Supporting Learning Environment Level 6

To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 6, teachers could:

• provide students with the opportunity to research and experiment with a range of materials to develop understandings of how the composition and structure of materials impacts on how they can be manipulated and/or transformed, or combined to formulate a new material.
• guide students to understand that material evaluation enables decisions to be made about how a material would support, or not, the fitness for purpose of particular technological products, and decrease the probability of a product malfunction.
• support students to analyse examples of how materials have been evaluated to determine their suitability for use in particular technological products. Examples should include the material evaluation practices of technologists.

Explain how the composition and structure of different materials enables them to be manipulated in specific ways

Bus stop activity with a different material at each station.

Provide a task activity set of instructions at each station that guides students to experiment with each material and answer questions on how that material can be manipulated. Take photos of what they did with each material.

Inquiry research question into one material e.g. how does the composition of material xxx affect its properties.

Choose one of the materials they experimented with in the bus stop task and undertake research to explain the link between the composition of the selected material and its properties. Students to report back to whole class or present a poster/powerpoint presentation that explains findings

Pairs/groups product analysis

Look at a range of technological products with different joining methods and different materials. Answer questions (teacher provided) that lead students to understanding that the composition of materials determines the way it can be joined

Self paced instructions requiring students to do a variety of joining methods.

A range of instructional activities that students work through at their own pace. Each activity outlines a jointing method with questions to evaluate the effectiveness of the joining method based on the composition of the materials and the application where the joint may be used.

Worksheet with different finishing options.

Worksheet has the same technological outcome but with a number of different finishing options. Students evaluate the different finishing options and how these will affect the outcomes fitness for purpose.

Practical task of experimenting with different finishing options.

Provide students with a range of materials and finishing options and ask them to evaluate the effectiveness of each finishing option based on the composition of the material.

Research/homework task to investigate a finishing used on a selected technological outcome.

Students choose an outcome (small/large, NZ/international technological product) and investigate what finishing options were used and how this was based on the composition of materials and how it affects the fitness for purpose of the outcome.

Research product recalls due to inappropriate finishing

Research sites such as the US Consumer Product safety Commission Product recall site
Find examples of products that have been recalled due to inappropriate finishing e.g.

www.cpsc.gov/
cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09248.html
Google search ‘products recalls NZ’ to find recent examples

Explain how the composition and structure of materials determines the ways they can be transformed

Students experiment with a range of familiar and unfamiliar materials to determine how they can be transformed – use research and teacher input to explain how the composition and structure of materials allows for this transformation

Examples could include:

• how wool can be transformed into textiles
• beating of egg whites when make a pavalova
• why some materials cannot be bent/shaped without first changing their physical characteristics e.g. steaming wood, annealing ferrous and non ferrous metals
• hardening a high carbon steel

Explain how the composition and structure of materials impacts on how they can be combined to formulate a new material

Students explore a range of familiar and unfamiliar materials to determine how the composition and structure of the materials (ingredients) enabled the formulation of the material

Use research and teacher input to inform explanations of how the composition and structure of these materials (ingredients) enabled the formulation of the material

Research the development of new materials

Describe the role of material evaluation in determining material suitability for use in a technological product

In groups undertake material testing to determine a material’s suitability for use in a technological outcome.

Undertake a range of material tests to determine material performance properties and therefore its suitability for use in a technological outcome.
Material performance properties that could be texted include such tests as:

• Tensile strength, compressive strength, sheer strength
• Crease resistance, malleability, drape, form, durability , absorbency
• Care and future maintenance
• Colour, texture, appearance, taste, sheen
• Chemical resistance

Discuss examples to illustrate how material evaluation informed the selection of materials in particular product development.

Visiting technologist to explain how they determine suitable materials for use in a product