School
sun shade area
A
case study of the development of a technology education unit at
Wairoa College
This material was produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ)
under contract to the Ministry of Education in 2000 and 2001. It was written
to assist teachers and schools in their delivery of the technology/ hangarau
curriculum statements. The project was jointly coordinated by personnel
from the Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ)
and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists and Technologists
(NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of the material was carried
out by a national project advisory group.
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During 1999 and 2000 three specialist teachers from Wairoa College on the East
Coast of the North Island took the opportunity to attend a series of courses
on technology education provided by Waikato School Support Services. Louise
Milne, adviser in technology education, outlines one of the units developed
and delivered during this professional development programme
Background
Wairoa is situated approximately one hour south of Gisborne, close to
beaches and rivers, and with a district population of approximately 10,000.
The college is positioned close to the centre of town and caters for a
wide range of students both Māori and Pākehā with a small
number of other ethnic groups represented. It has a decile rating of 3,
and a large group of students whose continued motivation provides challenges
both to the staff and the school as a whole. The specialist teachers'
work hard to select topics which they know will be of interest to the
students and within which all students have the opportunity to be actively
involved and achieve successful outcomes for their study.
Unit planning
and delivery
One of the suggestions made by the Technology Education contract team
was to try to link in with activities and developments occurring in
and around the school and the local community. Dip Archary, the Design
and Graphics specialist teacher, chaired the Staff Works Committee and
knew that the school's Board of Trustees was intending to spend money
developing shade areas around the school. He requested through the staff
committee that his Yr10 Design and Graphics class be given the opportunity
to do the initial research and design work for this project. This idea
was approved, and Dip set about developing a Technology Unit, which
would use this project as its focus.
Unit
– Shade areas
Scenario
Wairoa College board of trustees is providing funding to develop shade
areas around the school grounds. The year 10 design and graphics class
is to select locations and research and design structures, which could
be professionally constructed.
Dip identified a range of Learning Outcomes for the unit which he thought
would be important for the successful development of the students' final
outcome, that is, a series of two-dimensional drawings and a scaled
model of each group's preferred sunshade design.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the unit students will be able to:
- research and record relevant information on existing shade
areas and structures;
- construct a survey which will confirm the need for sunshades
in the school and identify the design preferences of the students;
- carry out the survey, collate results and analyse the data;
- produce quality freehand sketches including relevant notation;
- draw a scaled working drawing of the final solution;
- construct a scaled model;
- evaluate the final outcome in terms of the needs of students
and the functional requirements of the shade area.
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Dip used these learning outcomes as the focus for his formative interactions
(discussions) with students, and he selected three through which he
collected data for summative assessment purposes: learning outcomes
1, 4, and 7. Data from these gave him a range of information relating
to students technological practice, and also provided information, which,
alongside his own interactions with class members, examples of work,
and general observations, would allow him to effectively report to parents
about the process students had worked through. It also provided him
with information which would usefully inform proceeding units of work
in this area. For example, some students' research into existing sunshade
structures extended only as far as the information provided by the teacher.
Accessing outside experts through the internet or local businesses,
visiting existing structure sites for example, local schools and preschools,
would have better informed the work they were doing. Other students
provided insufficient information in their working drawings, that is,
measurements were provided but no detail of materials, or methods for
construction, that is, joining uprights to roofing material. These aspects
of students' work could be targeted again in the next unit of work.
The completed sets of drawings and scaled model constructed by each
of the groups were shared with the staff works committee. These teachers
provided feed back which Dip was able to use in his reports, and which
was also shared with the students informally. The student outcomes provided
a focus for many encouraging and positive conversations that were held
between staff and students from the year 10 design and graphics class
during the following weeks.
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Evaluation
In discussion with Dip, he said that this unit was very different from
traditional work he had done in the past. He made sure that he carried
out activities which reflected all three strands of the curriculum.
For example, the students investigated existing sunshade structures,
contacted a firm which produces this type of product for more information,
and also looked at the changing societal attitudes towards sun exposure
and protection.
He felt that his students were more motivated than usual because they
were working on a real project. He noticed that an intense interest
in the work developed and every student completed their part. This didn't
happen normally. He also noticed that the evaluations the students did
were more detailed than usual, for example they commented on the aesthetics
of the work, the need to link new structures with existing structures,
and the variation between interior and exterior materials to be used.
He put this down to the fact that the students could actually see where
the structure was to be built. It was real and it meant more to them.
He felt that the project was a one-off high interest project which couldn't
be repeated again in the school, but the structure of which could be
used to develop other similar projects. This he believed was an advantage
over traditional work where projects were repeated year after year regardless
of the students involved.
Dip is now considering a project which involves redesigning the school
tuck shop and his colleagues John and Jeremy are also on the look out
for useful school and community projects for their students to become
involved.
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