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St Leonard's RC School is a large school within County Durham - 1400 pupils, (1200 from 11-16 years and a further 200 in an expanding sixth form). There is an 8-form entry mainly from our 10 Catholic primary schools but last year the school took children from a further 30 schools spread across the county.
The D&T department comprises 9 teachers (5 men and 4 women) and a half-time technician shared with the science department. The teaching staff are all specialists but they willingly undertake in-service training to expand their own expertise and knowledge so they can teach across most areas of our curriculum especially in KS3.
This case study illustrates work in the D&T department that has provided electronics as part of KS3 courses for some years and is now planning to introduce a KS4 electronics course in September 2001.
The work undertaken at St Leonard's is similar to that of many other schools whose work in electronics has been largely confined to KS3.
The reasons for not developing a KS4 electronics course will be easily recognised by other schools:
What has changed to move the school forward? The main thing has been the employment of a new member of staff with an electronics background. But also there has been a willingness of other members of staff to undertake some professional development. This will enable them to explore the potential of electronics education and to take the subject through to GCSE course.
Electronics education at St Leonard's
"My name is Ian Stonehouse, head of the D&T department at St Leonard's RC Comprehensive School in Durham. I have been teaching for about 22 years and was originally trained as a craft teacher (traditional woodwork and metalwork) at St. John's College, York.
During my early years I wanted to broaden my range of teaching experiences and became involved with courses in Control Technology and Project Technology.
The motivation for this came from two colleagues, notably Kevin Creaghan from my department and a science colleague and through a course provided by British Schools Technology (BST).
This was an organisation based at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham and Trent University). BST used modified buses to visit schools and LEAs round the country and provide INSET on electronics and control. Luckily, our school was a venue for one of these training sessions.
In September 1999 we took on a new member of staff, David Marshal.
David used to work as a technician at Northumbria University but decided to take up teaching. His knowledge of electronics is proving very useful to the department. Our KS3 work has started to move forward and David began to develop our new 'Electronic Products' course for KS4 in September 2001."
"When pupils arrive in Y7 they come to the department in mixed ability form groups - approximately 60 pupils at a time. We then put them into sets depending on information received from our feeder schools - Key Stage 2 SATs results and teacher recommendations.
The pupils get two hours of D&T a week in Y7 and three hours in Y8 (one hour specifically for ICT and two hours for practical work). In D&T we run courses in food technology, textiles, resistant materials, graphics and electronics. The 1-hour lessons are just long enough at KS3 to strike a balance between holding pupils' attention and completing the necessary practical work.
Unlike many schools we do not run the normal circus of activities in Y7 and Y8. Whilst we teach four eight-week modules we believe a strength of our department is that all staff teach all of the modules to a particular pupil group. This way we get to know our pupils a lot better - it makes for continuity of teaching and we are better able to monitor the progress of pupils. It makes assessment and report writing much easier for us, too. It also helps to break down the gender stereotyping of the various teaching areas and we all gain by having a better understanding of the different contributory areas of design and technology.
We have been teaching this way for about 10 years now and can see lots of benefits for both the staff and pupils.
Initially this was not an easy system to adopt and involved a lot of school based INSET and team teaching. We have all been able to learn from our colleagues and we can now teach confidently within any module of work whether it is food, textiles, resistant materials, graphics or electronics modules.
We all enjoy this approach!
Our system is supported by very detailed schemes of work, lesson notes and pupil workbooks. We prepare them for each other and update them annually.
I suppose one disadvantage of our way of teaching is that we cannot change and develop the courses quite so quickly for all the pupils at the same time. Usually, our specialist staff pilot changes first and then they help the rest of us modify our own teaching methods in staff training sessions and through workbook updates. This is a slower process but worthwhile. Each specialist member of staff is responsible for producing one module of work and we all benefit from their expert help and advice.
When the National Curriculum was first introduced, the D&T department initially took on the responsibility for teaching IT to all pupils in Y7 and Y8. This experience has allowed all us to introduce IT into most aspects of our pupils' work.
In Y9 we change back to teaching modules of work with specialist teachers.
The pupils still have three hours per week but all of this is committed to D&T through three one-hour session:
We are very keen for pupils to create a 3D product when using electronics and that it incorporates a range of other materials. At the moment we integrate electronics with resistant materials and vacuum formed casings but can see the potential for integrating electronics with textiles as well."
Our aim in Y7 is to introduce pupils to some simple electronic components and give experience in producing a simple circuit board and soldering a number of components to it. We also want them to understand the nature of a light emitting diode (led) and how this must be fitted in series with a protective resistor using a 9V electricity supply (PP3 battery).
The following table shows our plan:
Year 7 - Electronics Education
What the pupils learn:
| Concepts | Knowledge | Practical skills |
| That there is a need for components to control the flow of electricity That circuits are made up of basic components and that components have circuit symbols Certain components such as led’s need to be protected from being damaged by excessive electricity That printed circuit boards can be used when constructing circuits to avoid using lots of wires That solder can be used to join components together because it is a metal and a good conductor |
That components need to be joined together to complete a circuit That printed circuit boards can be used to replace wires to make it easy to join components together The function of basic components and become familiar with their circuit symbols That resistors are used to control the flow of electricity That resistors are used to protect led’s to prevent too much electricity from a battery going through them. That led's will be damaged if the pressure of electricity from a battery is too great |
To construct a circuit using a resistor and an led
|
The pupils have the opportunity to design and make a fuse tester continuity circuit, or a hand-steady game. The most popular choice is usually the hand-steady game as it is much more fun especially if the led is replaced with a buzzer.
The circuit is very simple and based on a pcb they prepare using small pieces of 'Fablon' stuck onto copper clad board. The 'Fablon' acts as a resist when the copper board goes into the bubble etch tank. The etching is usually completed between lessons by the technician. When the pupils come to the next lesson they clean the board and drill the small holes ready to take the wires and components. The areas of copper are quite large so it's fairly easy for the pupils to solder without the difficulties often found with finer circuitry.
We have designed a built a clamp to help the pupils hold the boards whilst drilling. We do lose a few drill bits but the method we use means that the position of the holes is not too critical, so we don't have too many problems getting holes in wrong places.
The electronic circuit is then 'packaged' in a vacuum-formed case for protection and to enhance the appearance.
This focused practical task sets in place some important manufacturing principles for use with later projects.
We make sure that pupil workbooks include extra activities for the more able pupils and opportunities for all pupils to consolidate new words and terms they have come across.
We have a second 8-week session of electronics inY8. We want the pupils to make a badge with flashing lights (led's) using either a parallel or series circuit and a variety of switches.
We can see that this activity is not really creating much of a progression for pupils from Y7 at the moment but this will be changing next year. However, they create the badge by shaping a piece of acrylic sheet with a coping saw or scroll saw. This is then filed to shape and the edges finished before a thin contrasting coloured vinyl is used to create the main fascia. Holes are then drilled to allow the LED's to fit through and a circuit is constructed on the back using copper tape. The more complex designs and decorations are drawn, scanned and cut using a computer and vinyl cutter.
The following table shows our plan:
Year 8 - Electronics Education
What the pupils learn:
| Concepts | Knowledge | Practical Skills |
|
That there is a need for resistors with different values |
That a colour code is used to determine the value of resistors That copper tape acts as a conductor |
How to measure resistance of resistors by using multimeters How to measure different resistances To connect components to make series/parallel circuits To complete a parallel circuit using copper tape as the conductor. |
The electronics is only a slight development from the Y7 project but it does reinforce earlier work and helps to develop confidence in circuit design and layout onto irregularly shaped backgrounds.
My colleague David wants to introduce the transistor as a switch into Y8 next year. This means that we will probably bring the moisture sensor down from Y9. The moisture sensor makes practical use of a transistor to amplify the tiny current created between the probes of the moisture tester when it is immersed in water.
"We are very lucky in Y9 to have 3 hours a week allocated to D&T activities. One hour is devoted to projects that involve resistant materials and electronics. A second hour is used for a graphics course but during this time we also do some work on computer control using Logicator and PIC Logicator.
The following table shows our plan:
Year 9 - Electronics Education
What the pupils learn:
| Concepts | Knowledge | Practical skills |
| That some components can be used as switches That software can be used when designing circuits That electrical charge can be stored within a circuit The use of ic's in circuits |
That a transistor can be used to act as a switch. Current flows from the collector to the emitter when the potential difference is greater than 0.6V between the base and the emitter. That 'Crocodile Clips' allows you to test a circuit before construction Capacitors are used to store electrical charge That the 555 ic can be used in a timer circuit |
To use a voltmeter to show a transistor switching on. How to complete a moisture tester circuit using 'Crocodile Clips' To construct a timer circuit and the use of a capacitor To construct a timer circuit using a 555 |
First they make a moisture tester. This project is biased towards the use of materials rather than extending their electronic knowledge of functions and systems. The aim is to mount components on a ready-made PCB. We are using the Rapid Electronics version of the moisture tester, which we have found very successful. This activity reinforces soldering skills and component recognition.
Once again this product is put into a vacuum-formed case and then used in the graphics option as an example for packaging in a blister pack or point of sale display.
The second project for Y9 introduces the concept of electronic timing. We introduce a 555 timer as a monostable with a switched input and an led output. This is then incorporated into a small game or puzzle.
We are trying to use a piece of acrylic sheet which has a groove milled into it, the groove is designed to create a ball maze. The pupils use a Boxford A3 CNC router or a Roland Camm 2 to design and mill the groove.
As the button is pressed the player starts to roll the ball-bearing from one end of the maze to the other. The aim is to get the ball to the end of the maze before the led output from the timer turns off. A wooden box, made by the pupils, forms the packaging for the electronic circuitry. To help the pupils understand the way the circuitry works we introduce Crocodile Clips software.
Developments in KS3
We are thinking that, if we move the moisture tester down to Y8, we might introduce the 555 timer in its alternative form as an astable timer for the second Y9 project. This could be used as an alarm system with a buzzer output and an input that incorporates a potential divider and sensor - perhaps a light dependent resistor (ldr). We think we might put the timer into the context of a moneybox design.
So this is where we have got to with our KS3 programme. It isn't fully developed yet but we know it works with our pupils and our staff. The development of this course in Y9 and the introduction of new software and CAD/CAM facilities has certainly motivated our pupils and they are excited about the prospect of using electronics in Key Stage 4 next year.
The proof is in the number of pupils who have opted for a GCSE Electronics Products course. We have provisionally allocated 20 places, for one trial class next year, but we have had applications from 50 pupils - 30 boys and 20 girls - all from the higher maths and science sets.