ‘build and fix’ approach to technological development” (p. 50);
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It also enhances the confidence level about being fit for purpose, and amounts to fewer unknown or undesirable side-effects;
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Risk identification and more informed management could be considered as the other benefits of using this type of model;
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Functional models, however, have their own limits as they are only a simulation or some part of a real product or system, and thereby the provided test results are confined by specific boundaries.
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This type of modelling as well “can result in a ‘no-go’ decision or in a significant change, meaning a need to revise the design concept” (p. 50);
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Any decision to develop further, after prototyping, can lead to a risk reduction as well as “less dramatic modification, or refinement of the outcome to enhance its performance and/or suitability” (p. 51);
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Prototyping can have another usage, that is, “for the purpose of testing ‘scale-up’ opportunities, and … [to] provide key information regarding decisions around ongoing or multi-unit production and marketing for commercial purposes” (p. 51).
The problems; a preliminary sense
The philosophical literature
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to build or correct a theory, or to explore processes for which our theories do not give good accounts;
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to explore or experiment on a theory that is already in place; or
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to even investigate other models.
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“to understand, predict or optimize the behavior of devices or the properties of diverse materials, whether actual or possible” (Boon and Knuuttila 2009, p. 693);
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“to represent the design of a device or its mechanical working” (Boon and Knuuttila 2009, p. 693);
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to give a theoretical description or interpretation of the (specific) function of a device (Boon and Knuuttila 2009);
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to serve as hubs for interlocking various concepts, methods, materials, contexts and so forth to create new knowledge and new know-how (Nersessain and Patton 2009);
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“to explain the workings of something that already exists” as well as “[to show] how something can be built to perform a certain function” (Hodges 2009, p. 672);
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to test the designed concepts and outcomes prior to or after release (France et al. 2010); and
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to support the development of new products or systems as well as to support communicating about them (De Vries 2013).
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More often than not, models bear a certain degree of deliberate idealization, abstraction, or other types of false characterizations (Morrison 1999). The only perfect model in this sense is the world itself. As a matter of fact, the process of modelling welcomes many types of inaccurate, unrealistic, and even false (or wrong) models, if useful, to be accepted as (certain types of) satisfactory ones (for more detail, see also Teller 2001; Knuuttila 2004; Toon 2010; Parker 2011; Knuuttila 2011; Rescher 2012); models in this sense can be also seen as kinds of “caricatures” (Cartwright 1983, p. 150).
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Some models are not intended to describe any actual system at all; they only provide us with an understanding, for instance, of very general facts about what makes some phenomena possible or impossible, or still not possible to exist. These are particularly very customary in technological practices (Weisberg 2007).
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several types of models, in terms of their physical or structural properties as well as their appearance (e.g., Vincenti 1993; Morrison and Morgan 1999; Justi and Gilbert 2003, Knuuttila 2004; Hodges 2009), or regarding various types of knowledge behind their development processes (Vincenti 1993; Knuuttila 2004);
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justification and/or discovery in constructing models (Boumans 1999); and
Models as (techno-scientific) artefacts
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What distinguishes technical artefacts from natural objects is that the former results from purposive human actions while the latter does not; and
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technical artefacts are of another property as well that discriminates them from social objects; they fulfil their function through their physical characteristics while the same cannot be said of social objects, such as bank notes, passports, driving licenses, and the like. The latter serve their function not on the basis of their physical properties; rather, “on the grounds of collective acceptance [of certain people]”, in such a way that “[a]s soon as such collective acceptance disappears, [they are] no longer able to fulfil [such] function” (see Vermaas et al. 2011, pp. 7–13).
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In Morrison and Morgan’s (1999) account, ‘construction’ and ‘function’ are two (of four) basic elements of models;
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Knuuttila and Voutilainen (2003) describe models as ‘materialized’ things that have their own certain ‘intentional construction’ and their own ‘functioning’ in a multitude of ways in scientific activities;
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The most interesting properties of models are, in Knuuttila’s (2004) view, due to the way in which ‘intentionally’ and ‘materiality’ intersect in their diverse uses. She also stresses the ‘variously-materialized’ beings of models; and
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The ‘purposefully-designed’ aspect of models has been considered by Boon and Knuuttila (2009).
The intrinsic nature of models
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What are models made of?
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How can they be described in terms of size, weight, color, shape, materials, etc.?
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What components do they consist of? What connects these components together?
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What types of models are there?
The intentional nature of models
The models developed in the engineering sciences should be distinguished from the models produced in engineering [in technological practice]. Whereas the latter usually represent the design of a device or its mechanical workings, models in the engineering sciences aim for scientific understanding of the behavior of different devices or the properties of diverse materials (p. 693).
In technology models are a means to an end—that is used to test design ideas and outcomes to provide robust evidence to support defensible decision-making so that the outcome is fit for purpose… [but, in] science a robust model enables one to predict and account for properties that had not been expected (p. 390).
Functional modelling provides an opportunity to test all aspects of design concepts prior to the realization of the technological outcome and is used to enhance risk mitigation by providing the means to minimize the unknown or unintended consequences of possible technological outcomes. Functional modelling allows for the exploration and evaluation of the design concept in order to make justifiable decisions regarding its future development … [whereas] … Prototype modelling allows for the testing of an outcome’s fitness for purpose after it has been realized but prior to its implementation, and provides evidence for its acceptance, or the need for further development. (pp. 383–384)France et al. have also devoted an interesting part of their article to a very insightful case study of ‘decisional’ application of both functional models and prototypes in producing and releasing a special type of vaccine.
On the relationship between the intrinsic and the intentional natures of models
The users’ version of this type of knowledge is of the following kind: S knows that [artefact] A’s physical property p (or a combination of properties pi) makes it suitable for carrying out with A the action ACT … [while] … The designers’ version of this type of knowledge is different: in order to let action ACT with A …, A should have physical property p (or a combination of physical properties pi). These two versions differ considerably. The user starts with the physical nature of the artefact at hand and from that seeks possible functions. The designer starts with desired functions and from that she/he seeks a suitable physical nature (properties). (De Vries and Meijers 2013, pp. 62–63)
[A]bstraction means that we leave out aspects of reality. We may, for instance, leave out air friction to produce a model for free fall motion. Idealization means that we make small changes to simplify the representation of reality. We may, for instance, replace a wobbly curve of measured values into a smooth one that fits a simple mathematical formula.Needless to say, abstraction and idealization defined in this way can take various forms and properties, which though beyond of the scope of this paper, are strongly suggested to be reflected upon in later studies, and well thought-out when teaching in practice.