Technology Department

It has been a great term in the Technology Department with innovative teaching and learning allowing students to meaningfully engage with real world opportunities and contexts.

The expansion of Food Technology in Year 7 and 8 in 2022 has challenged students to develop their understanding of meal planning, the cost of ingredients, preparation and cooking time. This cross-curricular course with Mathematics also supports their numeracy and financial literacy. The weekly practical classes enable the students to practice kitchen safety, understanding a recipe and accurately measuring ingredients to create tasty savoury and sweet foods.

Textiles has also given students real world experiences with students traveling to Spotlight as part of the Year 10 Textiles half year course. The purpose of this being to explore, investigate and select fabrics suitable for a sponge bag and pyjama bottoms. 

In the Year 10 Digital Technology half year course, after learning web development students were challenged to develop a light-up beanie designed to be worn at Dunedin’s MidWinter Carnival. Students learnt how to program a LillyPad Arduino and then built circuits with sewable LEDs and conductive thread. The students also used the laser cutter with Adobe Illustrator to cut shapes out of felt to decorate their beanies with Mid-Winter or Matariki themes.

In Year 9 Digi we have explored Augmented Reality by making a game using Tale Blazer. This allows players to move around a real environment to explore and find clues. Most of the games were designed for new students to St Hilda’s to explore our school and find clues and information about different areas.

We have also created apps. We needed to think about a problem that could be solved and then consider who was going to use our app. We had to be clear in our purpose for the app: To entertain, To connect, To inform. The ideas have ranged from shopping apps, to sports apps to mindful apps.

We have had a busy term in Year 9 DVC, learning about all things 'design' and a bit more about our own design style. After researching various Graphic Design Terms in relation to posters, we moved onto making our own. 9H decided that they wanted to have a focus on positivity, creating posters that would make the staff and students within our school smile. Each group followed the design process, creating a range of different 'feel good' prototypes.

After researching, designing and receiving feedback, the students developed their final poster to display around school. We hope you all noticed a colourful new addition to the hallways and doors, making you smile or feel the positive vibes we aimed to share. I am excited to get started on our jewellery design topic, which we will work on for the rest of the Technology Module!