This resource is designed to teach a range of traditional and modern manufacturing skills which combine to make a desktop ‘gadget’. You may be limited by time or resources and it would be difficult to cover all of these skills in depth during KS3 or even KS4. There are 12 different skills or processes here, but there is the potential for many more to be introduced, incorporated or addressed. They cover: Pewter casting Vacuum forming Marking out wood Shaping and drilling wood Cutting a knuckle joint Forming metal rod Vinyl cutting 3D CAD and 3D printing Cutting a housing joint Threading rod Thermoforming (line bending) Laser cutting Assembling the Skills Bot The resource contains instructions for the whole project as well as individual PDF presentations that can be projected in class or printed as handouts. Also included are individual technical drawings for each components to make class hand outs easier to produce. There is limited design work with this resource, although there are opportunities to customise or personalise some elements. It is intended to cover a range of skills that are commonly used in Design and Technology.

Two products. One design. UPDATE (August 2020): The Solidworks tutorial has now been added to the resource in Powerpoint Show and PDF formats. A pair of physical resources aimed at primary learners but also useful for teaching mechanisms at KS3 and KS4. The resource contains a 96 page step-by-step Solidworks tutorial on how to model, render and animate the Automaton as well as how to make working drawings and process these to make laser cutting files. The full 3D model for each product is supplied in Solidworks format with editable parts and they are already mated and animated. Also provided are the laser cutting files to make your own if you dont wish to work through the tutorial. These are in Adobe Illustrator format and ready to cut. Alternatively they can be converted to .DXF to use in your program of choice.

This resource consists of the files and assembly instructions for a custom designed lightweight art and craft box. It has a small writing shelf which can also be used as a lightbox with a suitable light source and there is an ‘inlet’ to feed in a USB hub or other wiring. All the parts can be laser cut with the optional handle clip, cable tidy and example tray supplied as .STL files for 3D printing. This resource is an original design but you are encouraged to design your own extras and add-ons to customise it to your individual needs. Please note: no physical materials are supplied with this resource, you have to supply your own but yo are buying this resources as an original product design. Sharing the files or adapting them to sell as your own would be a breach of copyright.

BLOK is a new type of STEM ‘building block’ intended for educational use and also developed for commercial production and sale. **UPDATE **(June 2023). The 3D files for the basic BLOK/BLOX are now included in the resource. PLEASE NOTE: The BLOK product is not yet available to buy in retail stores, but the 3D files will be shared in a forthcoming resource, and the resource has instructions on how to make your own components. This resource uses the BLOK as a case study to cover many aspects of the design and manufacturing processes used in Design and Technology and 3D Art. It is not a linear resource and you can refer to any of the units at any time for reference or as tutorials. Using the BLOK product as a reference, the resource contains 20 separate units covering the following topics: BLOK1: Introduction to the BLOK resource BLOK2: The story of BLOK BLOK3: Investigation and research BLOK4: The iterative design process BLOK5: Modular approaches to design BLOK6: Sketching with BLOX BLOK7: CAD modelling BLOK BLOK8: Materials for manufacturing BLOK BLOK9: Prototyping BLOK BLOK10: Manufacturing BLOK BLOK11: Branding, packaging, and promotion BLOK12: Enterprise and Intellectual Property BLOK13: Testing and evaluation BLOK14: Functions of BLOK BLOK15: Developing for BLOK BLOK16: Advanced sketching with BLOX BLOK17: Advanced CAD modelling BLOK BLOK18: Sustainability in design BLOK19: Modelling BLOK with SketchUp BLOK20: Digital sketching and composition It also includes one extra unit*: BLOKEX1: Joe Blox Solidworks tutorial The units are provided in print and presentation friendly PDF format along with supporting high quality JPEG illustrations and posters. *Additional units may be added to the resource in the future.

A collection of 100 Design and Technology Subject Genius blogs each with a unique illustration published via the TES since 2016. This PDF collects together all of the blogs for easy access along with some additional content. Ideal to expand your reading on the subject or to use for discussion at department and management level. Please note: this now contains two documents, each with 50 illustrated blogs which are no longer available to read on the TES site