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The aim of this chapter is to describe the process of design, development, evaluation, and redesign of a research-based teaching-learning sequence (TLS) about optical properties of materials aimed at integrating science and technology. According to an innovative rationale presented in a previous chapter of this book, such integration was carried out using optical fibers as driving theme and focusing on light path and guidance. A common core relevant for both the scientific and the technological components has been identified through elementarization inspired by the educational reconstruction model. The process was substantiated in a two-year research and development study featuring three phases, involving four teachers and overall 60 secondary schools 15- to 16-year-old students in the south of Italy. Analysis of teachers’ interviews and students’ learning outcomes in each phase suggested changes which iteratively optimized the integration of the science and technology contents addressed. The present case supports the effectiveness of the proposed rationale to integrate science and technology in teaching practice. Implications for science education research are discussed

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.