Supporting Learning Environment Level 4

To support students to undertake brief development at level four teachers could:

• provide an appropriate context and issue that allows students to access resources (including key stakeholders)
• guide students to identify a need or opportunity and develop a conceptual statement
• support students to understand the physical and functional nature required of their outcome, and how the key attributes relate to this
• guide students to consider the key stakeholders and the environment where the outcome will be located.

Identify a need or opportunity from the given context and issue
.

Brainstorming needs or opportunities from a given context and/or situation.

Class brainstorm on board/datashow/smartboard to identify potential needs or opportunities, including identification of who their stakeholders would/may be.

Using a video of a natural or manmade (sic) disaster.

Students to identify needs and/or opportunities for technological advancements/solutions that would have alleviated the disaster occurring (e.g. building failures)

Personal contexts/issues

Use personal contexts/issues to generate needs or opportunities
e. g.
Messy bedroom = what needs/opp?
Tramping = what needs/opp?

Establish a conceptual statement that communicates the nature of the outcome and why such an outcome should be developed

Scaffold student understanding by analysing conceptual statements

Providing students with a range of conceptual statements that have been used to develop technological outcomes. Students encouraged to identify the ‘key’ information presented in the conceptual statements e.g. …

• need or opportunity to be resolved by the technological outcome (why it is needed)
• where outcome is to be used
• who will use it.

Writing conceptual statements that describe a technological opportunity.

Presenting students with a range of needs/opportunities and asking them to write a conceptual statement that would enable technological practice to be undertaken to address them.

Writing conceptual statements from existing technological practice

Using …

• Video clips of technological practice
• Techlink resources (student examples or real technological practice case studies)

Students write conceptual statements for issues/opportunities provided by teacher/identified from above activities.

Establish the key attributes for an outcome informed by stakeholder considerations

Use of mind maps to identify the ‘key’ attributes for a range selected products.

Students work in groups to identify key attributes and discuss these in order to justify those identified.
What might have been the stakeholder need(s) that led to the attributes?
Explain why these are deemed important to the stakeholder.

Stakeholder questions.

Developing a series of questions that can be used to interview a person that will identify their need or opportunity.

Technology student website (page 1)

Technology student website (page 2)

Communicate key attributes that allow an outcome to be evaluated as fit for purpose.

Identifying how key attributes may vary due to different uses of similar products.

Provide a range of products that perform similar functions and discuss how different attributes are prioritised because of their intended use/stakeholder needs
e.g. Hair cutting scissors - must be sharp, needle pointed end, comfortable to use.
Craft scissors able to cut cardboard, blunt ended, plastic handle.
Answer the question: do these key attributes allow an outcome to be evaluated as fit for purpose?