I realised when I started in September 2003 that there was a great deal that needed to change. I have always believed in trying to get pupils to make real design choices when producing systems and control based projects. It happens in other material areas in design and technology, so why not in systems and control?
Of course these opportunities do not (and should not) be confined to product design. Pupils should also be making choices about how their electronic system works. I was convinced that this would be extremely motivating for pupils and that it would improve their ability to develop real solutions to particular design problems.
At first I wanted to change everything immediately but I soon realised that I would have to do things one step at a time to preserve my sanity, so I decided to focus first on the facilities, ICT and KS3.
Fortunately The Radclyffe School had just gained Technology College status and so there was some funding available to support this.
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Work began on improving systems and control (along with other technology areas) in September 2003. The aim was to make the room look and feel bright, attractive, clean and inspiring, and to enhance facilities for both designing and making. |
| Refurbished Teaching and Learning Area |
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The first priority was to get rid of the open plan nature of the faculty building by adding walls and doors to create rooms. This made a huge difference. The decoration was also improved with new wall painting, flooring, trunking, desks, chairs and workbenches. |
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Refurbished Manufacturing Area |
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Once this was completed new wall displays were added to create a colourful and stimulating learning environment. As well as standard wall displays showing examples of work etc. a symbol wall was created and key words for D&T displayed around the top of the room. Finally the whiteboard was moved onto a sidewall and a smartboard placed at the front of the room.
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“ You don’t need to worry about doing any design in electronics – we do that in other areas of D&T!” |
I knew that the work at KS4 was limited but I felt that the key to improvement was to lay good foundations at KS3. So I discussed ideas for development in this area with colleagues.
When I emphasised the needs for design in electronics, one colleague’s comment was: “You don’t need to worry about doing any design in electronics – we do that in other areas of D&T!”
I decided that the best way forward was to try a new Unit of work that would demonstrate how design could be integrated with electronics and that would start to break the cycle of low expectations of both pupils and staff.
The Unit that I decided to replace was the steady hand game in Y8. I wanted something that would give the pupil experience of alternative input and output devices to the switches and LEDs that were all that they had seen previously at KS3 and that would incorporate some product design.
The idea I adopted was the ‘Drawer Detective’ – a security device for a drawer or bag that would sound a buzzer if the drawer was opened. This was based on work by Tony Fitzgerald of Hyde Technology College where I had done my teaching practice. The illustrations below are from Hyde.
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The circuit used a light sensor input, a transistor driver and a buzzer output – all new subsystems for the pupils. |
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As an introduction to the Unit I included focussed practical tasks investigating alternative input and output devices (though the PCB that the pupils actually used in the project limited them to a light sensor input and buzzer output). |
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The Unit also included much greater opportunities for product and aesthetic design, such as the net on the left.
I was pleased with the progress that I had achieved in this, and I also tried to open up design opportunities in the other Units at KS3 and at GCSE, even though it was not possible in the time available to make fundamental changes to these.
I found that Y7 were quite receptive to this – they had no previous experience of systems and control. The GCSE group were more resistant – they had already formed an idea that electronics was ‘just soldering’, but I got away with telling them: “This is GCSE now – you have to raise your game.” |
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“Why are we doing this drawing stuff? This is supposed to be electronics.” |
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The big challenge that year, and for some time, was Y9. They had already spent two years on the old style ‘electronic craft’ projects and they wanted to know “Why are we doing this drawing stuff? This is supposed to be electronics.” There certainly were days when I wondered if I was in the right job.
But I knew from the results in Y8 that it was possible to engage pupils in design integrated with electronics. So I made sure that the head of faculty and senior management knew what Y8 were achieving and I made that the basis of my requests for enhanced resources for the following year. |
