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.