Some new and interesting projects have students engaged in the Technology Faculty.

Year 7 and 8:

The second of four rotations has begun. Classes are split between food technology, resistant materials, fabric technology and a new unit called modeling. The modeling unit has been developed to help students get in touch with their creative sides. The emphasis is on solving problems within a short time period and with limited resources. It has been great to see them working out how to make an egg cup from cardboard and a noise maker from Lego. The unit looks at prototyping using a mix of materials. Success criteria are based on the learning from the activity not the quality of the outcome. In this way we hope students learn to be bold with design ideas and think independently about their solutions. 

Year 10 Digital technology

The last unit of work for the class has challenged a lot of the students to learn new skills. We are all making electronic dice. This involves fixing components to a circuit board, soldering, configuring the wiring loom and loading the sketch (program) into an Arduino unit. I have been very impressed by all of the students' commitment to making a quality outcome. 

Year 11 Engineering

This is a Semester B course that will start next term, I have had a few parent and student inquiries about the kits from China. The supplier has assured us that the kits will be in New Zealand in July. China is geographically vast and the area where the kits are manufactured is not currently impacted by Covid-19. The kits are shipped by sea and once in the country are repacked for schools. Access to the kits will not impact on getting started with making the frames for the karts.