1. Sydney Technical High School September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007 1 Overview of design project: The timber box design project gives students an opportunity to design and construct a project in the timber technology related area of study. Students who have participated in this project have a real sense of achievement having made something for themselves and they are provided with a good foundation for other design projects in the Technology syllabus having learnt valuable design skills, practical skills and safe working practices. During the design project students will work through each stage of the design process and carefully document their work in a project report (design folio). Students will also learn timber terms, safety, manufacturing techniques and how to use a range of wood working tools and machinery through demonstrations and by completing a research assignment as part of their assessment. Another important point about this project is that students were involved in negotiating some aspects of their design enabling them to make decisions regarding suitable dimensions, joining methods, lid types and finishes for their own timber box. Syllabus links Teaching and learning sequence Stage 4: Year 7 Technology (Mandatory)

2. Sydney Technical High School Exploring and defining the task Video: Project report outline Video: Project introduction Overview of the design project and assessment requirements Design process lesson September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

3. Sydney Technical High School Exploring and defining the task Factors affecting design lesson A class room discussion and the use of the white board were methods used to outline factors affecting design. Students were then asked to fill out the social and environmental considerations in their draft work booklets. Video: Theory lesson on exploring and defining the task September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

4. Sydney Technical High School Generating and developing ideas Video: Teacher outlining the Generating and developing ideas stage of the design process Video: Students working on their items list and sketches September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

5. Sydney Technical High School Generating and developing ideas NB: The final design idea was drawn as an orthogonal and isometric drawing. Students had the choice of either using the technical drawing boards or CAD software to create the drawings. Those students who used the CAD software were given a worksheet to guide them through this process. Auto sketch work sheet template used to guide students when drawing their orthogonal drawing Pro Desktop work sheet template use to guide students when drawing their presentation drawing Video: Evaluating existing timber box designs The timber boxes we evaluated comprised of a sliding lidded box using either acrylic or plywood for the lid; a swivel top lid; a hinged lid and a pop top lid with tightly fitted inserts. Reasons for their size and shape and the importance of being able to see inside the box were some of the issues discussed. September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

6. Sydney Technical High School Producing solutions Drop saw: ideal for cutting angles for the swivel top lids 1. Unique student box designs Each timber box was uniquely designed for each student’s needs and the final products produced by this group of Year 7 students seem to fit into one of three categories: 2. Swivel lidded boxes 3. Acrylic sliding boxes Using masking tape to keep swivel lid in place was helpful when gluing and nailing the lid and also when locating the hole to drill When running a groove through the circular saw make sure you check the thickness of the material being used for the lid so that it slides easily. September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

7. Sydney Technical High School 7 Producing solutions Teacher demonstrations included: marking out timber using the disc sander making a rebate joint. Video: Students marking out and cutting timber for practice joint September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

8. Sydney Technical High School What did you produce as a result of the design process? “I made a pop top box to store some books and stationary. The lid of my box is held down with clips on the two outer sides.” “I designed and built a timber box to store my guitar picks.” In what ways did your design solution achieve each success criteria? “Having a folio to document the design process allowed me to achieve each step in the design process. Also making sure my box met the design brief and design specifications allowed me to achieve each success criteria.” “The timber box did exactly what it was designed to do as outlined in the brief. In one way it did more than just house my guitar picks successfully as it is also able to store other pieces of equipment, thus surpassing its expectations. The project report we had to fill out in class also helped us meet all the relevant criteria outlined in the design process.” Student reflection September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

9. Sydney Technical High School Student reflection What aspects of your documentation process did you find most useful? Why? “I found the drawings, cutting list and interview with my teacher to evaluate my final idea helpful. The drawings helped me visualise what the design would look like, the cutting list was helpful when measuring and cutting all the pieces for the box and the interview gave me an opportunity to discuss my final idea and to make some slight changes more within my level of ability.” “I found that evaluating existing box designs, making drawings and creating a cutting list useful. When we discussed and evaluated the different box design in terms of materials, joints and the lid types I was able to come up with a few of my own design ideas. The sketches help me visualise what the box designs would look like and the cutting list was useful when we had to measure and cut out all the pieces for our box.” September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

10. Sydney Technical High School How would you approach this task differently next time? “A problem I encountered during the producing solution stage was when I used the putty. One of the other students accidentally gave me the maple putty which was too dark in colour. Instead I should have used pine putty to cover up the nail holes as it closely matched the colour of the base.” “I would certainly reduce the height of my box as the original height made it difficulty to pick out the guitar picks with my fingers. With help from the teacher we ended up cutting off 10mm to overcome this problem. Also I attached the swivel top lid before making the felt lining for the inside of my box. The lid ended up being removed so I could insert the felt. The felt lining then would have to be done first before attaching the lid if I were to make the box again.” What skills did you gain or do you need to further develop? “Some of the new skills I learnt were disc sanding, planing, nail punching, finger jointing (learnt how it was made by the machine), rebate joining (watched how to make it even though I didn’t use it on my box) and a few more things.” “During the construction of my box I learnt many new skills such as how to use the pedestal drill, try square, Warrington hammer, nail punch and plane; how to make a rebate joint; how to take out a bent nail; how to apply lacquer, Danish oil and putty. Skills that could do with further practice include nailing and sanding”. Student reflection September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

11. Sydney Technical High School What did you want the students to learn and why does this learning matter? The purpose of this unit of work was for students to learn about the design process and how to design and construct a product in the timber technology area. During the project students learnt what design is, factors that influence design and gain knowledge of timber related terms, procedures and manufacturing techniques as well as valuable practical skills and safe work practices. The benefits from student learning experiences in this project can assist them in other design projects or practical situations further down the track. What do you think students learnt? Reflecting back on the experience I feel as though the students have learnt how to design and construct a product made from timber as well as document the different stages of the design process. The boys all seem very pleased with their final product and have fulfilled the design brief and met most if not all design specifications. The students have also learnt timber terms and how to safely select and use a range of materials, tools/machines and techniques to carry out a design project. Teacher reflection September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

12. Sydney Technical High School What strategies did you find particularly helpful? 1.In the early stages of this unit of work I found examining different design process models and showing an example of a finished design folio useful in explaining the design process. 2.The use of class room discussions and cloud diagrams on the white board were helpful for students when we went through the following topics: defining design, factors that influence design and social and environmental considerations. The class was later given the opportunity to document the points discussed in their draft work booklet. I also prepared an activity sheet on design when explaining what design is to the class. 3.The draft work booklet which had space for students to document each of the design process stages was extremely helpful, particularly towards the end of the project when the class were compiling their final project report. 4.Investigating and evaluating similar timber boxes in terms of their strengths and weaknesses was useful as well as examining the materials, joining methods, and finishes used. This helped students in generating their design ideas. Teacher reflection September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

13. Sydney Technical High School What strategies did you find particularly helpful? (cont.) 5.I found that the quality and presentation of drawings from some of the students was not up to standard so I used Auto sketch and Pro-desktop as an alternative means of representing the students’ final drawings. 6.Preparation was the key to managing the different designs as otherwise you get tied up at the circular saw for an entire period cutting out individual designs. I would often do this prior to the lesson to save time. 7.There were several construction tips that helped make the project run a lot smoother such as: cutting grooves in the 1 metre timber lengths for the sliding lidded boxes; making sure the lid was cut a little longer to allow for the angular cut later on otherwise it would be too short; using tape when attaching the swivel lid to accurately place the two sections of the lid on top of the box. 8.Overall the project has allowed me to improve the way I deliver the design process to students in the classroom and watching yourself on video after lessons allows you to improve in areas of quality teaching. Teacher reflection September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007

14. Sydney Technical High School What would you do differently? Criticism with the way I taught the unit would be that I seemed to take too long in the designing phase partly due to the fact that there was a lot of information and theory to get through before construction could commence. I would definitely cut down the amount of time spent in this area if you are to keep the project to 10 weeks. I did not seem to get much of a response from students when we discussed social and environmental considerations and ended up having to provide most of the answers on the white board. I am not sure if the reason for this lack in response is because of the way I taught this section or that they were not interested in the lesson content which is more likely the case with some of the students in this particular group. My gut feeling is that the students had enough theory and design related work in the first 5 weeks and were just eager to get into the practical work shop. Whilst allowing students to negotiate the sizes, joints, finishes and lid types I allowed individuals to have input into their final design the demands placed on the teacher was at times quite challenging. Having to cut different sizes of timber, demonstrate different joints, finishes and techniques for fixing lids made the demonstrations longer and made it difficult to maintain student concentration if the demo was not applicable to their design. Limiting students to only being able to use a rebate joint is one suggestion that would help improve the management of the project. Some of the other negotiable aspects could also be more tightly controlled to make the project easier for the teacher, however you need to be aware that this could remove some of the fun in learning how to design. Teacher reflection September 2007Technology education K-8: Design in practice © State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007