Delivery
Most of the class chose to work with a client of their own choice (with two selecting their previous year's client St Mark's). Of the remaining students, three chose the lighting brief and three Wellington College, and none chose Te Papa.
All students quickly established regular contact with their clients and explored the further, wider stakeholders for whom they would be working. During this vital, early stage of project identification and mapping of individual targets, Matthew got appendicitis, had to take leave, and was 'knocked for a six' for a month. Despite this the students all completed this stage successfully.
The 2005 unit had included a large number of visiting specialists - to present information to students, discuss ideas and work alongside them reviewing and critiquing their work. In 2006 there was more individual contact and greater student flow in and out of the class to meet clients. This necessitated certain lessons being timetabled covering the key strategies for that week. Most were PowerPoint presentations or ICT-related deliveries, which were also placed on the school intranet, enabling students to review the set targets and their progress.
With the breadth of client contact and scope for identifying potential needs came a huge variety of projects. Resolving these required a wide range of processes and the exploration of multiple materials.
Matthew says it was quite complex to ensure that individual student needs were met. Key to this was the decision as to whether to give group demonstrations or individual tuition. Certain processes and content were relevant to all - plastic resin embedding, pattern making and forming, for example, were fairly generic areas and ones that all in the class needed to learn. Matthew gave individual guidance on other skills such as casting, welding, wood turning, laminating and milling.
A cat eating from Owen's cat feeder
In conjunction with the lighting company, Matthew had a Victoria University lecturer involved with those doing the lighting project. This gave an opportunity for students to participate in some university lectures, an experience they found quite daunting.
Victoria University Industrial Design student mentors again proved to be invaluable to the unit. The Year 13 students enjoyed the interaction and found it very positive, especially when the university students brought in their own projects and critiqued and discussed their problem-solving processes and solutions.
The delivery of the unit also included a visit to the Alcan Packaging Daniflex factory. This enabled students to experience first-hand the role of technologists in industry and their problem-solving approach, quality control and breadth of knowledge. A great deal of debate and discussion followed, demonstrating the students' growing awareness of and appreciation for the subject and its contribution to society.
As a result of their experiences in the Year 12 unit, the Year 13 students had a much better awareness of the mutual interactions between designers, technologists and society. This led to more searching questions of the specialists with whom they worked, and consequently a deeper understanding of technological issues involved and their local and national contexts.
