Examination Boards: AQA (GCSE 8552)/ AQA Product Design (A-Level 7552)
Design & Technology: GCSE Resistant Materials/A-level Product Design Specialism
Resistant Materials is an integral part of daily life: it encompasses the deeper understanding of materials, manufacturing processes, and design strategies that enable students to design on a 3-dimensional plane and solve real problems with new and innovative products. Without the design of new products life would be uninspiring, dull, and immeasurably difficult.
Resistant Materials at GCSE is a subject that will develop research skills, problem solving, and improve independent learning. Students learn to communicate and work as a team. The practical skills of design, sketching, use of digital media, CAD/CAM, materials and manufacture are introduced and developed.
Our department’s focus is to give students the chance to discover the wonder of Design & Technology with a particular focus on Resistant Materials: the way a good design will attract attention and provide pleasure, the way that products can protect, promote and inspire at the same time, the way that intelligent design can deliver a powerful message whilst making someone’s life easier, and the way that sympathetic design can be a force for good in the world and can support the need to act in a sustainable way.
In our curriculum we aim to:
- explore design and technology as a whole, to a foundation level
- focus on resistant materials as a specialism within the subject
- give students confidence to work with different Resistant Materials based materials (timbers, metals, plastics)
- allow students to discover ways to develop their creativity in order to satisfy the needs of user centred design
- encourage a life-long interest in the subject of design, and a greater appreciation of design decisions that have formed the world around us.
- foster a deeper understanding of sustainability, and the responsibility of the designer in working in ways which will enhance the longevity of the planet, and combat the damage of the past.
D&T Resistant Materials is a popular subject at KS4 because it allows students to work in a different environment, drawing on a spectrum of learning styles, and developing knowledge and skills which can genuinely be applied to make a change in the world. Most of these skills are cross curricular, meaning the can support the learning in other subjects across the school. The department understands the need to embrace traditional hand skills with drawings and the making of prototypes, whist also accesses modern technology by utilising 2D and 3D CAD software and CAM manufacturing machinery. Students who study design and technology can move on to further study within their specialism, or enter into apprenticeships or careers in the plethora of opportunities that are design related both in this country and abroad.
At A-level the D&T Department offers Product Design, which has a healthy uptake due to it being well regarded alongside its versatility, both in content and marking schedule (it has a coursework element worth 50%). In Year 12 much of the ground work for the Year 13 NEA practical design is completed. For example, understanding a brief; working as a team; understanding the properties of materials; manufacturing processes; and CAD software skills and ergonomics. Once the Design Brief is issued by AQA, the Year 13s can begin work on researching the product, designing a brief, developing the brief and making a prototype of the product they wish submit to the board. It is an exciting journey.
