1. Year 11 GCSE Coursework Guide MECHANICAL TOY
Follow these easy-to-understand helpsheets to get a great mark for this project!

2. 1hr Brief & Analysis Analysis of the brief
Just copy this onto your page
Brief
You will design and make a children’s mechanical toy. It should;
Be made to a high quality
Use materials available in the school workshop
Be suitable for a child below the age of 10
Contain a working mechanism
Although you don’t get marks for this sheet it will introduce your work and make it clear to the examiner that you know what you have to do and that you have thought about the brief
Complete a mindmap of things to do with Children’s mechanical toys – don’t worry about this too much, just nice and quick 
How would you make a toy suitable for a child?
What kind of toys are there?
Analysis of the brief
What could you do to a toy to make a child like it more?
What materials could you use to make your toy out of?
What different types of motion could you make with a mechanism?
1hr

3. Product Analysis 1 – Pull-a-long Duck
Form
Describe what this product looks like (colours, finishes, shapes) - Is it modern? traditional? Fun? For children/adults? Explain why
Product Details
Name:
Price:
Size:
Available from:
You will do 2 Product Analysis sheets and then write some conclusions. Analysis means when you look at something and try and understand what it is all about. On these sheets we will look at 2 different mechanical toys (1 wooden and 1 plastic) and then explain things about them – follow the boxes for guidance, they are all important). These 3 sheets are worth 4 marks that is nearly half a grade!
Sustainability
Explain what is sustainable about this product.
Explain what is not sustainable about this product.
User Needs
Explain in detail what the user needs it to do? What is important to them?
Ergonomics
Is this product easy for humans to use? Explain your answer in as much detail as possible
Materials
What type of materials are this product made from? Are these sustainable or not?
Function
What is this product for? What does it do? Does it do anything different to other similar products? Does it have any special features that make it better?
Good/Bad
Do you think this product is a good design? Why? Give as much detail in your answer as possible
Target Market
Who do the manufacturers expect to use this product? How have they tried to make it appeal to this group of people?

4. 1hrs 4 Marks Conclusions from the ‘Product Analysis’ sheets
On this sheet you need to explain what you have learnt
from the product analyses.
For example;
How can toys satisfy the needs of the user?
What makes a good design? Why?
How have the materials that they are made of made the designs better?
How can you change the form of something to appeal to a particular target market?
How can you make something easier and safer to use?
How big are mechanical childrens’ toys usually? Why is this size good?
If you can think of other things that you have learnt, then go for it, the more you write, the better, as long as you link what you say to the products you have looked at.
If you can answer these questions it shows that you can link good design to materials
(wood is easy to paint and doesn’t have sharp edges) and users’ needs (toys need smooth edges so they don’t hurt the children), and that you can also ‘identify trends’ (young children like bright colours!)
1hrs
4 Marks

5. Conclusions from Interview
Introduction: Write a few sentences to say why you interviewed someone and give some details about who you chose to interview and why they were the lucky one!
Then give their answers to as many of these questions as possible;
What do you think makes a toy fun to play with for a toddler?
What colours and textures do you think toddlers like the best?
How big do you think a toy for a toddler should be?
If you were going to make the toy around a particular theme what would you choose?
In your experience what is the difference between a good toy and a bad toy?
Of the toddler toys you have seen, what materials have you they been made from? Which material would you use, and why?

6. Response to a brief using Analysis of Research
First of all stick the Final TOY Brief on the top of your sheet.
Then you will need to write about what you have learnt from your different types of research (exam revision, product analyses, interview, materials practice projects) that will help you come up with a product that will successfully meet the brief.
Using the writing frame, “From the ………….. Research I have learnt that ……….” write as much as you can about the following questions;
What does a toddler need from a toy?
What is the difference between a well designed toy and a badly designed toy?
How can you make your toy appeal to a toddler?
What mechanisms could you use? Which one(s) do you think you will use and why?
How will you consider ergonomics when you make your toy?
Where would a toddler play with a toy? Does this change how toys are designed/made?
Which materials will you be able to use to make your mechanical toy? Which ones are the best to use?
How can you make a product high quality?
How long should a toy last?
How big are toddler toys usually?
Is sustainability important when making the toy? How could you make it more sustainable?

7. Specifications SUPER IMPORTANT SHEET = CONCENTRATE & GET IT DONE!!
Write the following;
“To help me design a mechanical toy I have done lots of research and analysed what I found out. I will now write a list of things that my toy should do for it to be considered successful in meeting the brief.”
FUNCTION - It should…
SIZE - It should...
USER NEEDS - It should...
COLOURS - It should... …
You will need to write enough points to cover; function, size, user needs, colours, textures, safety, ergonomics, sustainability, environment, aesthetic style, materials, life expectancy, ease of cleaning, cost, theme etc…

8. Initial Idea 1
2. Black Pen = Description What is good about the design?
Link it to specifications if you can.
5. Blue Pen = Materials
What would you make the design from?
Be specific, don’t just say ‘wood’!
3. SIZES
Add arrows with measurements to show roughly how big it would be 1.
15cm
25cm
4. Red Pen = Fixing
How would the design be held together?
Draw little pictures if it makes it clearer.
Wheels wobble
up and down
Nice big drawing please!

9. Chosen Idea Development
Copy and complete this;
Having completed the Peer Review of Initial Ideas I have decided that my Initial Idea X was the best because my classmates said it was;
However they said it could be improved by;
So I will develop it to try and make it the best possible toy I can.
You will then need to change your Initial Idea to show how you could fix problem 1, then change that to fix problem 2, then change that to show how all problems could be fixed...
This is your final design!

10. Chosen Idea Modelling
To get a really good understanding of your design you will need to make a full scale model of it from suitable materials (card/blue foam etc.). This isn’t worth many marks so do it quick!
Then answer these questions;
Why have you made a model?
Do you like the design?
Will the mechanism work?
Is it a good size for a toy?
Can you change anything about it to make it better?

11. Photo Diary
This photo diary is really important and proves to the examiner that you actually made your own project! You will also use this photo diary to start evaluating your processes by writing underneath the photos any comments about what was easy/hard with what you are doing in the photo.
Stage 1: Getting Materials
After giving the technician my cutting list he cut up my base materials
Stage 2: Marking Out
I used a ………………………………… to ……………………………………………………….
This was fairly …………. because ……..
……………………………………………………….
Stage 3a: Cutting
I used a ………………………………… to ……………………………………………………….
This was fairly …………. because ……..
……………………………………………………….
Stage 3b: Drilling
I used a ………………………………… to ……………………………………………………….
This was fairly …………. because ……..
……………………………………………………….
Stage 4: Assembly
I used a ………………………………… to ……………………………………………………….
This was fairly …………. because ……..
……………………………………………………….
Stage 5: Finishing
I used a ………………………………… to ……………………………………………………….
This was fairly …………. because ……..
……………………………………………………….

12. Testing & Evaluation
To evaluate my final toy I used different tests to work out if it met the specifications or not. I have marked my toy out of 5 for each of the tests, 0 = Bad Fail, 5 = Great Pass.
Specification
Testing
Result
(0-5)
Evaluation
1. Fun to play with
Got my friend to play with it 4
It passes this spec well because my friend said it was good fun to play with and he liked the way the turret came off and turned round 2.
Use Bright Colours
Asked my friend to look at it 2
My friend said although it looked good the dark green and black colour scheme could not be called bright
On this sheet you need to work out how successful your final toy is. To do this you will test it against all of the specifications that you wrote earlier in the project. You will then evaluate the results to say how good or bad it is.