Design and Digital Technology Challenge in Year 5

The students in Mrs William's and Mrs Adam's class have been working through a Design and Digital Technology challenge this Term. Initially, they went through a 5 step ideation process - Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype & Test. Through this they were able to frame their ideas of what to build as product ideas that provide solutions to a problem that are realistic and actionable.

 

 Then in groups the students selected their best product ideas and began designing a product.

They then began building their first Prototype, referred to as Mk I, Series 1 or Version 1.

After building their first Prototype the groups investigated other forms of technology such as Sphero and Makey Makey. The students agreed that knowledge of these technologies integrated into their projects enabled them to be able to excel or score the highest mark for many of their rubric gradations such as Planning, Coding and Design.

Finally, each group learned how to conduct a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) analysis of their First Prototype to provide evidence of their re-design process. These were Air Dropped as a Keynote worksheet template. The groups then swung into action to redesign their Mk I prototypes and some groups made significant improvements to their products. These Mk II prototypes informed by a SWOT analysis will enable the students to satisfy the curriculum requirements to provide evidence of re-design through a process and score highly on their project rubric.