The following year saw major improvements in the organisation of KS3 across the whole of design and technology. For some time we had been concerned that our carousel system was giving pupils a rushed and superficial experience and we changed to a new system:
- During Y7 and Y8 groups of pupils now visit the different focus areas only once (for 20 weeks, one hour per week)
- Irrespective of the focus area, the first block of work visited in Y7 places a major emphasis on ‘Exploring ideas and the task’, the second on ‘Generating ideas’, the third on ‘Developing and modelling’ and the fourth on ‘Planning and evaluating’. This gets away from a situation where every project was treating each of these core aspects of D&T superficially.
- At the end of the two years pupils begin a three year KS4 programme
This reorganisation was an opportunity for me to reconfigure systems and control at KS3. I decided that for the 20 weeks now available I would develop two new Units of work – an introductory one that would establish some key knowledge and skills, plus a second Unit which would introduce the pupils to programmable electronic systems.
 |
For the introductory Unit I developed the idea of ‘Electronics without batteries’ originated by Torben Steeg. The idea of this was to use ‘supercapacitors’ (very high value capacitors), charged up from the USB port of a computer, as a substitute for disposable batteries.
|
 |
One very relevant issue that this obviously raised is the importance of sustainability and avoiding waste. The supercapacitors store enough energy to power low power output devices for about 15 minutes. |
 |
The original idea was to use this as the basis of a LED torch, with an ultrabright LED. But, to encourage some system thinking and resourcefulness right from the start, pupils explore different electronic products that use USB power before being given a chooser chart with a list of inputs and outputs that they can select from (push switches, tilt switches, LEDs, and buzzers). |
They then choose a context for their project. Some might design and make a USB powered torch, others a personal alarm and occasionally we get some quite unique ideas.
Although the pupils all use the same PCB and develop a similar product, they have some ownership of the direction of their project and they find this quite stimulating.
Torben’s suggestion that lead to this Unit are available on the Nuffield D&T web site together with other articles on sustainability, cross curricular links and modernizing D&T.
 |
Some of the materials I use for this Unit can be downloaded from this web site:
|
 |
For their second KS3 project pupils produce a PICAXE based ‘Cyberpet’ project. The pet has two LED ‘eyes’ and a piezo sounder ‘mouth’. It can be programmed to respond to touch (via a push switch) or light (via an LDR). Pupils have the design freedom to decide how their pet will ‘act’, and use Crocodile Technology to develop flowchart programs for this purpose.
This project is based on the PICAXE Cyberpet kit available from Revolution Education. |
