Catching up

Jamie is still ill, so Darryl and I are working independently to catch up with our ePortfolios and make a start on the step-by-step “instructable” for the design and make project.

Even more Design & Make

Jamie was ill, so instead of the electronics session we continued with the Design and Make.  It felt good working today.  We knew what we were doing, we properly discussed things to challenge ourselves and not compromise, and we worked things out as we went along.  This feels like a really natural way to work for me, once I know what the end goal is.  Problem-solving, visualising what methods with work and fixing things as they come up all comes very naturally and I enjoy it.  However, I see now that it comes at the point when I have a really clear idea of what I'm trying to achieve.  Once the idea is settled, I am free to make.  Having the ideas in the first place, when anything is possible and you're trying to be brilliant and original, felt really hard.

Pushing on with Design & Make

It felt like a more productive day for Design and Make day 4, ending with a really good idea of what we're going to make, and tests and decisions made on the design.

Iterating to Design & Make

Iteration.  We keep talking about it.  Does it involve ideas like... testing, problem-solving, trial and error, prototyping, altering, critique, cyclical processes, questions and answers, experimentation, not linear...?

Kay Stables describes a “hand-mind” model – going back and forth from hand to mind.  Literally, iteration is about repetition, or maybe going in circles, to generate outcomes that might lead to the goal.  Each cycle produces an “iteration”, contributing elements that may or may not be included in subsequent or final iterations.

Well, it's Design and Make day 3 and Darryl and I are not massively enthusiastic about our idea but Sarah has persuaded us that there's plenty to explore.  We tried out some sizings and fastenings, and Darryl tried to run a neon strip from cell batteries.

We had a little play with an Kitronic Igloo programmable circuit board with PICAXE software.  I understand the principles of this and would spend more time playing but we're not going to be using one in our wristband so I'll leave that for another time.

Play, Share, Research

We had a self-led day of play, share, research for Design and make.

We made a soft switch and a soft battery holder (powerboard), both of wchich could be incorporated into our final design.  We also looked at making tilt switch.

Darryl and I discussed some contexts, ideas and options – it seems we've settled on making “Festival Friend” wristband... for now.

ISM Conference

We eavesdropped on the current year of PGCE students giving their final presentations from their research projects.  These were diverse and thought provoking, including the topics of...

Meaningful homework

Getting boys to choose textiles

Structured play vs demonstration

Tinkering

Overcoming preconceptions of KS4 food

Higher-order questioning

Scruffiti – creativity over copying

Conceptual expansion and fixation

Motivation

Creative ideas through hands-on modelling

Investigating Bread

So, food is not considered to fit within D&T very well.  But the technology (or science) means it can be approached in relation to “materials” with properties and “processes” that are used in manufacture.  There can be controlled investigations in the classroom, for instance comparing breads made with different ingredients using a bread machine could be said to involve CAD/CAM.

We had a look at Barbara Monks's article “A Quartet of Questions to Guide Food Science Lesson Planning”:  Is it done?  Is it thick?  Will it work?  And is it safe?  It is clear that getting theoretical knowledge into practical lessons is key.  And being able to apply the theory as the practical continues, when modifying or adapting recipes.

We have to look at food like the other D&T areas, in terms of context, brief and specification.  For example:

Context - the people it is meant for, the place it will be consumed (restaurant, home, school, etc.), specific dietary requirements.

Brief - “bread rolls”, “bread centrepiece” etc.

Specification - to feed a certain number, to reflect a theme or convey an idea, to include particular ingredients, to explore cultural differences etc.

We did a comparison of salts, which has converted me to Maldon salt.

Go to food page for our investigations into the role of gluten, yeast, fermentation, soya, and salt.

Teaching a Lesson

It was the day of the school visit.  We took our LED lamp project into South Wolds Academy for a morning aimed at encouraging year 8 learners to make D&T one of their GCSE options.  It was really good to get into a classroom and see everyone do the thing they want to do.

A Day in the Workshops

It was hot, hot, hot for resistant materials day 2.  Some of us started off trying out brazing in the forge.  Then it was onto metal turning, using a lathe to create an internal screw thread.  We had a crack at the band saw, then went back to hand tools to create halving joints (demonstrating accurate marking and measuring).

We're sorta working towards making a picture frame involving wood joints and machined metal components but we won't get it finished.  This leads to the question of whether school projects must always make products to take home?  (Limited discussion on the ideas page).

Alison also mentioned Carol Dweck, who talks of the “growth mindset”, how praise can be counter-productive and how to criticise well.

At the end of the day, we did a bit of preparation for our school visit, making an example and planning the lesson.

Considering Materials

We started off wondering “why teach D&T?”, taking some value statements from Alison's pre-PhD article (which I have included on the ideas page, along with some notes about how D&T is sometimes seen within the wider curriculum).  

Moving onto materials: how we talk about materials gives students the knowledge to make choices.  So we undertook a resistant materials card-sorting exercise.  After that, we looked at some product analysis/material selection worksheets – function, properties, shaping/joining, appearance/texture, surface/finish, safety, cost/availability, impact.

Then we got into the workshops for some practical exercises.  We used hand tools for marking, cutting, and discovering properties.

In the classroom, we always need to consider epistemic ascent – when do we teach children what?  We need to build on knowledge, within context, relating to need.

Alison gave us some pointers towards useful resources:

Risk Assessment worksheet (on the resistant materials page)

Material and tool chooser charts (KS3+4) - https://www.stem.org.uk/elibrary/resource/25316

Interactive material analysis charts - http://www-materials.eng.cam.ac.uk/mpsite/DT.html

Book recommendations - “Design and Technology” by Caborn, Mould and Cave.

“Glimmer” by Warren Berger.

Completing a Tie-dye Waistcoat

Here's a very basic reflection: when you have worked with in a material area for years and have precision and expertise, it is a bit of a challenge to plan projects that are “easy” enough for year 7/8/9.  You want them to be challenging and have potential for perfection, but you have to acknowledge that there will be a fair bit of step-by-step.

But back to textiles.  Today we were marking up – using notches, pivot points, marking darts, tailor's tacks.  These are little things but they do a lot to simplify/inform the making process.  I guess when you are experienced you rely on them less but kids need indicators at every step if their piece is going to succeed.

It is also useful to define order of assembly processes: a) sew stuff on flat pieces: darts, pockets, etc. b) join pieces.  c) finishing.

Sarah recommended seeking out a documentary called “The Secret Life of a Sewing Machine”.  I found it on YouTube and it is super old-skool and good fun.

Working with Textiles

To introduce textiles, we wrapped a sweet potato.  Textiles are sheet materials, that are flexible, so pattern cutting is the mathematics or geometry of going from 3D to 2D to 3D, making a template/net.  We had a quick loo at the textiles competencies too.

Our making project is going to be a tie-dyed waistcoat.  We made a paper sketch model, shaped it on the body, and transferred it to a final pattern with seam allowance, marking up etc.

I am a child who grew up using cm but I have always worked in inches when making garments, so for me there is a question to consider about units in relation to the “real world” - do we teach the children to use cm or inches?

We finished the day tie dying the fabric for our waistcoats using indigo and various tying methods to produce different patterns.

Completing the IKEA Challenge

IKEA Challenge Day 2 began with some lessons in perspective drawing.  Following that we started building the parts of our chair using SolidWorks.  We learnt to assemble parts using a pre-prepared stool in SolidWorks.  It's a process of 3D “mating” of parts – all 3 planes have to be mated, so it takes a bit of getting into.

Once we had assembled IKEA chair from its parts, we moved onto rendering it, then exporting it to Photoshop to place in situ.  Dave tried to teach me how to create an Alpha channel/mask.  I'll need a bit of practice.  On all of this CAD stuff.  But I was pleased how much I was able to pick up in two days and I wasn't useless.