macquarie fields public school 1 stage 2: year 3 overview the students in year 3 were studying the...

Macquarie Fields Public School

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Stage 2: Year 3OverviewThe students in Year 3 were studying the Rainforest Story Path unit for Stage 2. The aim was to tie in SciTech and the design process into the unit of work in a way that was relevant and meaningful to all students.

Promoting Reduce, Reuse and Recycle was a focus for the children during the whole unit whilst living in a throw away lifestyle.

September, 2007 Technology education K-8: Design and Practice© State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007.


September, 2007

Exploring and defining the taskThe link to the Rainforest Story Path unit was to examine the different types of jewellery available from the rainforest and its people from around the world. During this process the students were encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle in as many areas as possible. The students were given an element of choice for the task and were able to make a selection to suit their own ideas, thoughts and designs.

Identifying the process that is required to construct most of the things that they take for granted was an eye opener for many children. Many believed that someone just had an idea and that was made into the finished product. The multi-step process was not even considered.

Technology education K-8: Design and Practice© State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007.

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Generating and developing ideasAs an introduction to the task we examined everyday items in the classroom that could be improved, such as pencil sharpeners, pencil cases etc and discussed what and why these improvements could be made.

A second task was to look at jewellery from rainforests world wide and use as a point of discussion. Following this discussion, we examined jewellery that might be found or worn by the everyday person. These included jewellery worn by stars and icons recognised by the children who were both men and women.

The music and movie stars were the most popular and easily recognisable for the children (lots of discussion and ideas). After examining the various types of jewellery, we used a Venn diagram to identify similarities and differences.



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The greatest difficulty for this task was the motivation of the boys. They saw this task as being a task exclusively for the girls, despite the images of Eminem, 50 Cent and Puff Daddy. Their ‘bling’ was seen as exciting, however not a single boy completed the task designing their own jewellery. It meant that I needed to adjust or widen the brief to allow them to perform the task.

As a follow on, the children discussed ways in which an item could be improved that would be useful and relevant to their everyday life – whilst incorporating the design process. Football cards were very popular within our school and many of the boys opted to design a way of carrying their football cards. Part of their design brief was to carry and protect their cards during their day at school. It needed to be secure and to keep their cards in almost perfect condition. Many succeeded in this task with differing degrees of achievement.

Producing solutions



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Student work samples

Paling wind chimes Paling footy card holder Pencil holder Jewellery box



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Footy card wallet

Necklace made from palm nuts

Bangle, necklace and ear rings made from coloured stones




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Sick of losing your keys or don’t know what bills need to be paid?(All made from recycled materials for Mum)




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Student reflectionKey rack

Palm tree bead necklace

Footy card holder

Jewellery box

Christmas bracelet



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Teacher reflection The greatest challenge for me was to encourage and challenge all students equally. It was difficult to find the point needed to motivate the boys. They were interested in the introduction, but became concerned that the idea about men and jewellery was very much female oriented and not a suitable choice. For the girls they loved the idea of making their own jewellery and went to great lengths to do the 3Rs. Many took incorporated designs as seen in different cultures from around the world.

The variation to the task allowed many boys to rethink the brief and to examine their current situation and determine what it is that they are currently doing that could be improved. Many ideas were thrown around in small groups which in turn provided a great place for those who were struggling for ideas to be inspired.

This process allowed the students to work closely together to share and discuss the problems that they were facing and to give suggestions to those who were having difficulty. It was excellent for talking and listening. Think, think, think and rethink some more!

To do this task over I would spend more time on the design sketching as the students sketches were not as accurate as I would have liked to see. They were lacking any sense of 3D and depth. I was quite pleased with the reflection as provided by the students as many answers were honest and thoughtful.


macquarie fields public school 1 stage 2: year 3 overview the students in year 3 were studying the...

Documents

design process

design brief

technology education

macquarie fields public

nsw department of education

included jewellery

various types of jewellery

rainforest story path