Design & Technology: Product Design
We believe that students deserve a Design Technology curriculum which prepares them for the world they live in by following a KS3 course in Product Design.
Design Technology gives young people the skills and abilities to engage positively with the designed and made world. They learn how products and systems are designed and manufactured, how to be innovative and to make creative use of a variety of resources including traditional and digital technologies, to improve the world around them.
At the centre of the subject is creativity and imagination. Design & Technology is a subject which draws, develops and implements a range of different disciplines including mathematics, science, engineering, computing, and art. The subject embeds high quality literacy skills through analysis and evaluation techniques.
By following the Product Design course in KS3, students will have the opportunity to:
Research and Design
- Engage in an iterative process of design and making.
- Undergo primary and secondary research techniques into a range of user’s needs, wants and values, analysis of existing products, ergonomics and anthropometrics and the work of others.
- Identify and solve their own problems and the problems of specific clients and target market groups.
- Develop specifications to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that respond to needs in a variety of situations.
- Use a variety of design strategies when developing ideas using the iterative design process. For example, a range of 2d and 3d sketching techniques, rendering in different forms, modelling in traditional and CAD methods and the testing of materials and manufacturing techniques.
- Develop and communicate their design ideas using annotated sketches, detailed plans, 3-D and mathematical modelling, oral and digital presentations and computer-based tools
Make
- Select from and use specialist tools, techniques, processes, equipment and machinery precisely, including computer-aided manufacture.
- Select from and use a wider, more complex range of materials, components and ingredients, taking into account their properties.
Evaluate
- Analyse the work of past and present professionals and others to develop and broaden their understanding.
- Investigate new and emerging technologies.
- Personal project work, analysing how the product fulfils the requirements of the specification and the user’s needs, wants and values.
- Recognise how their product can be modified for commercial manufacturing
- Understand developments in design and technology, its impact on individuals, society and the environment, and the responsibilities of designers, engineers and technologists