1. Jim Flowers & Mary Annette Rose Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Extending the Trends
Teaching Forecasting in Technology Education
Jim Flowers & Mary Annette Rose
Ball State University, Muncie, IN

2. Technology Assessment
Assessing the impacts of products and systems, as well as the availability of resources, is challenging.
Creating and adopting technology often has unintended, indirect, and delayed consequences that negatively impact human and environmental health.
As technology students engage in engineering and design, they need to develop predictive skills.

3. Forecasting
“Forecasting is the prediction of values of a variable based on known past values of that variable or other related variables” (Makridakis, Wheelwright & Hyndman, 1998, p. 599)
Makridakis, S., Wheelwright, S., & Hyndman, R. (1998). Forecasting: Methods and application. NY: Wiley.

4. Purpose
To share several quantitative forecasting techniques useful in technology education.

5. Spreadsheet
The spreadsheet used in this presentation can be downloaded from:

6. Apply Prediction to Performance Data
Mousetrap vehicles …taking weight and distance traveled to predict the distance of another vehicle
Photo Courtesy of

7. Jim Flowers & Mary Annette Rose Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Extending the Trends
Teaching Forecasting in Technology Education
Jim Flowers & Mary Annette Rose
Ball State University, Muncie, IN