Mechanical Toy Cam (The DESIGN PROCESS)

Whenever we talked about design and technology, people will ask "What do you make in design and technology? Do you make things like table and chairs?" And my answer to them will be "I am not a carpenter and no, I do not teach my kids to make furniture."
Then the next question would be "Then what do you do in Design and Technology?" Basically in design and technology, the students learn about the design process and while they are designing they also make use of basic technologies like electronics, structures and mechanisms in their designing.  There are five (5) main stages in the design process.

Here, I have included extracts from my students' work from Year 7 (aged 11 and above).

Stage One: Design Situation

In this stage, students are given a situation to analyse and from here they will do a few things:

1. Identify the problems
2. Write a short and clear statement on what is needed and wanted - the design brief
3. Write the design specifications
4. Brainstorm and consider some of the design factors

Stage Two: Research

Once they have completed identifying the needs and wants, the next step is to gather information. Students are encourage to conduct research and product analysis for their project to have a better understanding of the project and this also assist them in the ideation process later on.

Some of the pictures researched by the student online with notes all over the place as she studied each of them. 

This was then followed by a product analysis where the student studied each of the product and find out if they meet the design specifications.

Stage Three:Ideation

This is where they brainstorm and generate ideas for their project.  Some of the ideas from the students are as shown below: 

Stage Four: Development

in process.... be patient ....

Stage Five: Realisation

coming soon .... 

Electronic Quiz (Modeling)

What is it ...
This is a model of an electronic quiz created by one of my student in Year 8A. 

Bulb lights up when the correct answer is pressed together with the question.  

When the wrong answer is pressed, the bulb does not light up.

The design behind the idea...

This quiz is designed based on the idea of a membrane panel switch. A membrane panel switch is a very simple switch consisting of three thin layers. If you study the picture below carefully, from the left side, you will see the back of the top layer. The middle layer is the centre layer consisting of cut-out windows. And the bottom layer (on the right) consists of two strips of aluminium connected to a simple electric circuit.

For this project, the students need to make four sets of question and answer.

As you can see, the aluminium strips behind each question are stick accurately linking the question to the correct answer.

This electronic quiz is free standing and to play them, you need to use your fingers. One finger pressed down on the question and another finger pressed down on the answer. When the correct answer to the question is pressed, the circuit closed and the light bulb will light up. 

The two aluminium strips on the bottom layer connect to a simple circuit placed behind the stand as shown below. 

 

Things to watch out for when making ....

1. The alignment of the three layers - they might look really easy to make but the students fumble a great deal with the alignment. To align the three layers together, one good way is to use a template in MS Powerpoint (under Master Slide) and when printing out, make sure you include a border around all the print out to assist in aligning them.
2. Another problem in making the model is how to make the stand stands. Modeling on cardboard require skills and basic common sense. You will be surprised that some of the students have no idea how to strengthen a simple rectangular stand and assistance must be provided to them. Letting them brainstorm and play around with it and failed the first time makes them learn really fast. 
3. Electric circuit components - the kids love connecting them up but they also went into trouble with the connections. 
4. Electricity - be careful with the power supply and the light bulb. Do not use a 9V battery with a 3V bulb. They will blow up. However, if you do not let the kids try it, they will never get what you meant. So we blew up a few bulbs in the learning process but its worth it.