Good Design

The new AS Product Designers started their course by studying Dieter Rams Ten Principles of Good Design.

They each gave a short presentation about a product they believed embodied good design.

The clear winner was Meera who had chosen the canvas tote bag - elegant and simple - well done!

I'm back!!

You've probably been wondering why there have been no posts since March. Unfortunately (or is that fortunately? ;) ) I've been off work due to a rather nasty illness. It's all fixed now and they've removed the offending organ (my gall bladder) and I'm back to full health and back at school ready for the challenges of a new year.

And there have been some changes. Mrs Hoyland is away again on maternity leave - a little boy this time. Mrs Naylor joined us in the second half of the summer term (more about her later) and the mighty Mr Pye retired after 25 years of service to the school. I still expect to see him around the department and he will be sorely missed by staff and students alike :(

Mrs Naylor is helping us to launch two new subjects at Silcoates: AS Photography and GCSE Food Technology. To that end the school has gifted us with two extra rooms, and this is what the new food room looked like the day before school started:

We have introduced food projects into KS3 and I for one am looking forward to  performing some taste testing on what the students produce!

We have also been joined by Mrs Goldby and Mr Potter who will be taking on a couple of lower school lessons each until Mrs Hoyland returns at Easter. Both are old Silcoatians who were taught by Mr Pye! The circle is now complete ! (To quote Darth Vader)

So welcome back and let's see what you can design and make this year - lets go to work!

Rotary Success

Three teams of students from Silcoates this week took part in the annual Rotary Technology Tournament at the John Charles Centre in Leeds.  From Year 9, Lucy Armitage, Amy Brearton, Jack Griffiths and Joe Summers entered the Foundation Task.  From Year 10, Mason Kershaw, Ellie Kitchen, Alistair Parry, and Rebecca Sheppard entered the Intermediate Task, and from the Lower Sixth, Laura Barker, Zara Dunford, Chloe Humphrey and Charlotte Slaski entered the Advanced Task.

The challenge involved the design, construction and testing of a bridge over a river.  The bridge needed to be designed in two sections, one permanent and the other had to have two sections that could be raised and lowered, similar to Tower Bridge in London, to allow tall ships to pass through.  All sections of the bridge needed to support the passage of a 1Kg test weight.  In addition, a logo promoting a charity of choice had to be attached to the structure.   

All three teams were highly praised for their design portfolios and complimented for their excellent conduct throughout the day.  Most impressively of all, the Year 9 team won in the Innovation award, and were presented their certificates and the winning trophy by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Mr Michael Fox.  Many congratulations to everyone who took part, but particularly to Lucy, Amy, Jack and Joe for their success!

Year 10 Modelling with Corrugated cardboard

Both year 10 Product Design groups have been learning how to model with corrugated card this week.

Corrugated card is a great material for quick, accurate robust models and the groups were shown how to cut/score and glue it to create an accurate representation of the speaker designs.

They all found it challenging it first but quickly became more confident and each glued joint got neater as they went on.

They handled the tools accurately and managed their health and safety well.

They were surprised to see that companies like Dyson use large amounts of cardboard modelling at the concept stage of design.

You can find out more about modelling techniques at http://www.judepullen.com/designmodelling/ 

SCAREd yr 9 designers.

Year 9 spent today's lesson improving their ideas for phone holders. They were introduced to SCARE - a system used to help them focus on exploring their ideas even further:

Scale - alter the size

Change - the shape

Adapt - by adding extra features

Rearrange- by swapping bits around

Eliminate - reducing clutter

It was hard work, but they all agreed that their designs were better by the end of the lesson.

Next week they will be using CAD to draw their designs ready for laser cutting in acrylic.

Collaborative Brainstorming

The AS Product Design group explored their thoughts on a design challenge using the whiteboards to record their thoughts and ideas.

Year 10 electronics

10B started their speaker project today. Working in pairs and using a PowerPoint guide they started to solder the PCBs with little to no help from me! Great progress today :)