The Nature of Technology Strand Explanatory Papers Updated May 2010
Characteristics of Technological Outcomes
Senior Primary/Intermediate (Years 5-8)
Possible learning experiences
The learning experiences suggested below have been provided to support teachers as they develop their understandings of the Characteristics of Technological Outcomes component of the Nature of Technology strand, and how this could be reflected in student achievement at various levels. There is no expectation that these would form the basis of any specific unit of work in technology. The learning experiences have been written in such a way as to support student learning across a range of levels. This stance reflects the majority of classrooms where it is expected that students will demonstrate a range of levels of achievement.
Students could explore two related examples of technological products and technological systems; for example, a billy and an electric jug, and a non-sprung wooden clothes peg and a plastic spring clothes peg. Students could identify and explain why the examples could be called products or systems. Students describe the way in which the physical attributes of their technological outcome allows it to carry out the function it has been designed for, and suggest how fit for purpose each outcome appears to be. Students could discuss how changing the environmental condition or the age of the users might impact on how successfully the outcome could be used.
The teacher could provide the students with a partially developed brief that includes a conceptual statement and the performance specifications for a technological outcome. Depending on the prior knowledge and experience of the students, these may be related to the earlier examples, (for example, a peg for keeping food fresh once opened) or completely unrelated. In pairs, students explore a range of design ideas and evaluate these against the requirements provided in the brief as to how the technological outcome should function. Students could also discuss other functions that a modified version of the design could be used for by different people in different situations. A whole class discussion could focus on differences and similarities in the design ideas and link these to the relationship between the physical and functional nature of technological outcomes.
Students achieving at level 2 could be expected to:
- explain why technological products and systems can be described as technological outcomes;
- describe the physical nature of a technological product and explain how this allows the outcome to function in a certain way; and
- describe the physical nature of a technological system and explain how this allows the outcome to function in a certain way.
Students achieving at level 3 could be expected to:
- develop designs of a range of technological outcomes that could provide a given function and describe their physical nature; and
- evaluate designs and explain which they consider could be described as a 'good' or 'bad' design.
Students achieving at level 4 could be expected to:
- identify the proper function of selected technological outcomes and suggest possible alternative uses; and
- explain what might happen to the outcome, the user, and/or the environment if selected technological outcomes were used to do things they were not designed for.
