Delivery – Year 13
Bill had 12 students in his 2006 Year 13 Electronics class. "It's school policy to reduce the size of Year 13 classes so its acceptable for me to have a class with only 12 students in it.," says Bill. "Some of the other subjects have much bigger number, and it's still chalk and talk."
Students were given an open brief – they had to find a client, an appropriate issue and a proposed solution. From day one Bill had them considering their client: "They've got to get thinking where they're going with their project right from the beginning."
During the client/issue divining process, Bill liaised closely with students to ensure projects were within the capacities of both the students and the school. "Everything has to come past me up to and beyond the point of speccing a product. I taught all the students in Year 12, so I can assess fairly accurately whether they're capable of solving their particular problem.
"I'm also getting in information on the issues, their clients, how feasible it is for them to get access to the client, what expertise they're going to need, how much am I going to be able to provide of that expertise, or who else is going to provide it."
The school is very well set-up for fairly advanced workshop activities, and has a school technician on call if the students need elements beyond their capabilities to produce. "If students want something in particular made – little bits and pieces, shafts and levers and things – then he could make it for them."
However, one student, Chris, came up with an ambitious project to design and create an American football throwing machine. "When Chris came to me with his one, my reaction was that we couldn't do the required mechanical. So he had to show me that he had someone who could help. His dad's an engineer, so that was OK."
While students were busy finding a client and a suitable issue to address, Bill took the opportunity to do some formal teaching in advanced skills associated with working with micro-controllers – hi-tech electronic interfaces, real time clocks, communication between micro-controllers, communication over one-wire and two-wire networks, pulse-width modulation of motors, how to drive a stepping motor. They also cover technological practice and investigate relevant websites and forums.
"I lay down some groundwork which they can build on, and I try to get students to pick projects that use the areas of skill and knowledge we cover. For me, it's the way to go – almost every student in my Year 13 class this year has used some of those advanced techniques in their project. In the future I plan to look more at existing products, and get people like Navman in to talk to the students about their products. There's some good resources around on how product development works, and that fits in with technologists practice that is required at Level 3."
Bill is a firm believer in constraining student practice, where appropriate, in order to achieve quality outcomes. "When you use unit standards the constraints are built-in, but with achievement standards the deviation could be in any direction. But, even with 12 students in a class, it's difficult to allow totally free choice – I've got to manage the directions taken."
"We have to keep things moving because realistically they've only got three terms in the year. It's a ten-week first term, and by the sixth week I want them to be exploring their chosen issue. By the end of Term 1 they will have their briefs in a comprehensive enough form so that we know where they'll be going and resources can be all sorted out. They will have started to model things, looked into the software and interfaces they will need, started putting in-phases onto micro-controllers.
In Terms 2 and 3 students seldom sit down as a class and Bill spends his time moving around project managing and problem-solving. At Year 12 the students were doing very similar things and naturally worked together in groups of students who liked working together – at Year 13, Bill has to manage this. "I look for students doing similar things and put them together to teach them as a team. Half a dozen of them may be using a real-time clock in their projects, so we'll sit down and look at how it works, how they can interface it, the software required to make it work.
"This way, despite the different projects, excellent collegial and professional relationships form within the class. The students themselves start chipping in with constructive advice and suggestions. I've had a couple of boys in particular who have been excellent resources for other students. This has reduced my teaching load incredibly. Sometimes the groups will change, and of course you've always got a few of the students doing odd things on their own.
By the end of Year 13, Bill wants students to have both a finished product that incorporates high tech electronics on the inside and looks good on the outside. "But more importantly, I want students able to manage themselves and their resources to make something happen. I'm not too worried about the complexity of their outcome because hopefully at the beginning of the year I'll have managed to reign in their ideas to something that will match their abilities.
