Unit Co-ord./Lecturer Chris Zehntner OFFICE USE ONLY Assignment received:
Tutor:(if applicable) Sheridan Emery
Student ID 164006
Student Name Sebastian Tuttle
Unit Code ESH270
Unit Name Design and Applied Learning
Assignment Title/Number AT1 – Design Challenge Plan
Word Count 2000 words equivalent I declare that all material in this assignment is my own work except where there is clear acknowledgement or reference to the work of others and I have complied and agreed to the University statement on Plagiarism and Academic Integrity on the University website at www.utas.edu.au/plagiarism * Signed Sebastian Tuttle Date 3/5/2013 *By submitting this assignment and cover sheet electronically, in whatever form, you are deemed to have made the declaration set out above.
Assessor’s feedback:
Assessment:
Assessor’s Signature (optional) : Dated:
Faculty of Education
Assignment Cover Sheet
ESH 270 Design and Applied Learning AT1 – Design Challenge Plan Sebastian Tuttle 164006
Page 2 of 7
The Destination
These outcomes were developed using the vocational and applied Learning curriculum document of Tasmania (DoE, 2007), and the Australian Curriculum document (ACARA, 2012). The task lends itself to several cross curriculum links, however only one has been used here.
Learning Outcomes Standard, Stage, Strand & Key Learning Area
Guiding Question
Assessment Methods & Strategies
Create a design with consideration given to a particular audience or consumer (Department of Education [DoE], 2007)
Standard: 4 Stage: 1 Strand : 10, Innovation & Design; Respond to design challenges Curriculum Area: Vocational and Applied Learning.
How does your design accommodate the different desires of the whole group, i.e. boys, girls, year five or year six students?
Formative: Student portfolio of the design process – ongoing assessment Summative: Peer review - Students will present their product to their peers for consideration.
Edit information to create a document for planning or presentation (DoE, 2007)
Standard: 3 Stage: 3 Strand : 8, Applications and solutions; locate and manage resources. Curriculum Area: Vocational and Applied Learning.
What information do you think the school needs in order to make a decision about the designs?
Formative: Checklist -Students design process will be monitored on a checklist. Summative: Rubric - Students will present a proposal for what will be built. This proposal will be assessed.
Use a range of software including word processing programs with fluency to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1707)(Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2012).
Year: 5 Strand: Literacy Sub-strand: Creating texts Curriculum Area: English
How do you think you can phrase your email so that the reader wants to respond to you?
Formative: Student Portfolio - Drafts of the email will be discussed with the students. Summative: Rubric – The final report and a copy of all correspondence will be collected and assessed against a rubric
ESH 270 Design and Applied Learning AT1 – Design Challenge Plan Sebastian Tuttle 164006
Page 3 of 7
The Journey
Investigating the site: The site of the future playground is on a flat grass field it is
currently bare dirt ground and measures 10.4 metres by 12.7 metres. The specifications
also tell us we can only build up to 4 metres in height.
Playground
Slide
Climbing wall
Monkey bar net
Tunnel
Flying fox
Surf board
Spinning circle
Swings
Giant seesaw
Something to jump on (pillow thing)
Human sized gerbil wheel
Multi levels
Boardgames on the ground
Giant Lego
3D spider net
Velcro wall
Designed like a castle, maybe with a moat
Rope bridge
Manual elevator
Bunjee chairs
Maze
Brainstorm ideas: A
mind map of ideas that
arose when we
considered what we
would like to see in a
playground.
With an idea of what we want and how much space we had to
build in we began to search for companies that could supply
us with our playground and create the first images of our
playground. Several websites were identified but we focused
on two, one for a particularly piece of equipment and the
other for both its equipment and status as a Tasmanian
company.
The first stop: This point in the journey would see students contacting the different
companies for pricing information as well as any other information relevant to the
construction of the company’s playground equipment.
ESH 270 Design and Applied Learning AT1 – Design Challenge Plan Sebastian Tuttle 164006
Page 4 of 7
The Final Phase: The last portion of the design journey is the evaluation and re-design
of the plan in order to accommodate the knowledge gained from the manufacturers.
The final design is submitted with a report detailing where the playground can
be purchased, the cost of the pieces, and all other information needed to build it.
This report is then presented to the class and collected by the teacher to be
forwarded to the school board for consideration.
The final
design takes
into account
cost as well
as knowledge
of required
free space
around the
equipment.
ESH 270 Design and Applied Learning AT1 – Design Challenge Plan Sebastian Tuttle 164006
Page 5 of 7
Reflection
This task was designed for a grade five class, it was inspired by an example of a
design challenge used in an early childhood setting featured in the text book “Design
and technology for children” (Fleer & Jane, 2011). Observation of construction at a local
school caused me to muse on how students could be involved in the process, which in
my experience is usually left to the parents and other school associates who very rarely
actually use school facilities. The task gives students a chance to play a major role in
shaping the environment of the school, this provides students with a sense of belonging
and engages them in their own learning (Edwards & Watts, 2008). The challenge is built
around the idea that students are a part of the school community and as such should have
a say in projects relevant to them. The lesson was designed for use as a real world design
task, not as an abstract idea. As a real world design task students are more likely to find
the lessons interesting and engage in the learning (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).
Engagement in the learning as well as the ability to see meaning in the activity have
been identified as important factors in students’ ability to retain knowledge (Sousa,
2010). The lesson takes place over a period of weeks in order to increase the chance that
the information learned is moved from short-term memory into long-term memory
storage (Sousa, 2010).
The design brief is open in nature, this is done in order to maximise student
creativity and autonomy (Fleer & Jane, 2011). However due to the real world nature of
the task there are two major ways in which the students are restricted. Firstly while the
students are able to design anything for their playground they are restricted to a
predefined area and height. Secondly the students are also operating under a budget,
which must cover all their needs. However the note to the students concerning cost
saving ideas ameliorates the second restriction. While this option was not explored in
my own journey, it is present in the design brief in order to allow students who are more
creatively inclined to explore the idea of making the playground from scratch using
recycled or donated materials (Fleer & Jane, 2011).
In my initial design brief the task was done individually in order to make sure
each student’s contributions were heard. However when I attempted the task on my own
I found it was exceedingly difficult to decide what to add to the playground after
ESH 270 Design and Applied Learning AT1 – Design Challenge Plan Sebastian Tuttle 164006
Page 6 of 7
incorporating my preferred equipment. Contacting my siblings resulted in a much larger
mind map and a better understanding of how to develop the playground. This led to my
redesigning the task to be performed in small groups with the addition of a
brainstorming session at the start of the lesson. The small groups will give rise to the
sociocultural learning atmosphere Vygotsky’s theory encourages, where students will
build on their own knowledge with the knowledge of their peers through the interactions
of their individual zones of proximal development (ZPD) (Peterson, 2010).
The design challenge only looks at three academic outcomes but requires many
other skills learned at the same year level. Due to the budgeting aspect of the challenge it
could be placed in a learning sequence after mathematics lessons on finances. This
would reinforce the students’ numeracy by allowing the opportunity to apply their new
skills to the real world. This is the “essence of numeracy” and is vital to developing
students numeracy skills (Steen, 2007). The third outcome for this challenge is taken
from the national curriculum for English and is accomplished by having the students
compose emails to businesses in order to gain information for their project as well as the
construction of a report of their findings. This could lead into future lessons in
constructing texts for a variety of purposes (ACARA, 2012). Final from a design
perspective the challenge utilises ICT tools to investigate, plan, research, communicate
and document their processes. The use of ICT is an important aspect of vocational and
applied learning in Tasmania (DoE, 2007). It also exposes students to the design
process, which is an integral part of Standard three and four of the VAL curriculum
document (DoE, 2007).
ESH 270 Design and Applied Learning AT1 – Design Challenge Plan Sebastian Tuttle 164006
Page 7 of 7
References
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], (2012).
The Australian curriculum: English, history, mathematics and science (v.3.0).
Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Department of Education [DoE]. (2007). The Tasmanian curriculum: Vocational and
Applied Learning, K-10 syllabus and support materials. Hobart, Tas.
Edwards, C.H., & Watts, V., (2008). Classroom discipline and management (2nd
Australasian ed.). Milton, Qld: John Wiley & Sons Australia.
Fleer, J., & Jane, B., (2011). Design and technology for children (3rd ed.). Frenchs
Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Marzano, R.J., & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning; teachers manual (2nd
ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Peterson, C.C. (2010). Looking forward through the lifespan; developmental psychology
(5th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Sousa, D.A. (2010). Brainy teaching: educational neuroscience and classroom practise.
Teacher, 210, 24 – 26.
Steen, L.A. (2007). Every teacher is a teacher of mathematics. Principal leadership 7(5),
16-20