Preparation
Prior teaching and learning
Prior to undertaking this task, students will have generated designs and product/s in response to a given brief. They will have worked through design or technological processes and have documented their ideas and progress in a design folio. Aspects of their learning and learning processes will have been documented in a learning log or journal, as part of their design folio, (see Ideas generation task).
For this task students will need to have an understanding of:
- what is meant by design or technological processes
- some social, ethical and environmental issues that can affect design ideas and decisions.
In addition, students should be able to:
- work through design or technological processes
- use a learning log or journal to document their progress through technology projects
- develop criteria to evaluate the success of the final design
- develop and implement management/production plans
- critique/evaluate products and processes as part of their technology learning
- identify social, ethical and environmental issues that impact on specific design challenges and consider how they will affect the design ideas
- present evaluation reports in a variety of formats.
Teacher preparation
Download the support material for the assessment task:
Student resources
- Evaluation/critiquing worksheet (doc,15kb)
- Issues worksheet (doc,15kb)
- Student rubric for the evaluation assessment task (doc,46kb)
The student rubric can be used:
(a) to make certain that students are aware of the success criteria against which they will be assessed by the teacher. Teachers should make certain that students fully understand all terminology.
(b) to assist students in the process of self-assessment.
Teacher resources
- Advice for teachers (doc,15kb)
- Teacher rubric for the evaluation assessment task (doc,41kb) The teacher rubric will be used to provide feedback to students on completion of the task.
- Catering for students with special needs (pdf,133kb)
- Annotated worksample
Teachers might find it helpful to examine an annotated worksample for the task. They could also share this with students as a model or examplar to help them better understand the success criteria. Further information about worksamples and how to use them can be found at this link.
Preparing students for the task
Note: The following activity is optional depending on the work that has taken place earlier in the unit in relation to the ways in which social, ethical and environmental issues might impact on the design brief/ideas. Teachers will be aware that social, ethical and environmental issues are ones that should be considered throughout the design process. Teachers may choose to use the issues worksheet just as a way of revising this.
Activity One: Identifying social, ethical and environmental issues that can affect design
Discuss what is meant by the social, ethical and environmental issues that can affect the development of design ideas, providing relevant examples. Have students contribute to this as much as possible.
Ask students to form small groups to explore one of these further. Ensure that at least one group is addressing each area. Provide them with a large sheet of paper and markers (or similar) to write with and ask them to list issues relating to their area that they feel might impact on design. Note that students are likely to find the environmental issues easier to identify than the other areas.
They could pose these as questions. For instance:
| Social | Could the design/design solution help someone? Will it make life easier for someone? Could the design/design solution help people to work together? Will it create any difficulties for any particular group of people? |
| Ethical | Is it a real need, or is it a 'want'? Does the design solution make judgements about a particular group of people? Does the design solution make assumptions about particular aspects of people's lives? Could the design solution offend any particular group of people? |
| Environmental | Does the design/design solution use non-renewable materials or energy source? Could the design/design solution cause pollution of any sort? What is the intended life of the design solution? What will happen to it when people have finished with it? Who will benefit from the design solution? Who will be disadvantaged? |
Ask each group to provide some feedback on these issues. Compile a list of issues/ideas/questions for each area. This could be done on an overhead transparency, flip chart or on a board. Discuss any issues that arise from this.
Activity Two: Revising issues that affect design ideas
Have students complete the Issues worksheet (doc,15kb). Ask students to contribute ideas from their responses and discuss any queries or specific issues that arise.
Activity Three: Reflecting on design solutions and processes: Developing evaluation criteria
Discuss with students the purpose of evaluating or critiquing design solutions and processes. Emphasise the importance of reflecting on the processes followed and being able to articulate this in some way. Remind students that in technology education, while the design solution is important, the quality of the solution does not reflect the level of learning that has taken place. Often a student who encounters many issues will learn much more than a student who encounters few.
Ask students what they know about developing evaluation criteria. Remind them that the criteria need to be as specific as possible to the brief.
Tell them that they will be developing design solution and process criteria. Ask for ideas about 'design solution' criteria. List these on the board. With the help of students identify two 'design solution' criteria that will be used for this unit.
Note these will need to be quite specific to the individual brief. For instance:
- Does the design solution use a renewable power source?
- How does the design solution cater for the specified audience (eg 6 to 8-year-old children, the elderly etc)?
- Explain the three presentation techniques that were used.
- Does the design solution reflect the final design idea? Why/why not?
Ask for suggestions for 'process' criteria. Follow the process described above to identify two 'process' criteria for this unit.
- Which aspects of the production plan changed? Why?
- What were the three main issues that you encountered during the unit of work? How did you address them?
- Explain one modification that you made to the design/design solution and why you made this.
- If you were to do this unit of work again, what are three things you would do differently?
Have students write these on the Evaluation/critiquing worksheet (doc,15kb). Then ask them to identify another four of each kind of criteria and write them on the sheet.
Activity Four: Presenting reports
Revise what students know about presenting information through evaluation or critiquing.
Ask students to suggest ways in which reports can be presented. List these on the board. For example:
- oral
- graphic
- written.
Have groups consider what some of the key elements and considerations may be for a variety of presentation techniques. For example:
| Oral |
|
| Graphic |
|
| Written |
|
Discuss with students the possibility that reports will often incorporate several presentation methods. For instance, a written report could contain several images or an oral presentation could be enhanced with graphic support material.
If appropriate, ask students to suggest ways in which they could use ICT to present their report. For example:
- word processing
- incorporating digital images of products and processes
- developing graphs/charts etc using software
- using Microsoft PowerPoint to support an oral presentation
- displaying design ideas developed using a CAD program etc.
