Topic: Product Design — “Battle Tops”
Year Group: Year 7
Focus:
- Core designing skills
- Core manufacturing skills
- Timber and Plastic Theory
What we will be learning
- Students will design and make battling spinning tops and the arena on which they battle.
- Students will begin by sketching a range of different designs for their tops
- Then they will manufacture them using CAD software and the laser cutter
- They will also manufacture the arena using softwood and High Impact Polystyrene
- After “battling” against their classmates to see which top works best, students will evaluate their designs in an extended piece of writing
- The theory element of this project covers plastics, hardwoods, softwoods and manufactured boards.
Why is this important? Where does it link to future and past learning
- All of the skills used in this project are core skills that underpin all design and manufacturing work carried out at all levels of this subject. The core design skills such as sketching are also transferable to the other 2 areas of Design and Technology, i.e. Food Technology and Textiles, and that is why developing core design skills is the main focus for this module.
- Being able to sketch well and use CAD/CAM equipment such as 2D design and the laser cutter are key core skills. Also using the try square, and tenon saw and learning how to assemble projects together accurately is very important to all future work.
- The theory work is core theory that helps students to understand the working properties of their materials which will help for selection of materials in future projects when students have more freedom over their designs, specifically in year 8 when completing the electronics project. The theory is also key for any students carrying on the subject into KS4.
How will this topic be assessed? Formative and summative
- Formative assessment and feedback happens each lesson through teacher questioning and advice on work in progress and completed. Students also have broad targets in their sketchbook that act as a scaffold for them to reflect on their work and generate their own personalised action plan for improvement in their learning. These targets are linked to “DIRT” activities aimed at building independence and metacognitive skills within the students
- Summative assessment happens in three stages. Students manufacturing skills will be assessed through comparative judgement and rank order of projects which accounts for 40% of the overall mark.
- Students design skills will be assessed through comparative judgement and rank order of sketchbooks which accounts for 35% of overall mark
- Students theory knowledge will assessed through a theory “quest” which covers 25% of the overall mark
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic, and what can I do to stretch myself in this topic?
- Be as creative as possible with your designs and don’t be afraid to take risks. Use internet research for inspiration.
- Practice sketching and rendering to improve the impact of your design pages. Product Designer maker YouTube page is excellent to help develop design skills. Click here
- Attend any extra sessions that the teacher may put on for you
Some tops cut out on the laser cutter Sketching and analysing designs Examples of Theory covered
