ISSUE #5

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Teach Design Magazine Design & Technology and Engineering Education

02 | teach design

Welcome:Teach DesignBy Teachers, For Teachers...

Its 2015 and there’s lots to look forward to in Design & Technology and Engineering education. Andy Mitchell, Assistant Chief Executive of The Design & Technology Association opens up the fi rst magazine of the year by reiterating the importance of “Shouting about what we do in D&T”. We are very much looking forward to working with D&T Association over the next year.

You will also fi nd the second of three robotics posters provided free by VEX Robotics. The poster in this edition looks at robotics major robotic components and will no doubt be a great addition to your classroom.

In a fantastic article by Ian Tindsley, he explains how he has empowered his students [page 13] to independently operate his schools Boxford CNC machines to manufacture high quality products.

There are different variations of the popular acronym ACCESSFM, but Spencer Herbert goes back to the very start when he developed it. This incredibly useful article [page 42] discusses the origins and rationale for it introduction and will no doubt add clarity for how it could be used by any D&T teacher!

The Teach Design London STEM Leaders programme has been incredibly successful. Our mechatronics project in the capital brought together 40 schools in January

2015 and has affected hundreds of teachers and students. To read more about what happened, Jon Taylor gives an overview in his article [page 30].

Rich Gilbert of the Agency of Design explores opportunities for increasing the quality of design [page 24] by “designing with energy”. The Agency of Design have developed Energy Trumps which enable designers and students to seriously consider the embodied energy of a portfolio of popular materials.

Technology Will Save Us [page 07] look to bring “learning to life” in a practical way that suites D&T very well! Technology Will Save Us in very much built on the Maker Movement and aims to get students to think about how they can use technology, rather than consume it. Get involved with one of their kits; build yourself a speaker, plug in your phone and start streaming your own playlist!

Teach Design was delighted to be able to back the successful D&T Drive, which brings D&T teachers together through a digital network of fi le and resource sharing. Jon Martlew of Teach Design explains how you can get involved [page 10] and how this cloud based fi le sharing system works.

Kevin Jones, director of Attainment Partnership and teacher of D&T in Sydney, Australia, brings together a career of experience in D&T. Kevin has worked on a

number of national projects in the UK, and asks what version of D&T is being taught in your school? If you are planning to overhaul your department or looking for starting points, this concise article [page 18] really sets the scene on how you can do it!

If you are looking for innovative ways to approach the Level 3 BTEC in Engineering, then check out the article [page 35] where Phil Holton describes a proper Engineering Project that links industry to modern control technologies. This project gets clients into the classroom where pupils are designing and building their own bomb disposal robots!

Finally, save the date of Saturday 16th May 2015! We will once again be hosting “Design and Make the Future” in partnership with The National STEM Centre in York. Last year we had over 150 teachers for a day packed with workshops and keynote speakers! This year, there is plenty more to look forward to including extended focus and a greater focus of pedagogy and teaching and learning in D&T. Check out the rear cover for more information about dates, times, tickets and venue!

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teach design | 03

The Teach Design MagazineWhat is the purpose of this magazine and how is it free?

Lets Keep CommunicatingThe importance of “Shouting about D&T”

Technology Will Save UsInnovative electronic kits to inspire anyone

The D&T DriveA collection of D&T sharing resources

Delivering CAD / CAMA pedagogical approach for getting pupils using CAD / CAM independently

Designing the DesignPlanning a D&T curriculum fit for 2015

Delivering a Design Project at KS4A curriculum model for Product Design

Robotics in the ClassroomRapid Education explore how VEX Robotics Systems can be used in the classroom

Designing with EnergyThe embodied energy of materials we design and make with

London STEM LeadersMechatronics and the Teach Design London STEM Leaders project

Project Based LearningLinking industry and education through the Engineering BTEC

KS4 Product Design: Student OrganisationFernwood School and their outstanding departmental initiatives

ACCESSFM: How it all started and where we are nowThe author of ACCESSFM explains the original meanings and purpose of this acronym

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ISSUE #5CONTENTS

04 | teach design

What is Teach Design?

Teach Design is an initiative focussed on improving and modernising Design & Technology and Engineering education in the UK. The Teach Design team is made entirely of D&T and Engineering teachers, with an ethos of “for teachers by teachers”. We think Design and Technology and Engineering education is extremely important and plays a key role in producing the county’s designers and engineers of the future.

We don’t believe in charging teachers extortionate prices for CPD and where possible we don’t like charging anything at all! We are funded through our kind partners, various grants and other companies that know the importance of making sure the next generation of employees is technological prepared.

Since our formation in February 2013 we have continued to establish a very strong network of teachers, knowing that the best source of CPD is from teachers themselves.

What is the Teach Design Magazine?

The Teach Design magazine is free to every UK secondary school in hardcopy format, as well as being available in digital format globally. There are three editions per academic year (September, January and April), plus one special edition focusing or a particularly important topic. The magazine

is edited by the Teach Design Team, and supported by our partners. You will see a few advertisements but unlike other publications our magazine isn’t littered with these!

D&T teachers, designers and engineers all contribute to the Teach Design magazine. The magazine has been designed so that each edition has specific articles for a specific purpose. Articles types include: Thinking Forward, Designer in Residence, Case Study, Secret Teacher, Thunking about D&T, Project Showcase, Departmental Showcase and Teach Design in Action, all explained in a little more detail below:

The Thinking Forward article is usually written by an academic researcher within D&T and aims to create thought provoking questions about D&T. The Designer in Residence shares industry standard experiences to help bridge the gap between education and the “real world”. Case Study articles showcase work from real teachers in schools and the not so secret, Secret Teacher article shares real experiences and worries about the D&T profession. Thunking about D&T turns things upside down and asks searching questions about the subject’s purpose. The centre pages pull out to become the Project Showcase, which includes everything you need to know to kick-start a new project in your department. The Departmental Showcase is a virtual tour (on paper) of a department we think are

doing things pretty good. Finally, the Teach Design in Action explores everything we have been doing to help meet our aims since the last edition.

We hope that you too will contribute to this CPD resource in the future and share your own good practice nationally. We believe in industry standard practice and think this should be the case in schools too where possible. This publication aims to lead by example and we really hope you think the same too! If you have any questions about the magazine or would like to contribute toward it, then please email steve@teachdesign.org.uk.

Magazine:Teach DesignShowcasing Good Practice...

teach design | 05

Andy Mitchell, Assistant Chief Executive of the Design and Technology Association reflects on the D&T, community and the importance of communication.

Leafing through these pages together with other magazines for instance Design and D&T Practice published by the Design and Technology Association, one can quickly get a picture for what the best of D&T activity in UK schools looks like and just why it absolutely must feature as a subject in the curriculum of all schools. Obviously, having spent my whole career working in various capacities, teaching, developing and supporting the subject I would say that wouldn’t I? But I’ve been thinking about two particular issues connected specifically with D&T.

Firstly, the importance of shouting about what we do. Printed publications such as this and associated online resources play a crucial role in promoting the subject. It is worthy of note that decision makers from Ministers down have accessed evidence from a variety of sources including the celebration of pupil’s work in publications and used it to make made judgements as to why and how the subject should develop. Recently, the publication of D&T work and reports of its development has also attracted the attention of other countries. In the past year I have met with delegations from China and South Korea seeking to develop D&T in their own countries. I have been interviewed as part of Canadian research into the successful

Let’s keep communicating

Andy MitchellAssistant Chief ExecutiveThe Design & Technology Association

06 | teach design teach design | 06

influencing of Government attitudes toward and policy for D&T and I have met with teachers from countries including Australia about how D&T communities can be supported in the way that our own D&T Subject Association works. So I am delighted when others like Teach Design contribute to the resource that portrays D&T well and graphically illustrates what well taught students can achieve.

Secondly I want to talk about people. For me the biggest issue facing the subject is not one of curriculum, or supply of physical resource but the fundamental human resource represented by well qualified teachers and those that support them. The changes that Government have been making to ITT are not helpful for D&T. The preferred Schools Direct model which hands over responsibility for recruitment and qualifying teachers albeit in partnership in some cases with Higher Education as opposed to one that is led by them has many shortcomings. Recruitment over the past two years has been at an all time low and resulted in us effectively losing a complete year’s cohort of trainee teachers in that time. It is also leading to the closing down of long established institutions that have in the past served the subject well and provided centres for curriculum development. As a community, we have to do all we can to talk the profession up and do our own bit for attracting more to follow in our footsteps and increasingly, teachers will have to become far more involved in the qualifying of their new colleagues.

I also worry about where are our future movers and shakers are coming from? Throughout my career, I have been influenced by and been drawn on the work of a large number of significant people who have worked in D&T. In our community they have been many ‘household’ names – I’m thinking of significant individuals such as Mike Ive, Richard Kimbell, Stephanie Atkinson, Gwyneth Owen Jackson, David Barlex Kay Stables and David Perry to name just a few. Without their contribution, the subject would not be what it is and in fact might not even still exist. Their work has resulted in major aspects of curriculum development not least the establishment, securing and development over 25 years of a D&T National Curriculum and the publication of seminal academic writing, resources, strategies and CPD programmes.

But who is filling their shoes? Who will be their replacements and what positions will they occupy to enable the D&T story to unfold further? The closing down of the range of career routes which I and those above availed themselves is one of the saddest consequences of recent educational policy and one that I believe presents a huge challenge for the subject’s future wellbeing. Like them I have been fortunate to have been able to take advantage of opportunities to work in positions outside the classroom which simply do not exist today. Many reading this will be hungry and ambitious for success – not least for their students and themselves, but also for the subject, firmly believing they now have a part to play beyond the school in which they teach. But few paid positions of responsibility exist to exercise this. I do believe however, that in the future a wider variety of D&T career opportunities will once again open up but in the meantime, what can people do?

Networks and the development of communities of practice provide a vital component of the D&T support structure and whilst they do not always offer paid employment, they do provide opportunity for those

who wish to become more involved with the ‘bigger picture.’ Teach Design and the D&T Association are dependent on members doing just that and in this internet enabled, everything at your finger tips world, as institutions they still play a much needed part. Certainly the D&T Association is always delighted to hear from members who want to get more involved.

I’m a big believer in the power of social media and over the past few years have been fascinated to watch in particular Facebook become the first places many teachers go to find information, seek advice and share resources. Brilliant! The role these sites play in providing support and contributing to people’s knowledge is often significant. But it saddens me that whereas I recognise many names, I know little more about the people behind them other than that which can be extracted from their brief posts and occasional uploaded resources. Nor am I ever likely to meet them face to face and really get to know them! That’s where the events such as Teach Design’s Teachmeets and the D&T Association’s Branch meetings fill a gap. For all the benefits of virtual interaction and relationships, I believe it’s still essential to meet people and share ideas and feel part of a community. It is through these interactions that other liaisons are created and new ideas brought to fruition.

Hopefully I will meet at least some of you at our next two day D&T Summer School at the Design School Loughborough University on 9th and 10th July 2015. Come and say hello as I’m always interested to hear about what new and more experienced teachers are doing.

teach design | 07

“A revolution is under way. But it’s not about tearing down the old guard. It’s about building, it’s about creating, it’s about breathing life into groundbreaking new ideas. It’s called the Maker Movement and it’s changing the world”.

In 2014 the Maker Movement entered the classroom in a big way, which makes sense because the process of making ticks a lot of boxes from the world of educational theory and practice - making allows the learner to construct her own understanding and knowledge of the world through experience.

At Technology Will Save Us our work stands on the shoulders of both the Maker Movement and Constructivism. When we play, tinker and create we understand the world through our own experience, we tap into our own passions fi nd hitherto untapped reserves of resourcefulness and motivation.

Our goal is to activate this process and bring learning to life in ways that matter. Ways that are relevant and accessible to a diverse range of learners – whether in the classroom or around the kitchen table at home. We do this by creating accessible, everyday DIY Gadget kits that make technology playful, magical and fun. We design gadgets in a kit of parts that you make yourself to create a useful gadget connected to your interests.

The process of making a gadget teaches you core technology skills like electronics, soldering and coding. However wed argue that what’s

more important are the life skills you’ll pick up along the way - the debugging, problem solving and confi dence that comes from making something with technology.

We were funded by NESTA to research the passions of young people and this insight informed the design of our kits: Like music? Build yourself a speaker. Plug in your phone and start streaming your own playlist. Love gardening? Make a gadget to tell you when your plants need watering. Addicted to video games? So have a go at making one. Lift the lid and get to grips with what’s going on inside this magical machine in your hands.

“Hands-on learning provides children with opportunities to explore, question, experiment, fail, and iterate. It is through this process that they will learn (and remember!) knowledge and critical skills,” said Alissa James acting Director of DiscoverE an American learning charity we worked with in 2014 to make DIY Gamer and DIY Thirsty Plant Kits. Hard to reach learners respond particularly well to this approach to learning. Alan Gross, a London teacher who made DIY Speaker Kits with his Year 5 class at Chisenhale School remembers: “a girl I have been teaching for 2 years, who has always found school quite diffi cult, picked up soldering easily, was able to solder the whole speaker in just a few minutes and then was helping others. The pride and joy on her face was just absolutely fantastic. If that had been the main reason we did the project... that was more than enough.”

Technology Will Save Us...

www.techwillsaveus.com@techwillsaveus

08 | teach design

Chisenhale Scool used the DIY Speaker Kit as an enrichment project on Friday afternoons, which fed into Science (sound 5f unit), Art (Pop art ads for TWSU) and for some literacy writing tasks (persuasive letters).”

The project worked very well at engaging the children with their learning. They knew that at the end of it they would have their very own speaker, which was a great motivator. The children developed a great understanding of science behind sound, the properties of different materials, how to solder and they also gained an enriched technical vocabulary. Children who would normally find lessons difficult to access excelled at the construction of the speaker, especially soldering. They often finished their work and would help their peers, which boosted their confidence and improved all aspects of their learning.

Alan found that to begin with other members of staff were hesitant - they feared it would be too difficult for the children and that soldering might be too dangerous. However since completing the project all the staff involved felt that it was amazing and that the outcomes and children’s learning was brilliant. Other member of staff from different classes were amazed by the children’s subject knowledge and understanding.

Helen James, the Head Teacher at the same school said: “the Technology Will Save Us way of looking at things helps the children see technology as something they can do instead of something they consume. I think they have a different relationship with technology as a result.”

This real world connection, where learning is not abstracted, is continued to engage learners at secondary level too according to Dr Elizabeth Perry from American School of London: “real inventors prototype with Arduino. What you are building right now could have some application in the real world. I don’t think it occurs to students that things that they build in classes as part of class assignments, (no matter how much they like them)”.

We spent a day with the American School of London’s Art and Code club using Start Arduino, a kit that introduces you to the wonderful world of physical computing and coding.

Dr Perry summed up why design and technology matters:

I think that in recent years coding and computer science have skewed in a stereotypically male and boy way and we have seen not as many girls pursue it. This is to detriment to the field, because I think that the more diverse the mindsets and experiences are in any field, the stronger and more robust the innovations. I think we need all of these under represented voices. It’s clear that we don’t have enough people skilled in code to fill the available jobs right now, so we need to be sure that every child who has the potential to do this just has the chance to discover that she is really good at it.”

teach design | 09

010 | teach design

The D&T Drive

Jonathan MartlewJonathan@teachdesign.org.uk

In issue two of this magazine I wrote an article on the #DTdropbox with the ending statement “I envisage this community to grow in strength and quality and that will in turn contribute towards growth and consistency of the teaching of Design & Technology”.

In the twelve months since writing this article there has been great changes that has allowed this to happen. The first major change was moving from the Dropbox platform over to Google Drive. Dropbox is a great system but we were encountering problems due to the ever growing size of the #DTdropbox folder. After piloting Google Drive with a small group of “Heavy users” and a survey that resulted in almost 80% for the change the decision was made to take the #DTdropbox over to Google Drive. An initial bumpy transition period took place but unforeseen to me at the time more great things were to come. Directors of Teach Design had seen the re launch and offered support in its operation which would then take The D&T Drive under the Teach Design umbrella.

Now in full operation the D&T Drive continues to grow strength to strength. The principle of the group remains the same; “share and share alike”. All those with

access to the D&T Drive are expected to upload their best resources so that other teachers can benefit from them. By members continuing to abide by this simple rule it allows the D&T Drive to become better and better. Social Media is still predominantly the driving force behind the D&T Drive with members posting on Twitter and various Facebook groups indicating when they have uploaded resources or even to request resources. This is a strategy that is encouraged. The conversations that are taking place publicly on social media are a clear indication of how well as Design & Technology teachers we work collaboratively. Conversations related to the D&T Drive take place on various Design & Technology groups and we also have our own groups; search DTdropbox and The D&T Drive within Facebook groups. www.facebook.com/dtdrive

At the time of writing this article there are approximately 600 Design & Technology teachers with access to the drive contributing to over 5GB of amazing resources. The majority of members are UK based with the group continuing to grow globally. Globally, active members are located in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, China, Malta, Dubai, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Oman and America. With members coming from so far afield an addition to The D&T Drive is the map. This is an attempt locate members so that it can help with local networking. The map

is a huge success and can be found at the following URL http://goo.gl/M9e8bL If you are a current member of The D&T Drive please add yourself to the map by clicking additions then simple marker.

The operation of The D&T Drive is vital for consistency and the continued improvement of our subject. It is an amazing platform where we no longer suffer in silence. We share and help others with similar ideas, interests and goals. We are natural collaborators due to the nature of our training and our subject. The D&T Drive provides us with the opportunity to seek and provide help/ support both to and with other like-minded individuals.

When discussing with members of The D&T Drive it is clear that they are sold on the idea and continue to benefit from it. I could continue to inform you of its greatness but obviously as founder and facilitator I am more than a little biased. Below are a few testaments from current members based on how they use and benefit from The D&T Drive.

“As a more senior, 30 year teaching this year, (the more polite may say experienced) D&T teacher I have found the D&T Drive to be very inspiring and given my teaching a new virility. Thank you to all who contribute”Phil Sutcliffe, Garforth Academy, Leeds

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“Being a one-manned D&T department in a Special school, it can become quite isolated in terms of current subject news, changes to exams, inspection requirements, resources, etc. I have found the D&T Drive a fantastic resource. I have uploaded & used many SEN DT resources. The idea of keeping it free as long as you also contribute or share resources is a brilliant concept, which looking at the quality & volume of resources, demonstrates what a caring & sharing community has been formed using easily accessible formats”

Mike Humphreys, Westhaven School, Weston super Mare.“The D&T Drive is a great way of storing, sharing and comparing resources. It has a vast array of resources that can be adapted to meet schools budgets. Personal CPD can also be trialled on the trialling of products that colleagues are happy to share. It’s great to see “the big picture” of the new programmes of study being delivered and how intellectual the design elements are across the country.

Textile teachers need to get on board with The D&T Drive. Fabulous RM, product design and electronic/systems resources already available.”Cal Rogers

“There is some excellent work in The D&T Drive. The breadth of the subject is self-evident but the Drive will really help show the cohesiveness of the subject as a ‘ national’ curriculum. It’s a great start that I am sure will be a vital ‘ go to’ resource for many teachers. Both experienced and those newer to the subject”Mike Turpin

I recently found a tweet that was dated 13th January 2013 inviting D&T teachers to share and collaborate ideas. I could never have dreamed that single tweet, 2 years ago, could have developed into what the D&T Drive is today. This is all down to its members and their continued commitment to driving the subject forward. The one thing left is to thank all the current and future members of The D&T Drive. It would not be such a success without you continuing the share, discuss and collaborate with each other. This non-selfish approach is benefiting our subject and Design & Technology teachers worldwide.

If you would like to join and be a part of this sharing community please email Drive@teachdesign.org.uk.

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Delivering CAD/CAM

One of the highlights of a visit to the Design Technology department at Penwortham Priory Academy is the opportunity to observe the way CAD/CAM is delivered. It was always the desire of former Technology leader Ian Tindsley, to see all students use a full range of machinery independently of teachers or technician.

From their entry into the academy, students are given the opportunity to design using CAD (predominately Techsoft 2D design) and manufacture a range of products using one of the departments 2 Gravagraph laser cutters or 3 Boxford high speed routers.

As with any new or developing technology in this subject in the first instance it is all about training for staff and within this category technician support is essential, the confidence shown when teaching the required skills is paramount to the success of the work.

On delivery of our equipment from Boxford all training opportunities included with the machinery were eagerly accepted and once the basics had been learned much of what we now do routinely came through using the machinery regularly and passing those skills on to staff and students alike. The Boxford website still remains an important resource as we continually look for different approaches to designing and making. The empowering of students is essential if we want to turn our learners into young designers. In acknowledging the constraints associated with this type of work it is often easier to find reasons for not wanting to engage fully in the processes often leaving machines in an almost pristine condition. Many of the ‘usual excuses’ revolve around:

• Class sizes are far too big to allow them access to the manufacturing.

• We do not have enough equipment.• The budget is very tight and we have no money for materials• No time to get everyone through in this ‘carousel system’, It’s

faster for us to do it.• What are the rest of the class doing when only 2 students

are using the machine?• They might make a mistake.• The technician wouldn’t like it and is a bit precious about

materials and mess.• This is a lower ability group; there is no way could they cope

with this.

When design work using CAD has been completed and is ready for manufacturing using CAM equipment schools tend to follow one of 3 paths:

• The file is handed to the technician and the work handed back to the student after manufacture without any genuine involvement from the learner.

• Student use that is rigidly controlled throughout the whole process although access is granted and the student does participate.

• A genuine attempt to empower all learners with the desire and ability to design and make as independently as is practicable and this involves using the equipment with little help from staff.

Fortunately there are a plethora of reasons for supporting the third option and saying “this is how the machine works; here is a wide range of backup material to help now you have a go”. By doing this in schools we show that:

• Machining is one of the fun, high impact, aspects of the whole design process

• We all learn from our mistakes (or should do! Show me an error that they have made that I haven’t at some stage of my learning)

• These are transferable skills into a whole range of courses and careers.

• It clearly helps them to become independent users of CAM

Ian TindsleyFormer Technology Leader,Penwortham Priory Academy

014 | teach design

Education and training

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and as a result, better designers.• Addresses every learning style leading to improvements in

many of the ‘targeted groups’ within school.• Allows outstanding fi nishes to be achieved (includes the

opportunity for the continued development of traditional hand and fi nishing skills)

• Addresses many aspects within the new specifi cation for Design and Technology.

I know as much as the next teacher that teaching this way is hard work and a genuine challenge for staff, there is no comfort zone so how do we make a start?

Small steps are required both in the design challenge and the manufactured outcomes. It is vital that from their entry into school, preferably before if links with feeder schools are good, students become familiar with design software that will transfer into manufacturing. Skills that at one time we would have classed as suitable for year 10 or above are now regularly being taught in year 8 giving learner’s genuine designing opportunities and a challenge to fuel their own ambition. Learners are not ‘put off ’ by challenge in our subject and the sooner they are exposed to it the better.

“It always brought a smile to my face when walking into the CAM area to see 3 routers and a laser cutter all in full use by groups of independent learners, projects appearing before the eyes of the designer” The impact on other young people as they see what is being manufactured is also a catalyst to further developments as projects are opened up to other classes.Right through the design process CAD/CAM hits all the learning styles and uses skills learned across the core curriculum in a very practical way, it becomes a vehicle for progress and is accessible to all learners.

Building progression into all tasks from the start of year 7 is essential, there is no need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ for all the projects that are going to be delivered. To use and develop some of the good practice that is in the teaching community and on websites like Boxford’s is a great starting point. Let us be honest about this, machines can look great and afford a degree of status and kudos to a design area, how many look as though they are used infrequently? Sadly the answer is often too many and this has to change. Where do we go from here? Design technology is all about problem solving and challenge so why not start to look at what we deliver and how we deliver the work to our learners. As teachers we need to work on the skills required to help students develop as designers. Reluctance on our part to accept the challenge is soon recognised by learners. Staff training needs to be foremost in whole school development plans, have some fun in developing suitable work and use a range of software that addresses all learning styles to build up a ‘library’ of different help tools. Invest in the time to develop a highly qualifi ed, willing and well trained technician one who can support the learning in a 21st Century learning environment.

Enjoy the challenge and celebrate the results achieved from all learners.

teach design | 015

Education and training

shaped by our experience

New

Plasma

Cutter

Our fully enclosed Plasma

Cutter is the only large

format CNC machine

designed specifically

for education –– cutting

steel up to 12mm thick.

If you’d like to talk to us

about shaping the future

of your students, please

call +44 (0)1422 324810

or visit boxford.co.uk

Shaping

a brighter

future

016 | teach design

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teach design | 017

I started my teaching career in the 80’s, inspired; as I am sure many of you were, by a design teacher (Mr. Adams in my case), who bought to our school not only a new subject called ‘design’ but also a new way of looking at things. He would always be asking WHY, which, at the time was really annoying! But, as I know now, is the most important question we ask our students. Why that material? Why that process? Why is that button there and not 5mm further to the left? It was, of course, a great grounding and introduction to the wonderful world of design and technology.

I’ve seen quite a number of changes introduced to our subject since I started but I still have the same passion for it now, as I did back then. Having taught in 5 different secondary schools and being either a HoD or on the Leadership Team in 3 of them I have seen the subject from a range of perspectives. Having also been National subject Leader for the SSAT, an AST and an independent consultant, I feel I am in as good a position as most to talk about some generalities regarding the current state of our subject.

During my career I have had the privilege to visit and work with around 300 schools across the country. I have seen some of the most amazing D&T learning you could wish to see within some fantastic departments, led by focused and passionate middle leaders supported by inspirational classroom teachers. In these

departments you can see the ‘joined up’ thinking, where all teachers share a single vision for the subject, which fits perfectly into their school context. You see individuals contributing and sharing to make the ‘whole’ better, to make a cohesive curriculum with progression at its heart. You see students fired up about designing, talking about designers and how they differ, understanding the nuances of different user groups and why certain designers design the way they do.

However, I’ve also been into too many departments where the focus is very much on the individual strands of our subject, where students still refer to ‘wood’, ‘textiles’, ‘food’ and ‘graphics’ instead of design and technology or D&T. Where there are some fantastic ‘projects’ but where there is also little or no ‘team planning’, each material-focus planning its own little ’10 week’ module with no reference to what the other areas are delivering. In this model, there is no progression built in, there is no single vision for the students, there is no planned journey at KS3 which in-turn leads to a massive lack of preparation for KS4.

This results in teachers having to devote too much time to ‘basic’ skills in Y10 and even having to do yet ‘another’ project in preparation for Y11. This is madness, particularly, when you consider, it is US that have the control over what WE deliver!

Kevin JonesMount St Benedict College Sydney

Designing the Design: Planning a cohesive KS3 course

018 | teach design

If you want a coherent KS3 design curriculum in your school, you have to plan it and deliver it as a team. Treat it like a design exercise; what’s your specification (what do you want your students to be able to do after 3 years in D&T)? It might be something like;

By the end of KS3 you want students who;

• are creative,• are comfortable with new technologies,• are confident making products in a range of materials,• have good sketching skills,• have good knowledge of design history,• are confident using electronics to produce an outcome,• are good at problem solving.

It could be any number of things, but YOU DECIDE what it is, AS A TEAM, what’s right for your students, your staff and your social context. You then design all your schemes of learning based around your specification/vision. The key element here is the planning as a team, this is the only way you can ensure you plan for progression, that one scheme builds on the learning from a previous scheme and so on. Its

also the only way that you clearly see how the schemes need to adapt as the groups come through, particularly in a ‘circus’ arrangement i.e. you cannot deliver any unit the same throughout the year because as the year progresses, new groups coming to you have had different experiences, this has to be taken into account, otherwise, there is little or no progression.

In many outstanding departments you see a richness and variety of learning units, they don’t feel the need to carry out complete ‘design and make’ tasks every time. These schools think about; design strategies and where they fit into the ‘bigger picture’, some units might have a greater emphasis on researching user groups, another on design development/modeling another might be just producing a high quality outcome (either produced by hand or through the use of CAD/CAM) and so on. These departments are designing their courses to maximize the acquisition of specific skills and understanding, which they plan and build on as the students move through the school.

Finally, its important the students know you are a team that has common goals and

ambitions for them. Think about creating monthly or termly ‘design awards’ ‘designer of the month’ ‘chef of the month’ artist of the month’ ‘ engineer of the month’ etc. It’s also good to have a board with pictures of the whole team, list your favourite designer, favourite product, and worst product, anything that gets the students discussing design in the wider world. Why is it that any student can name their favourite author or artist but struggle to name a designer? Have a display dedicated to the latest developments in the professional design world.

If you want students who are skilled designers or makers, then design the journey for them!

Kevin has moved to Mount St Benedict College in Sydney. If you’d like to get in touch with him, email kevin@attainmentpartnership.org.uk

Above - An example of a team planning exercise, ensuring all schemes ‘fit’ together within a bigger picture.Right - A display board for our ‘designers of the month’ awards.

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The problem with research and the linear approach to coursework:

As a young teacher, early in my career I fell into the trap (as seen by many moderators), of delivering a linear design process and applying too much time and attention to the research phase in a coursework project. How many of you have waded through countless pages of coursework under the heading of ‘research’ which mainly consisted of reams of information and/or pictures often derived from the Argos catalogue (or Google images if we keep abreast of technology! ) under the heading of ‘product analysis’ or ‘mood board’ or have been witness to masses of brightly coloured excel graphs (of spurious validity) just to come to the conclusion that their consumers favourite colour is green! Of course we then see the students arbitrarily plotting this banal and meaningless material to develop design specifications which are never to be referred to again for the remainder of the project. And why wouldn’t you? It’s an approach that has been in place since before I was a student at school and it’s a hard habit to break; if we are not doing research in this way then how can we show that it has taken place at all and furthermore, if we don’t do it this way how do we do it?

Where I feel the focus should be in a design project?

As I hope most designers (and exam boards) would agree, design is rarely a linear proc¬ess and the main focus with any project should be in the design and development phase but, when faced with the difficulty of trying to enthuse battle hardened city kids and encourage them to share their ideas when they dwell in a culture of ritual humiliation if they fail, you can have a battle on your hands. Additionally, (joking aside) they still have to demonstrate this ability to collect and analyse research and develop detailed and justified specifications to dictate their design practice so, how do you approach this unenviable task in a manner which allows creative responses yet, is structured enough to maximise their success?

Delivering a Design Project at KS4

Image 1:How big should my bangle be?

Image 2: So that’s what you meant about wall thickness!

Image 3:Oh, It’s too big!

Peter HodgesAssociate Senior Leader and Head of

Design & TechnologyBridge Academy,

Hackney

020 | teach design

How do I deliver a design project?

The answer in my mind is twofold; firstly by undertaking ‘practical’ research and secondly by actively ‘teaching’ the design process at the start of a project; the students should see both these approaches as engaging and of significant value straight away (they probably didn’t pick the Design & Technology subject because they like research/analysis). Additional research into ergonomics, trends, consumer profiling (and even a graph or two if you must!), can come in when it makes sense to them and not just because they should do it!

“Of course I actively teach design!”

I mean no offence but, have you ever started a design lesson or series of lessons with little more actual ‘teaching’ than offering a few points of advice based on what the exam board wants; dictating that their design ideas ‘have to be creative/innovative’ or that the students need to come up with ‘range of ideas’ expecting them to be able to achieve this? (I know I have!) And can they do this? Not usually! You will get a lot of repetition, little originality or at worst a lot of blank pages/faces and a great deal of chatter and apathy! Why, because they simply don’t know how to design and they really don’t want to do the wrong thing and experience criticism from their peers. During the phase I feel, it is best to undertake a series of lessons teaching hard techniques/approaches to design and to ensure that all students know that mistakes are great, and most importantly making sure they believe you; You are not giving them some spiel in the vein of ‘everyone’s a winner’,’ there’s no ‘I’ in team’ etc. you are saying that they actually get marks for developing ideas, evaluating ideas and getting comments from others so, encourage them to get it wrong and tell them that they will get more marks if they do so (being sure you chastise students who mock the work of others based on their ability; a bad design idea is still a design idea and is exponentially better than no idea!)

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8 ‘hard’ techniques/approaches to design (I tried to do 10 as it appealed to my OCD but, failed!)

Firstly I’d like to point out that this is simply a few suggestions of things I have done in the past that have worked for me; they are not all mine (theft of the good ideas of others’ saves a lot of time!) and by no means is this the definitive way to approach teaching design in schools or even the best (I have very little ego and I really don’t want to teach you to suck eggs!). I don’t even stick to this list rigidly each year and often adapt things half way through a lesson if something’s not working; some techniques work for some students/teachers and others really don’t!

1. Get them to draw an idea, pass it to someone else to comment on it (write the comment down for some marks under the evaluation criteria!) and pass it back. Make the changes suggested in a new drawing and then pass it to someone else; repeat until they are bored!

2. Do the same thing above but, this time instead of writing the comment draw the improvement and pass it on to someone else on the table/in the room; when they finally get their sheet back they have a combination of ideas from everyone in the room which often breaks the mind set of ‘I already have my final idea Sir!’.

3. Write a list of products down, (everything you can think of, nothing is too silly!) what happens when you combine two/three of them and draw the result? Often a rubbish product! But, always a product you would not have thought of had you not done this activity.

4. Print an image of a product/start with one of their drawings, lay some layout pad/tracing paper over the top and draw some changes.

5. Take an idea and then draw it again as if it were aimed to solve more problems or be sold at a higher price bracket. Now draw it again and strip it down to the bare essentials.

6. Give them a sheet of paper/board and get them to make as many 3D structures as they can in a given time limit. When complete get them to draw from these for new ideas or model them up in a CAD programme.

7. Give them a lump of clay and do the same (messy but, fun!).

8. Get them to draw a quick idea in a CAD programme of your choice (2D Design, Sketchup etc.) and save it as idea ‘1a’. As soon as they have done this, save it again (idea 1b)and make a slight change; colour, materials, proportions, ergonomics (you know the A.C.C.E.S.S.F.M list!) and repeat; pretty soon they have too many ideas!

Finally, the most impactful adaptation to my teaching practice in recent years is to use the camera on my phone to take photos of the students work as it is being created and as soon as you have email it to yourself and store it on the network for them to access later, trust me this is a great idea!

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STARTER KITSVEX IQ – 4 ways to program!VEX IQ Starter Kits are available in 3 versions – Starter Kit with Controller, Starter Kit with Sensors and Super Kit.

The Super Kit is essential for use in the VEX IQ Challenge as students will need both sensors and the Joystick. The Starter Kit with Sensors is ideal for classroom and curriculum use and can be upgraded to a Super Kit at a later date for just £54 if required. The Starter Kit with Controller is best for home and hobby use.

All starter kits contain 4 motors and enough pieces and instructions to build the BaseBot and the Clawbot with plenty of parts left over to expand the robots. These two robots are an excellent introduction to the world of VEX IQ. All the starter kits also contain parts to build the Armbot, Ike and V-Rex (one model at a time, instructions can be downloaded from www.rapidonline.com/vexiq) or any other creations your students can imagine.

Unlike some other robotics kits, these are genuinely starter kits, you don’t need to buy anything else to unlock the full potential of VEX IQ. All batteries and chargers are included and the Modkit programming software is completely free! However, you are not limited by the contents of the kits – the robot Brain has 12 smart ports which means it can control 12 motors or sensors in any combination so your creations can be as simple or complex as you like.

One of the advantages that VEX IQ has over other robotics platforms is the number of ways in which it can be programmed. The platform is ideal for use at KS2 and KS3 and is easily accessible through a range of graphical programming interfaces. For more advanced KS3 users as well as KS4 and KS5, the text-based ROBOTC and Python interfaces allow you to push the complexity of your designs to the next level.

www.rapidonline.com/vexiqwww.rapidonline.com/vexiq

MODKIT FOR VEXModkit is a drag and drop programming language that makes it easy to program your VEX IQ projects. The “event based” block programming tools will be familiar to anyone who has used Scratch – mechanisms, drive-trains and sensors can broadcast and respond to events independently making it easy to program complex actions and reactions.

Modkit is completely free and runs in a browser window – visit www.modkit.com/VEX to get started and view the tutorials.

ROBOTMESHRobotMesh is a free, online programming language which can be used with both VEX IQ and VEX Cortex. Users can create programs using Python or the graphical Blockly interface. When using Blockly, you have the option to see the equivalent Python being generated as well.

To help you get up and running, there are a range of sample programs for VEX IQ and VEX Cortex platforms using both the Python and Blockly interfaces.

Visit www.robotmesh.com/project to start using RobotMesh.

FLOWOL 4Flowol 4 will be familiar to many schools who have used it to program the on-screen “mimics”, PICAXE hardware and more. The good news is that Flowol 4 is also compatible with VEX IQ and VEX Cortex robots too!

Flowol 4 is a fl owchart based language the offers one of the simplest solutions for getting started with programming. Students can easily follow the logic of the program by simply following the lines and decisions within the fl owchart.

To fi nd out more about Flowol 4, visit www.rapidonline.com

ROBOTC 4.0ROBOTC 4.0 is the most complete programming language available for use with VEX IQ and VEX Cortex robots. There are three ways to program – drag and drop graphical for beginners, Natural Language (simplifi ed text based) for intermediate users or full text based programming for advanced users. The extensive library of sample programs help to get you up to speed quickly and the comprehensive help fi le show the syntax of each command and an example of how it can be used.

As well as being able to program physical VEX IQ and VEX Cortex robots, ROBOTC can also be used to program on screen robots using Robot Virtual Worlds.

To fi nd out more about ROBOTC and Robot Virtual Worlds, visit www.rapidonline.com

Orderline: 01206 751166

VEX IQ STARTER KITS

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70-7902 Super kit ✔ 4 7 850 ✔ ✔ ✔ £249.99

70-7901 Starter kit with sensors ✔ 4 7 850 ✘ ✔ ✔ £199.99

70-7900 Starter kit with controller ✔ 4 2 850 ✔ ✔ ✔ £199.99

teach design | 023

STARTER KITSVEX IQ – 4 ways to program!VEX IQ Starter Kits are available in 3 versions – Starter Kit with Controller, Starter Kit with Sensors and Super Kit.

The Super Kit is essential for use in the VEX IQ Challenge as students will need both sensors and the Joystick. The Starter Kit with Sensors is ideal for classroom and curriculum use and can be upgraded to a Super Kit at a later date for just £54 if required. The Starter Kit with Controller is best for home and hobby use.

All starter kits contain 4 motors and enough pieces and instructions to build the BaseBot and the Clawbot with plenty of parts left over to expand the robots. These two robots are an excellent introduction to the world of VEX IQ. All the starter kits also contain parts to build the Armbot, Ike and V-Rex (one model at a time, instructions can be downloaded from www.rapidonline.com/vexiq) or any other creations your students can imagine.

Unlike some other robotics kits, these are genuinely starter kits, you don’t need to buy anything else to unlock the full potential of VEX IQ. All batteries and chargers are included and the Modkit programming software is completely free! However, you are not limited by the contents of the kits – the robot Brain has 12 smart ports which means it can control 12 motors or sensors in any combination so your creations can be as simple or complex as you like.

One of the advantages that VEX IQ has over other robotics platforms is the number of ways in which it can be programmed. The platform is ideal for use at KS2 and KS3 and is easily accessible through a range of graphical programming interfaces. For more advanced KS3 users as well as KS4 and KS5, the text-based ROBOTC and Python interfaces allow you to push the complexity of your designs to the next level.

www.rapidonline.com/vexiqwww.rapidonline.com/vexiq

MODKIT FOR VEXModkit is a drag and drop programming language that makes it easy to program your VEX IQ projects. The “event based” block programming tools will be familiar to anyone who has used Scratch – mechanisms, drive-trains and sensors can broadcast and respond to events independently making it easy to program complex actions and reactions.

Modkit is completely free and runs in a browser window – visit www.modkit.com/VEX to get started and view the tutorials.

ROBOTMESHRobotMesh is a free, online programming language which can be used with both VEX IQ and VEX Cortex. Users can create programs using Python or the graphical Blockly interface. When using Blockly, you have the option to see the equivalent Python being generated as well.

To help you get up and running, there are a range of sample programs for VEX IQ and VEX Cortex platforms using both the Python and Blockly interfaces.

Visit www.robotmesh.com/project to start using RobotMesh.

FLOWOL 4Flowol 4 will be familiar to many schools who have used it to program the on-screen “mimics”, PICAXE hardware and more. The good news is that Flowol 4 is also compatible with VEX IQ and VEX Cortex robots too!

Flowol 4 is a fl owchart based language the offers one of the simplest solutions for getting started with programming. Students can easily follow the logic of the program by simply following the lines and decisions within the fl owchart.

To fi nd out more about Flowol 4, visit www.rapidonline.com

ROBOTC 4.0ROBOTC 4.0 is the most complete programming language available for use with VEX IQ and VEX Cortex robots. There are three ways to program – drag and drop graphical for beginners, Natural Language (simplifi ed text based) for intermediate users or full text based programming for advanced users. The extensive library of sample programs help to get you up to speed quickly and the comprehensive help fi le show the syntax of each command and an example of how it can be used.

As well as being able to program physical VEX IQ and VEX Cortex robots, ROBOTC can also be used to program on screen robots using Robot Virtual Worlds.

To fi nd out more about ROBOTC and Robot Virtual Worlds, visit www.rapidonline.com

Orderline: 01206 751166

VEX IQ STARTER KITS

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70-7902 Super kit ✔ 4 7 850 ✔ ✔ ✔ £249.99

70-7901 Starter kit with sensors ✔ 4 7 850 ✘ ✔ ✔ £199.99

70-7900 Starter kit with controller ✔ 4 2 850 ✔ ✔ ✔ £199.99

A few years ago, I became slightly obsessed with embodied energy. This led to a new perspective on both materials and design, in the form of a self-initiated experiment and ultimately a design tool. I wanted to share some of my thoughts from this process to try and pass on a passion for embodied energy. The whole process started by reading David Mackay’s book “Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air.” His “we need numbers not adjectives” attitude really appealed to me at the time, as I was getting very frustrated with the subjectivity and lack of depth in some sustainable design. It was with this mindset that I went searching for embodied energy data. The fi rst time I trawled through a data set,

I was pretty intrigued. This was a single number that summarized the intensely complicated journey of a material from digging its ore out of the ground through to the myriad of processes that lead to a usable material. The numbers also varied hugely between materials, revealing energy stories that I was completely unaware of. In a fairly short span of time, this data had completely changed my perspective on a lot of materials that I previously thought I was very familiar with.

Designing With Energy

Rich GilbertAgency of Design

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What really caught my imagination was the fact that this was physical data. Unlike electricity consumption, where you need to go to great lengths to record and visualize energy, this data told you that the lump of material you’re holding took 10 megajoules of energy to go from earthbound ore to product in hand. I could now defi ne my whole material world in terms of energy—and that’s exactly what I started doing, carrying a screwdriver and a set of scales I started disassembling and weighing products to try and calculate their embodied energy. This quickly escalated to doing an embodied energy calculation for everything I owned. These calculations were very rough, but gave me an approximate fi gure for everything, allowing me to compare different elements of my lifestyle. Computers and camera gear, with their exotic circuit board materials and batteries, far outweighed everything else, while other things, like my bikes, seemed pretty insignifi cant. This showed me that crunching the numbers, however crudely, will reveal all sorts of insights into the energy stories of our stuff.

At this point, I had gathered a lot of data and started to see the world in a slightly different light but what I was really interested in was how this data would affect the design process. There were various tools for conducting life cycle analysis on fi nished designs but I wanted to experiment with ways of using embodied energy to drive the design process from the start. I set myself a simple design brief with ambitious energy quotas. To redesign the Anglepoise lamp (which had weighed in at 140 Megajoules) to quotas of one, ten and twenty Megajoules. The idea was to put energy as the driving force at the start of the design process and see what happens.

A One Megajoule LampYou really can’t make that much of any material for one megajoule, which made this lamp somewhat challenging. Anything that used a subtractive process was ruled out straight away, as this would squander some of the tiny quota. I looked for a formable material that gave me the largest volume per megajoule, which led me rather confusingly to concrete. I was under the impression that concrete was an environmentally reprehensible material because it counted for around 7% of global emissions. In fact, it is one of the lowest embodied energy and carbon fi gures, the issue is not with the material itself but that we use a LOT of it (approximately 3 tonnes for every person on the planet each year). By being able to cast the concrete I could squeeze as much functionality out of one megajoule as possible by making a form that could sit in a few positions or be hung on its hook. Not quite the functionality of the Anglepoise, but not bad for a tiny fraction of the energy.

A Ten Megajoule LampDesigning a 10 megajoule lamp meant I suddenly had an abundance of material by comparison—I had enough hardwood to make a task lamp-sized object. I started with a simple pivot design using a nut and bolt controlling the pivot, but quickly realized the nut and bolt used up a megajoule and a half of my quota and meant my lamp had to be considerably smaller. Instead I focused on a metal free adjustment mechanism and found a rather satisfying solution using the friction of cork to hold the lamp at different positions.

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A 20 Megajoule Lamp20 megajoules frankly seemed like an excessive amount of material after the fi rst two lamps. I had enough quota to create a cast iron counterweight, which could allow the lamp to balance at different heights. This gave me a chance to bring the idea of physical data into the product and cast the counterweights into discrete one megajoule weights so the lamp could be adjusted in increments of embodied energy.

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It was clear to me that thinking about material selection and embodied energy at an early stage in the design process could have a huge impact—but I was also aware that very few designers I knew were familiar with this data. This was a real concern: Embodied energy makes up about 40% of our national energy consumption, yet it is not a signifi cant driver in a lot of design processes.To try and remedy this, I wanted to take the data we had collated and turn it into a format that better suited the design process. To do this we created the Energy Trumps, a deck of cards that visualize the environmental impact and properties of 45 selected materials. The Energy Trumps are explained in more detail in the next section.

My journey from discovering this data to fully integrating it into our design process has challenged and changed my perceptions on a range of materials and products. Ultimately, embodied energy has become a lens through which to assess design decisions and ensure that our strategy is the right one. This ranges from looking for lightweighting and material substitution within a product, to rethinking how we deliver functionality. Our recent project with Kingfi sher, re-thinking tool sales to become project based tool hire was a perfect example of this, where transitioning to a service achieves the most dramatic embodied energy savings.

From our journey into embodied energy research (P.xx) it was clear to us that thinking about material selection and embodied energy at an early stage in the design process could have a huge impact. But we were also aware that very few designers were familiar with this data. To try and correct this, we wanted to take the data we had collated from our research and turn it into a format that better suited the design process. To do this we created the Energy Trumps, a deck of cards that visualise the environmental properties of 45 selected materials. They present key environmental metrics in a fast and accessible way, enabling you to make more informed material choices early in your design process.

Energy Trumps...

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Is cardboard better than plastic? Should I be using a biopolymer? Environmental material selection can be a complex process of balancing many considerations. To make this process easier each card in the deck breaks down a common materials into their key environmental properties- Embodied Energy, Embodied Carbon, Embodied Water, Recycled Content, Extraction Intensity and Years of Reserves. This allows you to make fast material comparisons while still in the early stages of the design process. The photographic background to the cards provide a visual stimulus of the material’s key applications, making the cards ideal for creative sessions.

teach design | 029

When you fi rst start looking at embodied energy data, it can be confusing as you need to factor in material density to understand the implications for a given material. We found one of the best ways to look at the data is to show the volume of the material that can be produced for 1 megajoule of energy. This gives you a more tangible idea of the energy intensity of a material. The image below shows the volume of each material that could be manufactured with 1 megajoule of energy.

We applied this visualisation approach to the energy trumps to bring the material properties to life through an augmented reality web app. When you show the reverse of the cards to a webcam, the app allows you to explore, in 3D, the different amounts of material you can get for 1 megajoule of energy. This approach to visualising embodied energy data gives the user a much richer understanding of the numbers. It allows you to quickly understand the impact of materials and assess where there is the greatest potential for change.

The Energy Trumps are available from www.agencyofdesign.co.uk/energytrumps/ the page also has a video explaining their creation of the deck and a ‘Deisgning with Energy’ PDF.

Rich Gilbert is the Co-Founder of The Agency of Design, a London based design company helping organizations design a better future by rethinking our physical and digital worlds.

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A massive well done to all competing schools for contributing to such a successful competition and a huge congratulations to Willson’s School and Highgate School who both qualified for the National Finals. A special mention must also go to St Anthony’s School who picked up the Design Award for their fantastic Engineering Notebook documenting their journey! Full report below:

On the 16th January the first wave of the London STEM Leader schools battled hard to qualify for the National finals during the first of two events held at Highgate School. Schools from across London have been working tirelessly tweaking and testing their robots in order to complete the VEX IQ Highrise* challenge. This season the London STEM Leader schools have been focussing on both the Teamwork Driver Control challenge and the Programming Skills Challenge. The Teamwork Driver Control challenge requires 2 teams to collaborate and manually control their robots through a joystick to score as many points as possible. The Programming Skills challenge requires teams to program their robots to complete the challenge autonomously without joystick input.

Once the robots had passed the initial inspection stage the teams were ready to compete and the qualification matches of the Teamwork Driver Control got underway. Teams began to rack up the points game on game as drivers became more comfortable with the controls and effective teamwork began to shine through. This was a pleasure to see as teams began to formulate game plans with each other and utilising each other’s strengths to brilliant effect. Each team played a total of 8 qualification matches with their top 6 scores added together and formulated on a leader board. Teams were then paired into alliances for the final stages with the 1st place team pairing with 2nd place, 3rd with 4th and so on…

The finals matches kicked off with Alliance 6, St Anthony’s T2 & Highgate T3, setting a target score of 4 for the rest of the teams to beat. Alliance 5 consisting of St Anthony’s T1 & Highgate T4 stepped up next and accumulated a score of 18 points, knocking out Alliance 6! Alliance 5 were currently sat in the National Finals qualification spots as Alliance 4, South Hampstead T1 and Wilson’s T1, stepped up to try and beat the score. With a late flurry of cubes in the final seconds Alliance 4 pipped Alliance 5 to the top spot and eliminated them from the competition. Alliance 3, Little Ilford T2 & Highgate T1 then took centre stage as they attempted to beat the current top score of 22 but after a valiant effort only scored 19 points which meant they were knocked out too! So Alliance 4 were still on course to qualify for the National Final. Alliance 2, Little Ilford T1 & South Hampstead T2 had other ideas though and put on a great display of teamwork as they took the top spot by 5 points after staring elimination in the face with 15 seconds left on the clock. The pressure was now on for Wilson’s School & Highgate School (Alliance 1) they now had a real task on their hands and would need to produce a big score to take the top spot… and they did just that. A remarkable display of driver control and meticulously planned tactics produced the highest score of the day; 34 points, only 2 cubes were left in the neutral zone!

A huge well done and congratulations to all the competing teams, a remarkable display of teamwork from all schools culminated in a truly memorable and enjoyable day! A special mention must go to St Anthony’s school who were awarded with the Design Award for their fantastic engineering notebook that accompanied their robot and documented their robot development. A final congratulations to Willson’s School and Highgate who march on to the National Finals which will be held at the Big Bang Fair in March.*The VEX IQ Challenge Highrise is played on a 4ft x 8ft field, surrounded by a 2.5 inch tall perimeter. There are a total of 36 Cubes, 12 of each colour, available as Scoring Objects in the game. There is 1 Scoring Zone and 3 Highrise Bases on the field. Teams are challenged to move the cubes into the Scoring Zone and stack them on their corresponding coloured Highrise Base for a point’s bonus.

LSEF: VEX IQJon TaylorTeach Design

LSL Project Manager

032 | teach design

On the 30th January a total 33 robotics teams from 20 of the London STEM Leader schools descended upon Highgate School to compete in the second LSL VEX IQ Highrise competition. The atmosphere was electric and proved to be the largest VEX IQ event in the UK to date! The London STEM Leader schools have been perfecting their robots over the past months with many visiting the Highgate Design Technology & Engineering department to practice against each other alongside the Highgate teams.

Before the teams could get stuck into their qualifying matches their robots needed to pass a rigorous inspection process to determine the legality of their machines. After a few tweaks and adjustments all 33 teams were passed fit to compete; Game On! A total of 116 Teamwork Competition qualifying matches were scheduled to determine rankings for the afternoons knock out stage. Teams soon got into the swing of things and producing high score after high score through breathtakingly mature teamwork strategies and driver skill. Emotions were riding high as teams entered their final few matches with rankings only separated by the odd point here and there, every cube and Highrise would prove vital in the quest for a top placing. The rankings were jumping up and down with each round of matches; a team from Channing School managed to climb 16 places in just one high scoring match! Teams played a total of 7 qualifying matches each with their lowest score deducted from their total. A special mention must go to the St Thomas More School & City of London School for Girls who registered the highest point’s tally of the entire London STEM Leader competition with 52 points, well done teams!

Once all of the qualifying matches were complete the knock-out alliances were generated in preparation for the business end of the competition and alliances began to form game plans for their one shot at glory! Whilst teams were preparing for their high score knock out match the Programming Challenge got underway with teams pitching their programming skills against each other in order to qualify for the National Finals. 2 qualifying spots were up for grabs at the National Finals and would be awarded to the top 2 high scoring teams. As with the Teamwork Driver Control competition the rankings were constantly changing with each competing school enjoying a spell in the qualifying spots. Teams are not allowed to control or manoeuvre their robot during this section of the competition. Robots must be pre-loaded with autonomous programs that will direct and control the robot around the field in order to score as many points as possible. Results were collated and the results kept secret from the teams until the awards presentation, the tension was building now!

During the programming competition the lower ranked Teamwork Alliances were setting the benchmark scores for the top half of the table. Some very impressive scores were registered and proving tough to beat with the underdogs knocking out alliances above them in the rankings. The competition was wide open at this stage and every school was in contention for the top 2 qualifying spaces. You could feel the tension and excitement in the air as teams celebrated registering a top score, cheers filled the room at the final buzzers and despair resonated when schools learnt their fate as the leader board was published. A real roller coaster of emotions!

As we entered the final three matches the score to beat was 38 set by the alliance of Raynes Park High School & Regent High School Team 2 who were ranked 7th. Everyone gathered in the competition area for the final showdown; the top 3 alliances each had one shot to register the top score and book their spot at the National Finals. Alliance Rank 3 City of London Freemen’s School Team 2 & St Thomas More School stepped up first and scored 24 which meant alliance 7 were still heading to the Nationals. Next up, Alliance Rank 2 Park High School & Henrietta Barnett School Team 1 the penultimate match in search of glory, after a blistering start they registered an impressive point’s total of 38 and take the lead due to results and rankings from the qualifying stage. The final match of the day fell to Alliance Rank 1 City of London School for Girls & Henrietta Barnett School, the two top ranked teams after the qualifying matches. The task was painfully simple, yet so difficult, beat the high score of 38 points and qualify. The tension was unbearable as their robots frantically started to score; they were millimetres from glory on numerous occasions but just couldn’t get the Highrise cubes to stack and narrowly missed out by 7 points as the buzzer sounded for the final time.

A massive well done to all of the 33 competing teams, it was fantastic to see you all having so much fun and pushing your robots to the limit! The schedule was challenging to say the least, with over 150 matches in total, the fact that everything ran on time is a real credit to all participants and their mentors on the day, thank you! Good luck to all the London STEM Leader schools that will be competing at the National Finals in March! An extra special mention must go to Henrietta Barnett School who picked up the Excellence Award on the day which qualifies them for the World Championships in Kentucky, USA. We wish them the best of luck in their fundraising efforts!

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Award WinnersJudges Award – Vyners School for their excellent engineering notebook.

Judges Award – CLSG for their huge amount of energy & enthusiasm and impressive robots.Design Award – UCS for a great dual scoring robot.

Programming Skills Champion – St Anthony’s School with a high score of 9 points.Programming Skills Champion – UCS with a high score of 12 points.

Teamwork Champion – Henrietta Barnett SchoolTeamwork Champion – Park High School

Excellence Award – Henrietta Barnett School

National Final QualifiersUCS

St Anthony’sHenrietta Barnett School

Park High School

World Final QualifiersHenrietta Barnett School

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Project Based LearningBuilding a robot that disarms an IED

The new University Technical College’s that may well be opening or have opened near you propose a new way of educating tomorrow’s engineers. Whilst project based learning and practical led classes are nothing new, the UTC model is to work directly with employers. Indeed, part of the Ofsted assessment process each new UTC will go through in year two will be devoted to accrediting their close working relationships with the sponsors and local employers who have helped to build and launch the college.

The Leigh UTC, specialising in Engineering and Computer Science, provides a very focused and STEM geared curriculum for the diverse ability students that have made the choice to join the new college in year’s 10 and 12. Dartford is an extremely deprived and underperforming area of the UK despite its close proximity to the wealth that London provides, but with a new theme park and flood of innovative start-up companies moving to the area, the time is right for the college to offer project based learning as an option to the local students who are giving up their state, grammar or private school places in favour of this new education approach.

Working with the MOD

The Ministry of Defence have a dedicated team who are designated to engage with schools and education institutes, to provide hands on STEM experiences that

help older (KS4 and upwards) students understand that the army is not all about being cannon fodder. Indeed, visiting speakers are able to talk about the logistics behind saving the lives of injured warriors, manning and designing the latest armoured personnel vehicles, and operating some of the latest military technology. Our single contact through the education link on the MOD website, and a detailed email about our project idea, led to a fantastic partnership that now serves the college for years to come.

Teaching BTEC Unit 3 – The Engineering Project

Thanks to Steve Parkinson of Archbishop Holgate’s School in York, the idea of prototyping a VEX EDR based robot that could conduct a task was a pretty sure fire way of not only carrying out some real engineering, but linking the activity across curriculums to the computer science specialism, and using the latest and best available robotics platform to produce the working prototypes. The local EOD regiment, based in Ruislip in Essex, were willing to contribute to the project in any way we wanted, and with 46 sixth form engineering students as the cohort, we knew within this group there would be huge interest in the role of the army in disarming Improved Explosive Devices, similar to those the students had seen in blockbuster film Hurt Locker. Indeed, clips on Youtube from the film, alongside

Phil HoltonCoordinator of EngineeringThe Leigh UTCDartford, Kent

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an MOD film called “The Long Walk” were enough to grab the attention of the students instantly, placing the needs of the military as their focus. Writing a design specification is much easier when you are concerning yourself with avoiding having a leg blown off, or saving a child’s life. Whilst we offer product design, the process of specification writing with these engineering students was almost self-taught, as students understood clearly what criteria would need to be met to ensure not only a unique an functional product, but a solution that would serve its purpose.

A Visit to remember

A visit from the EOD Ruislip regiment took the best part of 4 hours, but in that time the group were able to listen to the regiment Captain talk about his experiences of disarming over 450 bombs a year in the UK alone. Our interest for the project brief was in recreating an area of Afghanistan, where these types of explosives are found and disarmed at least twice a day by a typical travelling regiment on manoeuvres. Watching the faces of students in the front row when the soldier presented four different types of IED’s by taking them out of a bag and handing them to the audience, from a steel pipe bomb full of nails to a cardboard poster tube you would expect from Amazon through the post, it was just brilliant to see their reactions. The talk not only put into context the reality of the wider world, but also gave students all the technical data they needed to prepare the specification. Following the talk, students went out into the car park of the college to watch and take part in the process of disarming an IED from underneath a vehicle. A £1.5 million robot rolled out of the back of the regiment’s vehicle, and proceeded to blast an IED off the side of the van with pressurised air. Students then were invited to drive (at speeds of 30 miles an hour) a smaller ROV named a Dragon Runner around and between staff cars, whilst one student dressed in full bomb disposal gear who proceeded to (try to) walk around the college trying to freak out the year 10 students sat in class. The Dragon Runner was hugely impressive. The cameras on the robot meant that one student was able to drive the robot into the school reception and up to the principles door from over

80 yards away remotely.

Using VEX EDR

Whilst VEX EDR is an integral part of the colleges’ enrichment programme, with four teams trying to win a place at the national competition, the platform is ideal for the Btec unit the students were completing. The ability to not only build and prototype the robot, but also use the electronics to programme and make functional solutions, was key. Teams were able to create robust robots that could drop off tables, climb stairs, articulate through gaps and operate at similar speeds to the MOD equipment. The kit used by the students included numerous tank track kits, mechatronic starter kits, and a number of booster metal sets. For £5,000 the group of 46 students had everything they needed, including programming software. Thanks to Rapid Electronics, the teams were also able to order additional spares as and when they needed, with next day delivery perfect for the fast pace of the 10 week project.

Modelling, prototyping and 3D printing

Whilst the teams were excellent at working around the constraints of a prototyping kit compared to the £80,000 budget available to make a Dragon Runner, the solutions functioned close to if not as the army would need. Students used Autodesk Inventor to modify part files from a library of VEX parts to then 3D print their own parts, including modified claws with inserted Stanley knife blades in to cut wires. Other teams used sheet metal benders, hand tools and metal lathes to create bespoke parts that ensured their robot was compact, functional and robust on the mock up terrain test area. As part of the process, staff encouraged students to build an exact scale card model, and carry out IDEO style tests with these models, including everything from how big the robot was to carry, acting out a dry run of setting down the robot and driving it up to an IED, to where the components would be set out on the frame and all the layout pre planned before actual kit was used. Students loved the fact that as a project based learning process, they were able to articulate as experts everything about their project. When it came to writing up a logbook and project report,

students found they had almost too much to include and write about, because they knew so much about the research, design, development and testing stages they covered prior to the MOD returning for the presentation and awards day.

Presenting like a Pro

Students were set the challenge of presenting professionally, not only because the mark scheme for the unit challenges students to do so, but because as a life skill, this would be invaluable. On the morning of the presentations, students were buzzing with nerves and energy. Three serving officers, one a Major, sat through 8 presentations, each including a demonstration of the team’s robot moving up to an IED and disarming it. Thanks to a brilliant electronics teacher, the IED itself was three 100 decibel alarms setup in a way that cutting a red exposed wire would disarm the bomb, but knocking any of the containers which contained the speakers would cause a tilt switch to close a circuit and sound the alarm. It worked perfectly, and a resounding cheer was heard from all if the bomb was set off accidently. Once team on the morning managed to drive up, cut wires and clear sand from the site, whilst the officers watched via a Facetime call from one mobile phone to the other mounted into a 3D printed holder on the robot.

Reflection of the successes

It wasn’t until the MOD officers had handed out real tour of duty medals to 8 of the best students, and the project was finished, that we as staff realised just what a success the whole process had been. We were amazed at the professionalism of students in conducting their presentations and demonstrations. We also managed to mark all of the student work, and found that students’ hand all managed to meet our expectations and passed all the key assessment criteria needed for the unit, with many earning merit and distinction grades. The project, one of 7 the year group complete this year, will continue year on year, with the VEX kit being dismantled, replenished and reused for each new cohort. Ongoing cost to the college would be minimal, but the mock up demonstration area, fake IED and 3D

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printed parts are all on display for other year groups and visitors to see, alongside the robots which we wanted to keep built for as long as possible.

Project based learning as a way forward

Whilst not all schools and colleges will want to map every project to an employer, the benefits to students at the Leigh UTC of this format is clear for staff and students. This year, students will machine parts for a local manufacturer, conduct a full health and safety audit of a shopping centre, produce engineering drawings for a building company, design, make and test a new mounting system for solar panels on the college roof, and all students will still achieve the Btec Subsidruary diploma qualification. Thanks to the support of the MOD, the college principle, Innovation First, Rapid and the staff involved, the project was a huge success, and a true example of the UTC model of project based learning at its best.

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KS4 Product Design - Pupil Organisation

Dave JonesHead of Faculty – Art, Design & TechnologyThe Fernwood School, Nottingham

Years 10 and 11 are very challenging years for pupils. Not only do they study around a dozen subjects, but every single qualification really matters! Over the last few years we have experimented with different strategies and formats to help out our students, in an attempt to ease revision whilst also ensuring paperwork is suitable for work scrutiny by the dreaded ‘O’ people.

Personalised folders

When Sustainability was a core standalone topic within KS4 (OCR suite of DT subjects), I had the mad idea of creating ring bound folders from supermarket carrier bags. If you iron together (between greaseproof paper) a stack of around 16 carrier bags, the resultant product is a surprisingly flexible and durable plastic board. Binder clips were then riveted to the sheeting, folds applied, and then they were guillotined to shape. The folders worked really well, but getting enough carrier bags has become more challenging. Recently we have taken to making the initial year 10 homework task, as a folder design in 2D design, carefully creating chop outs, laser cutting the design in grey board and finally infilling with coloured paper from behind. We then add some circular clips, and some custom file dividers which our technician has made out of donated brown card. The result is then something that children feel they have both design ownership and a great deal of pride over.

Without exception this has a notable impact on the quality of what they then place inside, and we supply a plastic A4 zipped bag to keep the work tidy and waterproof. Hand-outs and guides which go in the folder are all made in house with a strong design backbone and department branding, ensuring everything that children see is an example of good practice. An English teacher would never distribute a hand out with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, so design teachers should never hand out a poorly designed disaster of a page!

Revision cards along the way

We have started creating packs of blank revision cards for year 10, with enough cards for every lesson of KS4. For plenary/consolidates each lesson pupils spend a couple of minutes summarising the salient points from the lesson in a revisable format. That way, by the time they reach year 11 mocks, and onwards to the real exams, students will already have a full set of cards which then complement the other resources we provide. It’s just another tool in the kitbag to avoid putting off revision.

Marking Stickers & Tracking

Work comes in a variety of formats over KS4, from drawings, to models, to exam questions. Trying to create a consistent framework of assessment has been a struggle, but we are now using pre-printed

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FOLDERS

FROM

CARRIER

BAGS

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stickers, which can be stuck to anything. Practical work can also have disposable luggage tags tied to it, with stickers applied to this. When work is to be handed in, pupils self-grade their work using criteria sheets, then also rate the level of effort they have put into the work. The stickers allow for self, peer or teacher assessment. Virtually all work is given a GCSE grade, based upon criteria sheets drawing from exams and coursework descriptors. These grades are then tracked in Excel, which is shared with the class, and pupils work to improve their average grade over the year.

Shared Working

Finally, another tool we use for a couple of aspects of theory is the idea of ‘shared research’. A topic is divided out by the number of students in the class such as ‘design eras’, and each child draws a slip out of a hat with a specific section. Pupils then research the area in detail, summarise and then present their findings on a single sheet. The results are then combined into a booklet and copied for the whole group (the teacher obviously quality checks the content!). This also works particularly well with custom made revision guides.

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Beauty as they say is in the eye of the beholder, couldn’t agree more but when it comes to design and more specifically “Good design” I am not sure this paradigm fits. A good design not only needs to look good but it also needs to function and I suppose that is where the comparison ends.

I clearly remember overhearing a rather heated debate between a student and senior lecturer whilst studying product design in the final year of my degree. The debate or rather, argument centered on two ballpoint pens. One was an everyday Bic disposable and the second owned by said student, a styled, rather attractive and considerably more expensive version. The lecturer in question was bestowing the virtues of both pens but decided that the Bic was in fact the better product and that the student in question had actually wasted their hard earned cash on a far less superior product. What astounded me at the time was the reasoning behind this bold statement, or rather the distinct lack of reasoning in the first place. The lecturer kept on returning to the fact that the Bic was some 40-50 times cheaper and performed what he believed to be the exact same function and so must be better. The student was confused and slightly annoyed by the lecturer, who eventually dismissed all discourse from his pupil.

“ Ah but how about a Rolex Submariner compared to a Casio digital watch,” said the student. “ No its not the same thing” said the lecturer. Which of course it was. His argument was based solely around the two products he was looking at and saw little or no correlation to other consumer products. At the end of the day he was the lecturer and so he must be right.

I have always been a person more attune to systems and for those that know me well; have to maintain an order and logic. With me this often leads to analogies and every so often acronyms. I suppose the seed had been planted back then in that design studio listening to my Senior lecturer call rank. I felt that I could do a far better job or rather give my students the opportunity to make up their own minds in a more concise, logical and considered way.

I left university with a degree in product design and enrolled on a PGCE course, training to teach design technology. I truly believe I learnt more about design in that first year than I had done during my four years at university. I found myself having to think so very carefully about what I was trying to say before delivering to a group of teenagers. I became acutely aware that I would have to in some way police the edges of any discussions or debate without closing them down like my lecturer had done.

I started my product analysis journey with Alessi kitchen products, the now famous, family follows fiction and Philippe Startck range of products were brand new to the market and really quite difficult to get hold of. Moreover my students had no pre-conceived ideas around these types of object and had no expectations of this market. After all, these products quite simply did not fit their demographic and that was so very liberating. I believe that if I had started with trainers and mobile phones I would have not been able to get past the brand loyalties planted by advertisers before my pupils could first walk.

I had to direct students discussions but not stifle and what better way than to introduce a set of guidelines or even commonalities. I needed a list of factors or criteria by which all products could be judged and judged fairly, the essence of true product analysis. The design technology department I was training in at the time was forward thinking and was already starting to move in this direction. I was getting close to being able to consolidate my thinking and decide on a clear set of rules.

Spencer HerbertCreator of ACCESSFM

ACCESSFM: How it all started and where we are now...

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It was not until I joined Bluefi sh Works as an education consultant that I was afforded the time and backing to move things forward. I had by now decided on my set of product analysis rules but had no name for the system. I decided to put the fi rst letter of each descriptor into an Internet anagram generator and out popped ACCESSFM.

I single handedly presented ACCESS FM during countless conferences, to teachers, advisers and inspectors from the South East all the way up to Scotland. I showcased at the NEC Birmingham for the National Design Technology show, was invited to the annual NAADIT conferences and worked very closely with Gina White HMI and the now head man at DATA, Richard Green. I was also given the opportunity to develop and deliver workshops to primary and secondary school students across the UK. A fantastic opportunity in partnership with the London Design Museum.

During this time I quickly discovered, that in order to teach ACCESS FM, you need to keep it really simple. Indeed I would spend no more than 3 minutes presenting the initial idea of ACCESS FM to pupils. I was surprised how quickly I could lose a group by extending the thinking the fi rst time around.

I left Bluefi sh after a brilliant two years because I desperately missed being part of a team and teaching everyday. I really enjoyed visiting schools through my role at Bluefi sh and loved the creative freedom they afforded, but I hardly ever got to see the long-term benefi ts of what I was delivering. I joined a large school for boys in Bromley, Kent, teaching design technology and soon afterwards was awarded Head of Department. I even went on to acquire AST status. The department still thrives on the use of ACCESS FM.

I have been asked on several occasions my views regarding the information surrounding ACCESSFM online. I am fully aware that the Internet contains modifi cations to ACCESS FM, its not that

the anagram itself has been changed but the meanings behind it. In my opinion they do not really work, simply because they open the whole thing up to too much interpretation. For example I have seen Environment changed to Ergonomics, but surely Ergonomics is a SIZE issue?

Customer has been altered to Client, but generally a client is someone or a company, who creates a brief, whereas a customer is the end user or the person who buys the product. I have even seen SAFETY dropped in favour of Sensory in the context of food, but Sensory can quite easily be considered through the AESTHETICS title and with regard to food why would you disregard Safety?

I suppose it all comes back to what I mentioned earlier about keeping things really simple.

Ultimately this is what encouraged me to launch ACCESSFM. COM. The site was developed to provide the information necessary to use ACCESS FM effectively and in the way that I originally intended. It provides guidance so you can present ACCESS FM to students from all key stages up to degree level or teachers if you like.

I decided to use the site to show teachers how to get to grips with my “one, half, zero rule” and to illustrate how ACCESS FM can formulate task analysis sessions. The site gives guidance in the writing of initial and further specifi cations, the formulation of existing design analysis and in the evaluating of your student’s fi nal products. Furthermore, I recommend appropriate resources, giving specifi c guidance on how to use them in a real classroom, through either case studies or book reviews. However, most importantly, the website contains the original version of ACCESSFM and its waiting for you to simply download.

Enjoy.

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www.teachdesign.org.uk

Teach Design in Partnership with The National STEM Centre

Saturday 16th May 20150930 - 1600

The National STEM CentreUniversity of YorkSiwards WayHeslingtonYorkNorth Yorkshire YO10 5DD

Visit www.teachdesign.org.uk or www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk to book tickets for this event.

Workshops include:Flipped Learning in D&TTechnical TextilesLiteracy & Numeracy in D&T3D CAD & 3D PrintingDeveloping Industry LinksUser Centered & Iterative DesignVEX RoboticsThe Science of FoodUrban Mining & The Circular EconomyProgramming with Microcontrollers