Welcome to Resourceful Mind! Through my extensive experience in teaching design, engineering, graphics, food and textiles, I've developed resources that make topics easy to understand. My materials include clear visuals, simple explanations, and engaging tasks to reinforce learning and support learners.
Welcome to Resourceful Mind! Through my extensive experience in teaching design, engineering, graphics, food and textiles, I've developed resources that make topics easy to understand. My materials include clear visuals, simple explanations, and engaging tasks to reinforce learning and support learners.
A simple set of design and technology activities that could be used as emergency cover.
15 activities in total suitable for year 7 - year 10
I created these quickly as a teacher called in sick in the morning and needed some activities that students could work through independently without much instruction.
They are not perfect and done in a rush but they did they job!
Introduction to smart materials when you just don’t have enough time or resources to give everyone a smart material to experiment with.
Good revision lesson too.
Includes:
Video link introduction
Key Vocubulary
Smart Material animations
Mini Review
Scaffolding Tasks
Example GCSE Questions
Exit Card.
Wellbeing and Ethos
discuss your plans for the school holiday
Reminding pupils to not miss opportunities
Fall into the Summer holiday rut
Top 10 summer holiday ruts
Best things to do with your summer
Some of the things to do are for Wales and might need to change for your local area
I would include pictures of you enjoying summer holidays as a child and now
I have added an updated version into the package
Revision lesson to cover the surface finishes and treatments that are available to enhance functional and aesthetic qualities in materials.
Mini reviews
Video resources
Past paper questions and knowledge check tasks
Handouts
An assembly I gave on resourcefulness following on from my previous assembly on resilience.
The assembly lasted 20 minutes.
Videos, thought provokers, thinking time and key learning points.
15 pages of design tasks or emergency cover work.
Design a bookend
Design a pop vinyl figure
Design a picture frame
Design a car
Design a milkshake brand
Design an automata
Design a mobile phone holder
An investigation lesson on vitamins including a starter, link to a great vitamin video, table for pupils to complete as a group and 6 fact sheets for pupils to investigate and get the information they need. Extension task of class discussion about vitamins and an exit card.
Quick resource I created for a cover lesson for my year 8 food class. We are currently learning about staple food ingredients. Could be useful for someone.
to ferrous and non ferrous metals helping pupils understand the terms ferrous and non ferrous.
Lesson explains pure metals and alloys, the effect of moisture on ferrous and non ferrous metals and why different metals are used for similar products.
Lesson includes
Starter
Explination of ferrous and non ferrous
2 Mini reviews
Video
3 scaffolding tasks
Exit card
Food and nutrition lesson on lifestyle choices and diet.
Covers individuals with specific lifestyle needs to include
vegetarians: lacto-ovo, lacto, vegan, and those with
religious beliefs that affect choice of diet to include
Hindu, Muslim, Jewish
Lesson contains
Starter
Learning objectives
Card sort
Summary of 60
Mini review
GCSE questions
Exit card
resources
By the end of this lesson, students will understand the concept of sustainability, recognise the impact of human actions on the environment, be familiar with fossil fuels, and apply the principles of the 6R’s in designing a sustainable product.
Introduction (10 minutes)
Start with a discussion on how human activities harm the planet (e.g., pollution, deforestation, overconsumption).
Show images and video depicting environmental damage caused by human actions.
Defining Sustainability (15 minutes)
Define sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Discuss the importance of sustainable practices in preserving natural resources and maintaining ecological balance.
Understanding Fossil Fuels (10 minutes)
Explain what fossil fuels are (coal, oil, natural gas) and how they are formed over millions of years.
Discuss the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels, such as air pollution and climate change.
The 6R’s of Sustainability (15 minutes)
Introduce the 6R’s: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repair.
Discuss examples of each R and how they contribute to sustainable living (e.g., using reusable bags, repairing instead of replacing items).
Activity: Designing a Sustainable Product (30 minutes)
Task each group or student with designing a product (e.g., water bottle, backpack) with sustainability in mind.
Encourage them to consider materials, energy use, recyclability, and end-of-life disposal.
Have groups present their designs and explain how they incorporated sustainable principles.
Conclusion and Reflection (10 minutes)
Wrap up the lesson by revisiting key points on sustainability, human impact, fossil fuels, and the 6R’s.
Ask students to reflect on how they can apply sustainable practices in their daily lives.
Introduction to plastics
What are they why we use them
What are their properties
Design a reuseable plastic product
kept it simple for year 7’s being taught by a non specialist. Avoided all the plastic term names like polyethylene etc and tried to make it engaging.
You could add plastic names to stretch higher ability pupils
Useful for that quick lesson you just don’t have the time to create
4 Christmas activities for ks3 DT.
Not the greatest stretching activities but I had to provide some quick cover work for a teacher for a non specialist. Might be useful to someone else too
A smoothie design lesson I made for year 7.
Especially useful in helping pupils use specifications to evaluate their designs.
Includes;
Stater
Video Links
Support sheets
Example
Exit Card
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