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The purpose of this study is to explore whether, and if so how, a design activity could encourage students to express and develop knowledge on emerging technology in relation to issues about sustainability. Several researchers have asserted that, in today's technologically dependent society, it is important to be able to control technology and make informed decisions connected to technology. Design activities could make a significant contribution to technology education while students are developing their knowledge about technology. Thus, the present study aims to analyze students' verbal interactions as they work in a design project, which includes designing a model of a house, regarding their ability to develop technological literacy with the support of a physical model. The study is based on several small-group interactions that were recorded, transcribed, analyzed, and discussed. This research project was conducted as an observation of technology education in a Swedish compulsory school. The students (aged 13-14) negotiated and shared knowledge about technology as they interacted with their fellow students. The results indicate that, in a relatively large number of situations, the students expressed knowledge about emerging technology and adopted a sustainability perspective while working in a design activity, and thereby, successively developed technological literacy. This meant that the students were able to integrate knowledge on emerging technology like graphene, nanotechnology, and algae batteries in their models. Furthermore, the results indicate that, during technical development work, students were able to develop reasoning, communication, and collaboration skills.

Technology is a compulsory subject at Swedish elementary schools and, according to the syllabus, helps students develop their ability to examine different technological solutions and reason how these solutions affect society, environment, and humans. An important challenge for educational research is to analyse and understand the consequences and impacts of technologies on students' learning, well-being, and participation in society. It is important to understand how technological systems work in order to orient oneself in modern society and to make well-informed decisions about what is good or bad use of technology. The purpose of this study is to further explore students' understanding of technological systems and their features through investigating the students' reasoning and collaboration in small-group interactions. We found a relatively large number of situations where students clearly demonstrate that they understand technological systems and the components and relationships among them. On the other hand, some situations indicate that students have difficulty explaining and understanding or realising concepts, theories, and relationships regarding technological systems. The findings need to be examined critically, although the students in this study were not used to this way of working with concepts or using images in their presentations. The study was conducted in the spring of 2016 at a compulsory school in the south of Sweden.