Lesson at a Glance | He Tirohanga Whakamua
Ngฤ Whฤinga Ako | Learning Intentions
Students will know
- Establishing precise physical and functional performance specifications for conceptual outcomes.
- Balancing aesthetic appeal and user experience with structural and environmental requirements.
- Creating comprehensive technical specification sheets for outcome development.
Students will demonstrate
- Define exact dimensions, weight limits, and material tolerances.
- Specify electrical/mechanical component part numbers and power requirements.
- Complete Year 11 Technology Technical Specification Sheet.
โก Whakaoho | Do Now: Context & Issue Audit (10 mins)
Translating qualitative stakeholder needs into quantitative technical specifications (tolerances, power consumption, ergonomic dimensions).
๐ Activity 1: Technical Specification Sheet & Component List (15 mins)
Convert your concept into specifications a manufacturer could work from: dimensions with tolerances, materials with grades, forces or loads it must survive, and the environmental conditions it must operate in. Then test each specification by asking whether someone could measure whether you met it. Any specification you cannot measure is a wish.
โ๏ธ Activity 2: Design Log Workshop (25 mins)
Draft a comprehensive technical specification breakdown detailing dimensions, component sources, assembly methods, and user safety standards.
- Write your functional specifications with numbers (dimensions, load, battery lifeโฆ) โ every spec must be testable.
- Write two aesthetic specifications naming the look-and-feel decisions and who they serve.
- List your component sources and one safety standard the design must respect; flag any specification you cannot yet verify.
๐ฏ Poroporoaki | Exit Ticket & Portfolio Check (10 mins)
Write two sentences naming one specification you cannot yet measure, and how you would make it testable โ an unmeasurable specification is a wish.
๐ design portfolio Milestone: Lesson 7
Ensure your design log entries for Lesson 7 (Functional & Aesthetic Specifications) are saved and updated with annotated sketches, stakeholder notes, and sustainability justifications.
๐งญ Kaiako Planning Notes & Assessment Guidance
Assessment note: this unit is not tied to a live NCEA standard โ check current NZQA Technology standards before promising credits. Teach it as Year 11 technology design thinking.
- Technological Practice: ฤkonga develop a conceptual design for a sustainable-technology outcome.
- Differentiation & Scaffolding: Provide physical component samples and sentence frames for stakeholder interviews and justification writing.
- Extension (outstanding work): Challenge students to conduct a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tracing raw material extraction through to end-of-life e-waste processing.
- Te Ao Mฤori Integration: Ground material choice in traditional ecological knowledge (mฤtauranga taiao) regarding resource extraction and seasonal renewal.