"Life Jackets", Junior Journal, level 2, March 2017
08 March 2017
This report outlines the history of life jacket development and explains how life jackets help keep people safe.
Read this story to learn about the history of life jackets and the materials that they have been made of over time.
You can find a PDF of the text, the teacher support materials, and the audio version on Literacy Online: "Life Jackets", Junior Journal, level 2, 2017
Another useful resource
Discussion questions
Discussion questions could include:
- What are the names of the materials that have been used in the different types of life jackets that have been invented over time?
- What are the performance properties of materials? This refers to such things as thermal and electrical conductivity, water resistance, texture, flexibility, colour, and so on.
- How are the performance properties of these materials used in other products? What other technological products are these materials used for? For example, synthetic foam is lightweight, dense, firm, durable, and provides cushioning when used to package products to prevent damage in transport.
- Describe how the materials have been manipulated to create the life jacket. Manipulating materials refers to "working" existing materials in ways that do not change their properties – that is do not alter their composition and structure - for example: cutting, molding, bending, jointing, gluing, painting.
- Explore some other technological products (see the life jacket design competition video clip at the link above for new ideas about life jacket designs) and describe the relationship between the materials selected and their performance properties.
- What are the physical attributes (what does it look like) and the functional attributes (what does it do) of the award winning life jacket designs?
- What is the relationship between the physical and functional attributes in your chosen design. For example, "the jacket has a pocket to hold a drink bottle."
Indicators of progression for discussion starters
| Component | Indicator | Level |
| Technological products |
| 2 |
| Characteristics of technological outcomes |
| 1 |
| Characteristics of technological outcomes |
| 2 |