Design Technology Years 10 to 11

  • Design & Technology is a really diverse area and can lead into all sorts of careers.          
  • This might lead into a job in a manufacturing industry or a career in design (graphics/textiles/cad/resistant materials etc) involving Higher Education. It is also excellent preparation for careers in many other fields, for example science based careers, architecture & building, law/ health & safety, computer sciences.       
  • There are university degree courses in just about every topic you could imagine from Advertising Design to Yacht Design.
  • Design is something that affects all lives whether as a designer or a consumer and is involved in most things that we buy, use and do.
  • The world is filled with products that are designed, marketed, developed and produced by teams and individuals.

There are 2 assessed units:

  1. Designing and Making Practice (50 %) a controlled assessment.
  2. Design theory paper (50%)

Students will develop a design idea which has been provided by the exam board AQA.  They will be expected to design, manufacture and market a product to shop quality standard.

Subject                 Exam Board                        Internal                                                Exam Paper

————————————————————————————————————-

Product

Design                AQA                                 Controlled Assessment (50%)        Theory Exam (50%) 2hrs

How to support your child?

As a designer of tomorrow we need to ask questions of why? or how? So the best thing you can do to support your child in DT is to encourage questioning of every problem they or you encounter. Try to ask them how they think they could solve the issue or how someone solved it or built it or designed it? Visit lots of new and exciting places looking at architecture and unusual things….We should encourage out of the box thinking, nothing is wrong when designing, just different.

Web Links

Additional Reading

  • DATA magazine

  • Why Things Break: Understanding the World by the Way It Comes Apart – Mark E. Eberhart
  • Drawing for Product Designers (Portfolio Skills) – Kevin Henry
  • Product Design Sketches – Cristian Campos
  • Inclusive Designing: Joining Usability, Accessibility, and Inclusion – P. M Langdon
  • Sustainable Materials – With Both Eyes Open – Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen
  • The Gecko’s Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature’s Book – Peter Forbes
  • Invention by Design – How Engineers get from Thought to Thing – Henry Petroski
  • Small Things Considered: Why there is No Perfect Design – Henry Petroski
  • Product Design (Portfolio) – Paul Rodgers
  • Material Innovation: Product Design – Andrew H. Dent
  • Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture – Jennifer Hudson