Hat Storage
Evaluation
Overall we found that the children were more enthusiastic about technology for this unit. The brainstorming process was very important. It was often repeated throughout the unit as each new problem came up. The initial brainstorming ideas were quite practical and were not that original, but after some discussion about other possibilities their ideas became more fanciful, for instance, robots, thief detectors etc. With further guidance the children had to work out what was physically possible and practical and within their capabilities of making. Each time we brainstormed it was related back to the original brief.
Budget was also an important factor – here the engineers' experiences were invaluable because of their professional knowledge of costing, equipment etc. We found that children were more willing to revisit ideas and we feel that this is because it was a "hands on" project and there was to be a product at the end.
The majority of children have learned that when you design something there needs to be a "brief" and that this is referred back to throughout the whole process from start to finish. The relating of an engineer's experiences with a "problem" reinforced the importance of the process. This understanding should help with the next unit of technology that we do as we can refer the children back to the processes that we have gone through with our engineers during the hat unit.
