Indicators of progression: Technological products
The indicators that follow describe the knowledge, skills, and understandings that students should be demonstrating in the Technological products component of the technology curriculum.
Indicators are provided for each level of the curriculum and are accompanied by guidance for teachers.
- See Indicators of progression for more information about the indicators and how they can be used.
- To learn more about the Technological products component, see the key ideas and related resources provided at Technological products.
Level one
Achievement objective
Students will understand that technological products are made from materials that have performance properties.
Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 1, teachers could:
- provide students with:
- a range of technological products and encourage them to explore these through such things asusing, "playing", dismantling, and rebuilding as appropriate
- the opportunity to explore common materials and guide them to identify their performance properties
- range of technological products to explore and guide them to identify ways in which materials have been manipulated to make the product. For example,
- in a wooden toy the wood has been shaped, sanded, and painted
- in a sandwich, the bread dough has been shaped, cooked, and sliced
- in a cushion the fabric has been cut and sewn together.
- guide students to identify the materials that the products explored are made from
- provide opportunity for students to discuss that performance properties of materials refer to such things as thermal and electrical conductivity, water resistance, texture, flexibility, colour.
Indicators
Students can:
- identify materials that technological products are made from
- identify performance properties of common materials
- identify how the materials have been manipulated to make the product.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching strategy and explanation | |
| Identify materials that technological products are made from | Provide students with to examine a range of familiar articles (or photos of articles) made from different materials. The teacher helps students identify:
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| Identify performance properties of common materials | Provide students with a range of technological products they are familiar with (or photos of products) which are made from different materials. Identify the performance properties of those materials. Brainstorm in groups or as a class:
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| Identify how the materials have been manipulated to make the product. | Identify parts of familiar technological outcomes (such as a pen, bike, chair) that have been shaped, joined and finished. The teacher helps students to talk about why a particular material was chosen and how it has been shaped, joined, finished (provide lots of examples). If possible pull the product to pieces and sort into parts that have been shaped, joined and finished. |
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Level two
Achievement objective
Students will understand that there is a relationship between a material used and its performance properties in a technological product.
Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 2, teachers could:
- guide students to:
- understand that performance properties of materials refer to such things as thermal and electrical conductivity, water resistance, texture, flexibility, colour
- describe the relationship between the materials selected and their performance properties. For example, a school lunch box is made of plastic because plastic can be molded into different shapes, and is hard, durable, lightweight, and easily cleaned.
- provide students with the opportunity to:
- research and experiment with a range of materials and guide them to describe how their performance properties relates to how they could be useful. For example, a material that was water and UV resistant, durable, and easily cleaned could be useful for outdoor furnishings
- research and experiment with a range of materials and guide them to describe how particular materials can be manipulated.
- provide students with a variety of technological products to explore and encourage them to explore these through such things as: using, "playing", dismantling, and rebuilding as appropriate.
Indicators
Students can:
- describe the performance properties of a range of materials and use these to suggest things the materials could be used for
- describe feasible ways of manipulating a range of materials
- suggest why the materials used in particular technological products were selected.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching Strategy and explanation | |
| Describe the performance properties of a range of materials and use these to suggest things the materials could be used for | Provide a range of familiar materials that students have used in the past and have them describe their performance properties. Because they are using familiar materials, the students will have prior knowledge to work from. Use the identified performance properties to suggest other things these materials could be used for. |
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| Introduce properties of materials and the correct terminology. |
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| Provide a range of materials that students are unfamiliar with (that is, those they have not used in the past) and allow them to play with them to identify and describe their performance properties. Students are introduced to simple sensory and physical tests such as smell, feel, ability to bend, stretch compress, taste, texture. Use these performance properties to suggest other things these materials could be used for. |
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| Describe feasible ways of manipulating a range of materials | Provide a range of materials that students are unfamiliar with (that is, those they have not used in the past) and allow them to play with them to identify feasible ways for them to be manipulated. Teachers provide a range of tools – scissors, pliers, saws – and allow students (under instruction) to attempt to cut, bend and/or shape materials with them. Ask students to collate materials into those that can be bent, shaped. |
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| Suggest why the materials used in particular technological products were selected | Provide a range of technological products that students are familiar with and have them describe the materials from which they are made and their performance properties.
Teachers need to choose the products carefully to give the students a range of materials to examine. Once again, move from the familiar to the unfamiliar, using products made from only one or two materials, such as a potato peeler, a screwdriver or a cutting board. |
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| Provide a range of technological products that students neither used nor seen before. Get them to describe the materials and their expected performance properties.
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Level three
Achievement objective
Students will understand the relationship between the materials used and their performance properties in technological products.
Teacher guidance
Subjective measurement is reliant on people’s perception (tasty, evokes a sense of natural beauty, warm and inviting) where as objective measurement is not (conductivity, UV resistance).
The fitness for purpose of a product relies on the material providing appropriate performance properties to ensure the product is technically feasible and acceptable (safe, ethical, environmentally friendly, economically viable).
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 3, teachers could provide students with:
- the opportunity to discuss that performance properties of materials can be measured objectively and subjectively
- a variety of technological products to explore and guide them to identify the performance properties of all the materials used, and to explain if these could be measured objectively or subjectively
- a variety of technological products and guide them to explain how properties combine to make the product both technically feasible and socially acceptable.
Indicators
Students can:
- describe the properties of materials used in particular products that can be measured:
- objectively
- subjectively.
- describe how the properties combine to ensure the materials allow the product to be technically feasible and socially acceptable.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching Strategies and explanation | |
| Describe the properties of materials used in particular products that can be measured objectively | Examine familiar and unfamiliar products (or photos of products) made from two or more materials, such as a pen, a pencil case or toy. Students are asked to identify the materials the products are made from and their properties, identifying the properties that are common across materials and those that are different, and categorising them into those can be measured objectively and those subjectively. |
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| Describe the properties of materials used in particular products that can be measured subjectively | ||
| Describe how the properties combine to ensure the materials allow the product to be technically feasible and socially acceptable | Examine familiar products (or photos of products) made from two or more materials, such as a pen, a clock or a watch. Students examine a variety of products made from two or more materials (and, if possible, some that can be pulled apart). Working in pairs/groups, they are asked to determine:
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Level four
Achievement objective
Students will understand that materials can be formed, manipulated, and/or transformed to enhance the fitness for purpose of a technological product.
Teacher guidance
Forming refers to bringing two or more materials together to formulate a new material resulting in a different overall composition and structure to that of the original materials. This results in different performance properties.
For example:
- mixing flour, water, and salt to make dough
- mixing wood fibres, resin, and wax to make MDF
- glass fibre and a polymer resin combined to form fiberglass or fibre reinforced polymer (FRP).
Manipulating materials refers to "working" existing materials in ways that do not change their properties as their composition and structure is not altered. For example: cutting, molding, bending, jointing, gluing, painting.
Transforming refers to changing the structure of an existing material to change some of its properties, but in terms of its composition, it remains the same material. For example: felting, beating an egg white, steaming timber to soften its fibres and allow it to be manipulated (bent).
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 4, teachers could:
- provide students with the opportunity to discuss what is meant by materials being formed, manipulated, and transformed.
- guide students to:
- understand that for materials to be selected for use in a technological product, their performance properties must align with the desired specifications of the product
- recognise that during development of a product, specifications are established that will require the manipulation, and in some cases, transformation and formation, of materials
- provide students with:
- a variety of technological products to explore and guide students to identify examples of when materials needed to be manipulated, transformed and/or formed to enable material linked specifications of the product to be met and contribute to the product’s fitness for purpose
- a scenario outlining technical and acceptability specifications for a product and support them to explore and research materials to determine what material would be suitable and how they could be manipulated and/or transformed to meet product specifications
- support students to communicate material related details effectively.
- Material related details include such things as what materials would be feasible and how they would need to be formulated, manipulated and/or transformed. Effective communication uses specialised language and symbols.
Indicators
Students can:
- communicate, using specialised language and drawings, material related details that would allow others to create a product that meets both technical and acceptability specifications
- describe examples to illustrate how the:
- manipulation of materials contributed to a product’s fitness for purpose
- transformation of materials contributed to a product’s fitness for purpose
- formulation of new materials contributed to a product’s fitness for purpose.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching Strategies and explanation | |
| Describe examples to illustrate how the manipulation of materials contributed to a product’s fitness for purpose | Examine a range of products made from the same materials to discuss how and why the materials have been manipulated in the way that they have. Students examine:
Discuss how and why the materials have been manipulated in the way that they have. |
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| Examine a range of products that have more than one material and discuss how the materials work together to enable the product to be fit for purpose. Allow students the opportunity to play with the products and use them for their intended function. From this, encourage them to describe how the materials they are made from are joined and allow the product to function. Suggest what would happen to the products’ fitness for purpose if the materials they were made from were joined differently. For example, how fit for purpose would the product be if the materials were glued instead of being bolted together? Look at examples of how materials have been joined. Technology student website – Resistent materials (scroll down to "JOINTS"). |
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| Examine a range of products that have been finished in different ways and discuss:
Students look at a range of different surface finishes applied to materials used in a product and discuss how these finishes enable the product to be fit for purpose.
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| Describe examples to illustrate how the transformation of materials contributed to a product’s fitness for purpose | Analyse existing products to identify the materials they are made from, how they were transformed to enable the product to achieve its physical and functional attributes. Students analyse a range of existing products comprising two or three materials that have been moulded, shaped, bent, polished. |
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| Describe examples to illustrate how the formulation of new materials contributed to a product’s fitness for purpose | Analyse existing products to identify the materials they are made from, how they were transformed to enable the product to achieve its physical and functional attributes. Students analyse a range of existing products made of formulated materials, such as fibreglass, a cake, a brass tap. |
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| Communicate, using specialised language and drawings, material related details that would allow others to create a product that meets both technical and acceptability specifications | Analyse existing working drawings, recipes to identify the symbols, language used to communicate technical information (including specifications) about materials/ingredients. | |
| Students use specialised language and drawings to communicate information about a product. Other students are required to make the product according to the information provided. Students swap information and make each other’s products. |
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| Students use specialised language and drawings to communicate information that describes an existing product (use a different product for each student). When each student has completed a description for one product, mix the products and descriptions up and have students sort products to match the descriptions. |
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Level five
Achievement objective
Students will understand how materials are selected, based on desired performance criteria.
Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 5, teachers could:
- guide students to understand that the composition of materials determines what performance properties it exhibits.
- Composition relates to such things as the type and arrangement of particles that make up the material
- support students to analyse examples of how materials have been selected to:
- gain insight into how this selection relies on understanding the composition of the materials available
- use this knowledge to help decide which materials in combination would provide the best "fit" with the product specifications.
Examples should include the material selection practices of technologists.
Indicators
Students can:
- discuss examples to illustrate how:
- the composition of materials determines performance properties
- decisions about material selection take into account the composition of the material and the specifications of the product.
- explain the link between specifications of a product and the selection of suitable materials for its construction.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching strategies and explanation | |
| Discuss examples to illustrate how the composition of materials determines performance properties | Students experiment with different ingredients to see what happens to the performance properties of materials when their composition is altered. Examples could include:
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| Explain the link between specifications of a product and the selection of suitable materials for its construction | In groups look at a range of existing products related to the context they are working in. Provide students with a range of products. In groups, they analyse what the product does (its proper function), its specifications, and the link with the properties of the materials that enable the product to do what it does. |
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| Repeat the above with a much wider range of products that come from within and outside the context they are working in. Students work in groups to undertake research and present back to the class – encourage students to use such things as PowerPoint and/or wall-charts to support their presentations. Students choose a technological outcome they have made and do the same as above. |
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| Deconstruct existing products. Students analyse to determine:
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| Discuss examples to illustrate how decisions about material selection take into account the composition of the material and the specifications of the product | Group research task on material properties and composition. Groups produce a poster on a given material that explains the material’s composition and properties. The poster should:
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| Choose one product related to the context your working in, list the materials used and discuss how material selections were made. | ||
| Mix-and-match cards. Performance properties and material composition and properties. Give students a range of different performance criteria for products and ask them to match the materials that meet the performance criteria. |
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Level six
Achievement objectives
Students will understand:
- how materials are formed, manipulated, and transformed in different ways, depending on their properties
- the role of material evaluation in determining suitability for use in product development.
Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 6, teachers could:
- provide students with the opportunity to research and experiment with a range of materials to develop understandings of how the composition and structure of materials impacts on how they can be manipulated and/or transformed, or combined to formulate a new material
- guide students to understand that material evaluation enables decisions to be made about how a material would support, or not, the fitness for purpose of particular technological products, and decrease the probability of a product malfunction
- support students to analyse examples of how materials have been evaluated to determine their suitability for use in particular technological products.
Examples should include the material evaluation practices of technologists.
Indicators
Students can:
- explain how the composition and structure of different materials enables them to be manipulated in specific ways
- explain how the composition and structure of materials:
- determines the ways they can be transformed
- impacts on how they can be combined to formulate a new material
- describe the role of material evaluation in determining material suitability for use in a technological product
- discuss examples to illustrate how material evaluation informed the selection of materials in particular product development.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching strategies and explanation | |
| Explain how the composition and structure of different materials enables them to be manipulated in specific ways | Bus-stop activity with a different material at each station. Teacher provides a task activity set of instructions at each station that guides students to experiment with each material and answer questions on how that material can be manipulated. Take photos of what students did with each material. Inquiry research question into one material (for example, How does the composition of material xxx affect its properties?). Students choose one of the materials they experimented with in the bus stop task and undertake research to explain the link between the composition of the selected material and its properties. Students report back to the whole class or present a poster/digital presentation that explains their findings. |
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| Pairs/group product analysis. Students look at a range of technological products with different joining methods and different materials. Answer questions (teacher provided) that lead students to understanding that the composition of materials determines the way it can be joined. Self-paced instructions requiring students to do a variety of joining methods. Students are given a range of instructional activities to work through at their own pace. Each activity outlines a jointing method with questions to evaluate the effectiveness of the joining method based on the composition of the materials and the application where the joint may be used. |
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| Worksheet with different finishing options. Students complete a worksheet that has a technological outcome with a number of different finishing options, which the students evaluate and discuss in terms of how these will affect the outcome’s fitness for purpose. Practical task of experimenting with different finishing options. Provide students with a range of materials and finishing options and ask them to evaluate the effectiveness of each finishing option based on the composition of the material. Research/homework task to investigate a finishing used on a selected technological outcome. Students choose an outcome (a small/large, NZ/international technological product) and investigate what finishing options were used, how its choice was based on the composition of materials and how it affects the fitness for purpose of the outcome. Research product recalls due to inappropriate finishing. Students investigate sites such as the Product recalls: Home (NZ) to find examples of products that have been recalled due to inappropriate finishing – for example, the Sea Doo Wake Pro Recall. Google-search "products recalls NZ" to find recent examples. |
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| Explain how the composition and structure of materials determines the ways they can be transformed | Students experiment with a range of familiar and unfamiliar materials to determine how they can be transformed – use research and teacher-input to explain how the composition and structure of materials allows for this transformation. Examples include:
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| Explain how the composition and structure of materials impacts on how they can be combined to formulate a new material | Students explore a range of familiar and unfamiliar materials to determine how the composition and structure of the materials (ingredients) enabled the formulation of the material. Students use research and teacher-input to inform explanations of how the composition and structure of these materials (ingredients) enabled the formulation of the material. |
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| Research the development of new materials. See Smart materials: What is it and how to use them? | ||
| Describe the role of material evaluation in determining material suitability for use in a technological product | In groups undertake material testing to determine a material’s suitability for use in a technological outcome. Students undertake a range of material tests to determine material performance properties and therefore its suitability for use in a technological outcome. Material performance properties that could be tested include:
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| Discuss examples to illustrate how material evaluation informed the selection of materials in particular product development | A visiting technologist explains how they determine suitable materials for use in a product. | |
Level seven
Achievement objective
Students will understand the:
- concepts and processes employed in materials evaluation
- implications of these for design, development, maintenance, and disposal of technological products.
Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 7, teachers could support students to:
- understand that material evaluation enables decisions to be made about what material would be optimal to ensure the fitness for purpose of particular technological products
- explore a range of subjective and objective evaluative procedures used to identify the suitability of materials for different uses
- describe the underpinning concepts and processes related to subjective and objective evaluative procedures
- understand the selection of appropriate material evaluation procedures relies on understanding:
- the composition and structure of materials
- how their properties can be enhanced through manipulation or transformation
- the performance criteria required by technological products
- the physical and social context within which the technological product will be situated.
- identify and analyse examples of how materials have been evaluated to:
- allow material selection decisions that maximise the potential fitness for purpose of particular technological products
- gain insight into how material evaluation procedures can be used to identify product maintenance and disposal implications (therefore, inform design, development, and post-production-care decisions).
Examples should include the material evaluation practices of technologists.
Indicators
Students can discuss:
- a range of subjective and objective evaluative procedures used to determine the suitability of materials and describe the underpinning concepts and processes involved in particular procedures
- examples:
- of material evaluation procedures undertaken to support material selection decisions and justify the appropriateness of these procedures
- to explain how material evaluation impacted on design and development decisions
- to explain how material evaluation impacted on maintenance and disposal decisions.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching Strategies and explanation | |
| Discuss a range of subjective and objective evaluative procedures used to determine the suitability of materials and describe the underpinning concepts and processes involved in particular procedures | View YouTube videos of material testing. Search for material testing video clips on YouTube. |
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| Carry out material testing. Within the limitations of the equipment available, carry out a range of material tests. Photograph and explain the findings. |
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| Discuss examples of material evaluation procedures undertaken to support material selection decisions and justify the appropriateness of these procedures | View YouTube videos of material testing. Search for material testing video clips on YouTube. |
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| Expert groups to research a given material test and present/ report back to class. Investigate material testing that cannot be carried out in the classroom/workshop. Allocate a type of testing to each group with some focus questions. Each group undertakes the research and then presents their findings back to the class. |
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| Discuss examples to explain how material evaluation impacted on design and development decisions | Research task investigating a product designed for a particular environment/to perform a specific function. Choose a product and the environment where it will be situated/used, such as local daycare, beach, Antarctica. Investigate the environment where the outcome is situated and explain how the materials used in the product allow the product to function in the environment in which it is situated. Students need to see a range of products designed for different environments so that they identify the relationships between material properties and a product’s fitness for purpose within its intended environment. |
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| Discuss examples to explain how material evaluation impacted on maintenance and disposal decisions | Task considering material selection in relation to maintenance and disposal issues. Look at YouTube videos on issues to do with product disposal as starters, for example: Class discusses materials used in products. Including the:
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Level eight
Achievement objective
Students will understand:
- the concepts and processes employed in materials development and evaluation
- the implications of these for design, development, maintenance, and disposal of technological products.
Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 8, teachers could:
- support students to understand:
- that material evaluation enables decisions to be made about what material would be optimal to ensure the fitness for purpose when taking into account both the technical feasibility and social acceptability of the product
- why the selection of appropriate material evaluation procedures relies on understanding the composition and structure of materials, how their properties can be enhanced through manipulation or transformation, the performance criteria required by technological products, and an understanding of the physical and social context within which the technological product will be situated.
- that the development of new materials relies on understanding:
- existing materials including their advantages and limitations
- new material composition and structure possibilities
- formulation procedures
- future requirements, needs, and desires
- that new evaluative procedures may need to be developed to determine the suitability of new materials.
- support students to critically analyse a range of subjective and objective evaluative procedures used to justify material suitability and to explain the underpinning concepts and processes involved in these procedures
- support students to identify and analyse examples where new materials have been developed, including past and contemporary examples, to gain insight into how material formulation and subsequent evaluation procedures are used to address performance, maintenance and disposal implications, and inform design and development decisions.
Examples should include material development (including formulation procedures) and evaluation practices of technologists.
Indicators
Students can examples of:
- the formulation of new materials and explain the underpinning concepts and processes involved in their development
- evaluation procedures undertaken to determine the suitability of new materials and explain the underpinning concepts and processes involved in particular evaluations
- past material developments and explain how these impacted on product design, development, manufacturing, maintenance, and disposal
- contemporary material developments and suggest probable implications for future technological product design, development, manufacturing, maintenance, and disposal.
Strategies for engaging students
| Indicators | Teaching Strategies and explanation | |
| Discuss examples of the formulation of new materials and explain the underpinning concepts and processes involved in their development |
View a range of material innovations Ensure the range has both past and contemporary examples. Also, make sure the range includes both new materials and existing materials used in a new way. For examples see Smart Materials of the Future - with Anna Ploszajski |
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Research a material innovation Each student. pair, or group to look at one past and one contemporary example of material innovation. For a range of examples see Top Innovative Materials |
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| Discuss examples of evaluation procedures undertaken to determine the suitability of new materials and explain the underpinning concepts and processes involved in particular evaluations | Teacher provides examples of material innovations for students to investigate. Teacher provides photos of products using a material innovation such as carbon- fibre mast used on America’s Cup yachts, bicycles, Marcel Wander’s knotted chair. Students suggest the evaluation procedures that were used to determine the suitability of the material innovations used in the product and why these innovations were either successful or unsuccessful. |
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| Discuss examples of past material developments and explain how these impacted on product design, development, manufacturing, maintenance and disposal |
Teacher-led class discussion Teacher leads class discussion on past material innovations and explain how these impacted on subsequent technological development. |
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Research assignment Students choose a past material innovation and research how the innovation impacted on subsequent technological development. |
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| Discuss examples of contemporary material developments and suggest probable implications for future technological product design, development, manufacturing, maintenance and disposal | Individual research/presentation task. Students choose a contemporary material innovation, research it, and make a presentation on probable implications for future technological product development. |
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Indicators of Progression – Technological products (Word 2007, 130 KB)
Indicators of Progression: Complete set (A3, by strand) – PDF file, 340kb
Indicators of Progression: Complete set (A3, by level) – PDF file, 319kb