Learning and undertaking activities in design and technology contribute
to achievement of the curriculum aims for all young people to become:
- successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
- confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling
lives
- responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.
The importance of design and technology
In design and technology pupils combine practical and technological skills
with creative thinking to design and make products and systems to meet human
needs. In design and technology pupils learn to use today's technologies
and participate in developing tomorrow's. They learn to think creatively
and intervene to improve quality of life, solving problems as individuals
and members of a team. Working in stimulating contexts that provide a spectrum
of opportunities and draw on the local ethos, community and wider world,
pupils identify needs and opportunities. They respond with ideas, products
and systems, challenging expectations where appropriate. They combine practical
and intellectual skills with an understanding of aesthetic, technical, cultural,
health, social, emotional, economic, industrial and environmental issues.
As they do so, they evaluate present and past design and technology, and
its uses and effects. Through design and technology pupils become confident
practically and develop as discriminating users of products. They apply
their creative thinking and learn to innovate, developing their self-esteem.
Key concepts
There are a number of key concepts that underpin the study of design and
technology. Pupils need to understand these concepts in order to deepen
and broaden their knowledge, skills and understanding.
Designing and making
- Understanding that designing and making has aesthetic, technical, economic,
environmental, ethical and social dimensions.
- Producing
practical solutions that are relevant and connected to life in response
to needs, wants and opportunities.
- Understanding that products and systems have an impact on quality of
life.
Economic
This includes understanding the patenting process.
Producing practical solutions that are relevant
and connected to life in response to needs, wants and opportunities
Pupils should investigate what is needed, balancing risks against benefits.
Cultural understanding
- Understanding that designing
and making reflects and influences culture and society.
- Investigating
factors that have led to approaches to design and design decisions in
different societies.
- Understanding how products contribute to lifestyle and choices.
Designing and making reflects and influences
culture and society
This includes understanding that: designed products might reflect the
values and attitudes of individual designers; individual designers might
wish to use their products to influence a culture.
Investigating factors that have led to approaches
to design and design decisions in different societies
This includes developing perspectives and new ways of seeing issues and
problems that product developers in different societies have engaged with.
Creativity
- Making
links between principles of good design, existing solutions
and technological knowledge.
- Recognising the significance of knowledge and previous experience, searching
for trends and patterns in existing solutions, reinterpreting and applying
learning in new design contexts and communicating ideas in new or unexpected
ways.
Making links
This includes seeing possibilities, problems and challenges, and visualising
alternatives.
Critical evaluation
- Analysing
products and solutions to devise solutions to practical problems.
Analysing products and solutions
This includes sharing and negotiating success criteria that lead to successful
practical solutions.
Key processes
These are the essential skills and processes in design and technology that
pupils need to learn to make progress.
Pupils should be able to:
- generate, develop, communicate
and model ideas in a range of ways, using appropriate
strategies
- respond creatively to briefs, developing their own proposals and producing
specifications for products and associated services
- apply
their knowledge and understanding of a range of materials, ingredients
and technologies to design and make their products
- use
their understanding of others' designing to inform their own
- plan
and organise activities and then shape, form, mix, assemble
and finish materials, components or ingredients, choosing which hand and
machine tools, equipment and computer-aided design/manufacture (CAD/CAM)
facilities to use
- solve
technical problems
- reflect
critically when evaluating and modifying their ideas and proposals
to improve the product throughout its inception and manufacture.
Generate, develop, communicate and model ideas
in a range of ways
This includes using ICT.
Appropriate strategies
This includes devising strategies for researching, planning and testing.
Apply their knowledge and understanding of a
range of materials and ingredients
This includes changing materials and ingredients into appropriate forms,
utilising the properties of composite materials, and manipulating, sorting
and combining materials and ingredients during processing.
Use their understanding of others' designing
to inform their own
This includes observing how different solutions can resolve a problem
or connecting different problems with similar solutions. Pupils should
consider historical and contemporary design.
Plan and organise activities
This includes deciding how to set about tasks, sequencing activities,
designing for production, developing realistic schedules, managing safe
production and ensuring that communication is clear.
Solve technical problems
This includes using knowledge and understanding of how energy waste can
be overcome during the production or application of a product and how
the efficiency of energy use is a measure of a product's technical success.
Reflect critically when evaluating and modifying
their ideas and proposals
This includes testing possible materials, components and prototypes for
performance against a specification, anticipating the market, prioritising
actions and organising ways forward, investigating and reconciling conflicting
requirements and assessing the quality of construction and finish. It
should also include testing the influence of products on their environment
and reflecting on the fact that good ideas may not be feasible in practice
(for example due to inherent instability).
Range and content
This section outlines the breadth of the subject on which teachers should
draw when teaching the key concepts and key processes.
The curriculum should include at
least three of the following product areas:
- food
- resistant materials
- textiles
- systems and control.
At least three of the following product areas
One or more of these areas should be studied in more depth to ensure informed
pupil choice when moving on to key stage 4 and beyond.
In each product area studied, pupils should focus on designing
The study of designing should include understanding of:
- users'
needs and the problems arising from them
- the
criteria used to judge the quality of products, including fitness
for purpose, the extent to which the products meet a clear need, and whether
resources have been used appropriately
- the impact of products beyond meeting their original purpose and assessing
products in terms of sustainability
- aesthetic, technical, constructional
and relevant wider issues that may influence designing, selecting materials,
making and product development.
Users' needs and the problems arising from them
This should include an analysis of where human values may conflict, for
example benefits for the few or the many, for the present or the future.
The criteria used to judge the quality of products
This should include criteria for users' likes and dislikes and for overall
benefit and user satisfaction. Pupils should be able to develop and use
criteria.
Assessing products in terms of sustainability
This includes researching and thinking about the use of renewable sources
or exploring alternatives to use in place of less sustainable materials.
Constructional
This includes considering the feasibility of solving a practical problem.
For example are essential resources available or are constructional forces
being properly transferred from one body to another?
In each product area studied, pupils should focus on making
The study of food should include:
- a broad range of practical skills, techniques and equipment and standard
recipes, and how to use them to develop, plan and cook meals and single
or multiple products
- how to plan and carry out a broad range of practical cooking tasks safely
and hygienically
- healthy eating models relating to a balanced
diet, nutritional needs of different groups in society and factors
affecting food choice and how to take these into account when planning,
preparing and cooking meals and products
- the characteristics of a broad range of ingredients, including their
nutritional,
functional and sensory
properties.
Safely and hygienically
This includes understanding the principles of food safety and knowing
the hygienic procedures to follow when preparing, cooking and storing
food.
Balanced diet
This includes learning about the components of a healthy diet by classifying
food into groups. Pupils should also understand the relationship between
food, good health, growth and energy balance throughout life.
Nutritional and functional properties
This includes achieving a balanced and varied diet through a wise choice
of food.
Sensory properties
This includes appreciating different flavours and using appropriate vocabulary
relating to tastes that have been experienced.
The study of resistant materials and textiles
should include:
- a broad range of techniques, including handcraft skills and CAD/CAM,
and how to use them to ensure consistency and precision when making single
and multiple products
- the behaviour of structural
elements in a variety of materials
- how to use materials,
technology and aesthetic qualities to design and make products
of worth
- how to prepare and assemble components to achieve functional results.
CAD/CAM
For example, using a computer-operated cutter/plotter, lathe, milling
machine, rapid prototyping equipment, sewing machine.
Structural elements
This includes understanding loads and other forces, resistance to loads
without deforming, and the connection and transfer of forces within a
structure.
Materials, technology and aesthetic qualities
This includes recognising that new materials are being developed all the
time and the tension between cost, the demands of the product and sustainability
issues, such as minimising waste and reusing materials.
The study of systems and control should include:
- the
practical application of systems and control in design proposals
- electrical, electronic, mechanical, microprocessor and computer control
systems and how to use them effectively
- how to use understanding of systems and control to assemble
subsystems into more complex systems
- feedback
and how a variety of inputs can give rise to a variety of outputs.
The practical application of systems and control
This includes managing the sequence of operations in mechanical, electrical,
electronic and pneumatic or combined systems.
Assemble subsystems into more complex systems
This includes integrating subsystems to manage particular events in a
larger designed and made product. For example to control the location
of objects using light.
Feedback
For example using feedback from a heat sensor to trigger a mechanical
action.
Curriculum opportunities
During the key stage pupils should be offered the following opportunities
that are integral to their learning and enhance their engagement with the
concepts, processes and content of the subject.
In ways appropriate to the product area, the curriculum should provide
opportunities for pupils to:
- analyse
products
- undertake focused tasks that develop skills, knowledge and understanding
in relation to design
and make assignments
- engage in design and make assignments in different and progressively
more complex contexts
- work individually and in teams taking on different roles and responsibilities
- work with designers
and makers where possible to develop an understanding of the
product design process
- use
ICT as appropriate for image capture and generation, data acquisition,
capture and handling, controlling and product realisation
- make links between design and technology and other
subjects and areas of the curriculum.
Analyse
This includes observing what is happening and linking causes with effects
when a product is used.
Products
This includes their own, other pupils' and professionally designed products.
Design and make assignments
These should build on ideas developed and information acquired during
product analysis, and experience gained during focused tasks.
Designers and makers
This includes electronic, mechanical and structural engineers, product
designers, fashion designers, chefs, architects and others.
Use ICT as appropriate
This could include: image capture with scanners and digital cameras; image
generation through computer-aided design; data acquisition through CD-ROM
and internet-based resources; data capture through sensors; data handling
through the use of databases and spreadsheets; controlling through the
use of control programme software; and product realisation through the
use of computer-aided manufacture.
Other subjects and areas of the curriculum
This includes using knowledge and understanding from other subjects and
from outside the school in designing and making or using design and technology
to give context and meaning to the application of other programmes of
study.
