Supporting Learning Environment Level 4

To support students to develop understanding of characteristics of technological outcomes at level 4, teachers could:

• provide students with the opportunity to explore examples of technological outcomes and guide them to identify their proper function. Proper function can be determined from an analysis of both the design intent that drove the outcome’s development as well as how it is most commonly used
• provide students with examples of technological outcomes where the proper function of a technological outcome has changed over time because an alternative use was successful and then became socially accepted as the norm
• provide students with examples of technological outcomes that have been used unsuccessfully for other purposes and/or in different environments and support them to identify the negative impacts. Impacts may be in terms of expected action not resulting, damage to the outcome, injury to the user, the damage to the social or physical environment – or any combination of these
• provide students with a description of an identified purpose (e.g. a stated need or opportunity) and other relevant details. These details should include such things as intended users and the environment in which it is to be situated. Support students to generate potential designs for a technological outcome and describe the physical and functional attributes it would require if it could be justified as a good design leading to an outcome that was fit for purpose.

Explain the proper function of existing technological outcomes

Teacher led discussion using a range of technological outcomes.

Object description – what is its intended use (proper function)

Questions starters that are used to explore a range of technological outcomes

Encourage students to use open ended question starters…

• what did we intend to use this for?
• how do we know it’s going to function in the way we intend?
• how does it’s function do that?

Explain how technological outcomes have been successfully used by end-users for purposes other than what they were originally designed for

Students discuss own and others experiences

Students who take things out of the fathers shed and use them for things that weren’t intended to do.
Teachers demonstrate and discuss how a range of technological outcomes are successfully used by end-users for purposes other than what they were originally designed for e.g. using a screwdriver to open a paint tin
Explore different tools people use to do things they were never intended to do – e.g. cracking nuts, opening a can, taking the top off a bottle

Explain how technological outcomes have been unsuccessfully used by end-users for purposes other than what they were originally designed and discuss the impacts of this

Students discuss own and others experiences

Provide examples of where technological outcomes have been unsuccessfully used by end-users for purposes other than what they were originally designed and discuss the impacts of this

Explain possible physical and functional attributes for a technological outcome when provided with intended user/s, a purpose, and relevant social, cultural and environmental details to work within

Student analyse unfamiliar technological outcomes to determine their physical and functional attributes

Justify decisions made in a class presentation