This article briefly describes a curriculum study that had two main purposes. The first purpose was to develop and reflect upon a new energy technology curriculum at the lower secondary school level using an action research method. The second purpose was to determine the effect of collaborative activities, with the families of the pupils enrolled in the curriculum, as a means to help develop pupils' cross-curricular competence. The Japanese Society of Technology Education (JSTE, 1999) proposed two frameworks for providing opportunities in technology education as a general education for all, from kindergarten through upper secondary school. Four technology related curricular themes were identified as being closely associated with technology education: (1) working with materials and processing technology; (2) energy conversion technology; (3) information, systems, and control technology; and (4) bio-related technology. The authors propose technological processing as a fifth curricular theme closely associated with technology education. (Contains 2 figures and 6 tables.)