The Technological Practice Strand Explanatory Papers Updated May 2010
Planning for Practice
Junior Primary (NE-Year 4)
Learning experiences
The following learning experiences have been provided to support teachers as they develop their understanding of the Planning for Practice component of the Technological Practice strand. There is no expectation that these would form the basis of any specific unit of work in technology. The learning experiences have been summarised from classrooms across New Zealand and provide examples of student achievement across a range of levels. This stance reflects the majority of classrooms, within which it is expected that students will demonstrate a range of levels of achievement.
A group of students had been learning about electricity as part of a science unit. They then decided to use this knowledge to make their own motorised toys to star in a puppet show for younger students at the school. For details of this unit please see the Ministry of Education's Connected Series 2005 Volume 1 – Super Toy Makers.
Students achieving at level 1 could:
- explain how they looked at a range of toys brought from home, to give them ideas about the features their toy could have and the type of material it could be made out of;
- suggest how they could balance their toy by adding weight to the base of the fairy and how they could make a storage compartment for the battery; and
- suggest that the thick piece of cardboard could be used for the heavy base and the thinner cardboard could be used to hold the battery.
Students achieving at level 2 could:
- identify the key stages required to complete an Angel toy with a spinning halo; these being the need to complete their design first, then make a working model of their toy to test that the halo spins properly, before making the proper body of the toy and applying the finishing decorations;
- explain that old pieces of card were used to make a working model of the Angel's body and the spinning mechanism when they were test how well their design might work; and
- record key stages and resources needed in a flow diagram including an estimate of how much time it will take organise the materials they need, and make and test their toy, and that they would need new plain card, coloured pencils and ribbon to use in its final construction.
