Supporting Learning Environment Level 7

To support students to undertake outcome development and evaluation at level seven teachers could:

• ensure that there is a brief with attributes against which the outcome communicated by the conceptual design can be evaluated, and that there is a more developed brief with clear specifications against which a developed outcome can be evaluated
• establish an environment that supports student innovation and encourages critical analysis of existing outcomes
• support students to critically analyse evaluative practices used within functional modelling
• support students to develop drawing and modelling skills to communicate and explore design ideas. Emphasis should be on progressing 2D and 3D drawing skills and increasing the range and complexity of functional modelling
• support students to explore a range of materials/components, and to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to evaluate and make effective use of them
• support students to undertake prototyping to gain evidence that enables clear judgments regarding the outcome’s fitness for purpose and determine the need for any changes to enhance the outcome
• support students to gain targeted stakeholder feedback and understand the implications of the physical and social environment in which the outcome is to be located.

Generate design ideas that are informed by research and critical analysis of existing outcomes

Analyse a case study or outcomes from a student’s prior practice and/or a practicing technologist to determine how it was justified as being fit for purpose.

Identify the knowledge and understandings that the student or technologist needed to know in order to produce the outcome(s).
Questions that could be used to support this analysis may include:

• what materials were used in the outcome – how were these determined to be fit or purpose?
• what prior knowledge was required to develop the outcome – how did this inform the development of the outcome?
• how did the student/technologist test their outcome to ensure its fitness for purpose
• what types of components were included in the outcome – what part do they play in ensuring the overall fitness or purpose of the outcome?

Analyse Frank Geary – sketch modelling (modelling before sketching)

For support material google – Frank Geary – sketch modelling

Develop design ideas for outcomes that are justified as feasible with evidence gained through functional modelling

Trial ways of functional modelling to test and communicate design ideas. Identify advantages and disadvantages of each model and determine situations when each is best to use.

Explore modelling, mockups, testing, trialling software that enables functional modelling to be undertaken. Examples of such software include:

• Autodesk
• Blender (free software)

Explore strategies to gain wider community feedback.

Explore means of capturing evidence of testing and communicating design ideas using:

• CAD programmes
• Physical drawing
• 3D and2D physical models and mockups
• Verbal - Audacity – voice thread
• Video

Using communication tool to communicate conceptual ideas to key and wider community stakeholders such as:

• Email
• Skype
• Phone
• Fax
• Solid modelling

Critically analyse evaluative practices used when functional modelling to inform own functional modelling

Analyse case studies of others practice to identify the evaluative practices they used when functional modelling.

Determine how a technologist justified the design idea/conceptual designs potential to be fit for purpose.

Critically analyse tools that support evaluative practices when functional modelling.

Examples of evaluative tools that support functional modelling include:

• CAD programmes – auto desk, Pro desktop, Pro Engineer, Sketchup
• 2D, 3D – hard materials, cardboard
• Video – capturing in terms of virtual
• Photoshop and/or In-Design Illustrator – these programmes can enable the prototype to be shown virtually in its intended social and physical environment.

Undertake functional modelling to evaluate design ideas and develop and test a conceptual design to provide evidence of the proposed outcome’s ability to be fit for purpose

Analyse others practice to determine the nature of the overall practice they applied and the functional modelling they used to test and develop their design ideas into a conceptual design.

Use exemplars of previous students work, Case Studies from the Techlink website or a visit to a practicing technologist to observe and discuss their practice when developing design ideas into a conceptual design. Focus on the functional modelling techniques that were used to test and inform the development of conceptual designs.

Using functional modelling to test design ideas and gain stakeholder feedback

Use PMI charts to order and sort results from testing and stakeholder feedback. Evaluate to determine design ideas potential as a conceptual design.

Evaluate suitability of materials/components, based on their performance properties, to select those appropriate for use in the production of a feasible outcome

Analyse case studies of others practice to identify how they determined the suitability of materials/components based on their performance properties.

Have students present and justify their findings to the class.

Explore material/component testing techniques to test their potential fitness for purpose for inclusion in an outcome.

Trial a range of different materials/ components and testing techniques that focus on determining performance properties. Explore how the testing techniques may need to change depending on the environment in which the material/ component is being tested and/or the performance properties being tested

Undertake prototyping to gain specific evidence of an outcomes fitness for purpose and use this to justify any decisions to refine, modify and/or accept the outcome as final

Expose students to a range of prototyping techniques. (Internet e.g. Youtube)

Students produce a prototype(s) that can be tested in situ and evaluated against the brief specifications.

Identify the key element/s to be tested in a prototype and how the test could be conducted

Explore how others conduct tests to determine the fitness for purpose of their prototype(s) – analyse findings to determine tests which may be suitable to conduct for their own developed prototype.

Construct a prototype and test it to determine its fitness for purpose.

Use stakeholder feedback during testing as well as the results of the tests themselves to determine whether to refine, modify or accept the outcome.

Use stakeholder feedback and an understanding of the physical and social requirements of where the outcome will be situated to support and justify key design decisions and evaluations of fitness for purpose.

Develop evaluation criteria to determine the key design decisions which need to be made and to justify an outcome as fit for purpose.

The criteria developed should allow informed experts/focus groups to judge the success or otherwise of the outcome.
Students will need to access the environment/location where the outcome is to be placed in order to evaluate all the environmental factors both known and unknown (physical and social) that can impact on the outcome.

Develop understandings of the techniques used to gain key and wider community stakeholder feedback such as:

• using random selected, representative sampling or control group testing panels
• monadic testing
• paired-comparison testing.

Trial different techniques with key and wider community stakeholders using an existing product and known specifications to determine when best to use these techniques and the validity and reliability of the feedback received.