Create, Experiment, Build, Question and Learn.
I am a specialist Product and Graphic Design Teacher, specialising in the Iterative process of designing, prototyping and evaluating. With a particular focus on entrepreneurship and making, rooted in real-world contexts and challenges.
My mission is to plan and deliver creative, fun and engaging lessons for KS3, 4 and 5, ages 11-18.
Create, Experiment, Build, Question and Learn.
I am a specialist Product and Graphic Design Teacher, specialising in the Iterative process of designing, prototyping and evaluating. With a particular focus on entrepreneurship and making, rooted in real-world contexts and challenges.
My mission is to plan and deliver creative, fun and engaging lessons for KS3, 4 and 5, ages 11-18.
This product design (design and technology) lesson introduces students to market pull and technology push as well as planned obsolescence, in line with assessment criteria for design technology specification criteria.
Lesson consists of a starter, class discussion, relatable examples, videos (contextulisation), main activity and a homework design activity (consolidation activity).
If you enjoyed this lesson, please see other product design theory lessons in my shop, that are all linked to Design Technology theory exam assessment criteria.
Students love being creative with this hands-on project and it is a great introduction into graphic design, branding and how to evaluate a product for KS3 with strong cross-curricular links. Homework tasks are also included.
In this project students are set a brief; to create a desk tidy for WHSmith yet this could be ammended to suit a diferent brief.
Branding
Logos
Packaging
Packaging symbols
Sketching techniques (2-point, isometric)
Evaluating with CAFE QUE
Project requires Card, vacuum formed acrylic (optional)
In this lesson, students are introduced to fossil fuels and their impact on the environment through global warming in line with GCSE assessment criteria for Design and Technology. The lesson consists of videos, class discussions, a writing task and finally a design task.
Starter activity
Preparatory theory task
Class discussion/questioning and videos
Design (consolidation) Task
If you enjoyed this lesson, please see the other lessons in this or other Product Design series/SOW (where the full iterative design process is covered). In this unit, pupils will gain an understanding into the importance of sustainability and applied practical Science in Product Design.
In this lesson, students explore the various needs, wants, interests etc of a target market and how designs can use this information to influence their design decisions, then are given a specific target market to explore through a creative exercise. They then consolidate this information to present their findings to the rest of the class. This lesson can be used for KS3, 4 or 5 in a variety of lessons around the ideas of user-centred design and entrepreneurship.
The only materials required are large sheets of paper and marker pens. Also included are 2 students examples.
Product Design Teacher Modelling Examples; taking you through from initial ideas through to final conception of an innovative ‘USB Stick’ product.
Including;
Problem Analysis
Product Analysis
Existing Product Research
Market Research
Demographic Research
Client Profile
Anthropometrics Research
Research Review
Specification
Initial Ideas
Initial Ideas II
Final Design
CAD Modelling
Marketing
Great for exemplar modelling examples or homework examples for 3D Design, Product Design or Design Technology. Can be incorporated into lesson plans, used for moderation or used as additional resources.
Please note this has been created by myself for use as an exemplar student reference. It is not a copy of student work.
In this creative, though theoretical lesson, students are introduced to/or consolidate their knowledge of Access FM. Students are given a series of Ikea lamps (though this could be easily changed to other products), which they must analyse using the ACCESS FM criteria. Students then consolidate their analysis into a short presentation through group-work, in a ‘dragons den style’ format.
Introduction to ACCESS FM
Preparatory Task
Consolidation Task
Presentation
Peer assessment (vote)
If you enjoyed this lesson, please see the other lessons in this or other Product Design series/SOW (where the full iterative design process is covered). In this unit, pupils will gain an understanding into what is product design and the creative process of a designer, from initial ideas, final isometric sketching, writing a specification and model making (prototyping).
In this conceptual project, students are given a brief and apply their learning through the design and presentation of an artifact. Students love the challenge of speculating on the future and forming their concepts around a narrative. There have been some fascinating outcomes as students relish the creative freedom.
Speculative design is designing from a critical, political and/or ethical perspective in the form of an artifact from the near or distant future. There are several reasons why we might use speculative design:
To question and critique.
Raise awareness.
Start conversations.
Provoke, amuse or annoy.
The word ‘artifact’ is deliberate as the outcomes does not need to be a physical product. The outcome can be in the form of any 2D, 3D or digital ‘artifact(s)’. For example it could be a guide, a map, packaging etc. Trying to make the future artifact as believable as possible through storytelling.
Project structure:
What is speculative design?
Mind-map tasks
Case study
Imagining the world in 2067 in regards to society, housing, resources, economy, politics, technology, health and environment
Critique Sessions
Prototyping of artifact
Final presentation
The project can help students develop their rapid prototyping, storytelling, critiquing and presenting skills. It has been delivered to both college and university students.
In this series of lessons, students gain an understanding into the topic 6 (Classic Design) theory content of the IB DP Design and Technology course.
Lessons include objectives, keywords, engaging activities, videos and real-world examples that students can relate to. Lessons culminate in a task where students consolidate and apply the key theory that they have learnt so that they are prepared for any IB DP assessments.
Lessons cover the entirety of what students need to learn for Topic 7 and can be taught in any order.
6.1 Characteristics of Classic Design
6.2 Classic Design Function and Form
Lessons should ideally be taught in order. If you enjoyed this project/scheme of work. Please visit my shop where there is a range of creative and engaging design and engineering projects.
Your students are most likely already using ChatGPT but are they using it honestly? Do they understand it? Do they understand the alternatives?
To teach students about the risks and opportunities of AI and academic integrity, this research lesson and activity teaches students to compare and debate sources to determine which answer is the real truth. What better way to teach students about AI than for them to practically demonstrate how it works vs other traditional sources?
Included is a lesson that explores:
What is ChatGPT?
How does it work?
Is ChatGPT a tool or a cheat?
How does it differ from other sources?
How do we know the truth?
What are the other ways we could find an answer?
Which are more reliable and why?
Students are then set a group research task where they research different debatable questions from different sources before ranking by reliability. They then summarise by determining which answer is the truth.
Included:
Lesson presentation.
Structured student presentation template sorted by the different sources.
Interactive teacher CPD presentation that explains the student lesson.
Lesson plan.
The content has been planned for 2-3 lessons.
L1 presentation.
L2 Group Research.
L3 Group presentations and debates.
