Teachers should establish if students have developed robust level six understandings and are ready to begin working towards level seven achievement objectives for technological knowledge and plan learning experiences to progress these as guided by the level seven Indicators below.

Technological Modelling

Technological Products

Technological Systems

Achievement Objective

Students will:

• Understand how the "should" and "could" decisions in technological modelling rely on an understanding of how evidence can change in value across contexts and how different tools are used to ascertain and mitigate risk.

Achievement Objective

Students will:

• Understand the concepts and processes employed in materials evaluation and the implications of these for design, development, maintenance, and disposal of technological products.

Achievement Objective

Students will:

• Understand the concepts of redundancy and reliability and their implications for the design, development, and maintenance of technological systems.

Teacher Guidance

To support students to develop understanding of technological modelling at level 7, teachers could:

• support students to explore how context impacts on the perception of the validity of evidence presented. Therefore, shifting from one context to another can change the status of the evidence provided by technological modelling.
• support students to explore how and why different people and communities accept different types of evidence as valid. That is, the status given to evidence is dependent on a range of factors including ethical views and the perceived authority of people involved in the presentation of the evidence
• support students to understand how decisions underpinning technological modelling based on what should and could happen, rely on an understanding of how evidence gained may differ in value across contexts and/or communities
• support students to understand how technological modelling is used to ascertain and mitigate risk. Ascertaining risk involves establishing the probability of identified risks. Mitigation involves taking steps to reduce the probability of the risk being realised and/or severity of the risk should it be realised
• support students to analyse examples of technological modelling to understand how risk is ascertained and mitigated within particular technological developments. Examples should include the modelling practices of technologists and should include instances where modelling was undertaken to mitigate risk.

Teacher Guidance

To support students to develop understanding of technological products at level 7, teachers could:

• support students to understand that material evaluation enables decisions to be made about what material would be optimal to ensure the fitness for purpose of particular technological products;
• support students to explore a range of subjective and objective evaluative procedures used to identify the suitability of materials for different uses;
• support students to describe the underpinning concepts and processes related to subjective and objective evaluative procedures;
• support students to understand the selection of appropriate material evaluation procedures relies on understanding the composition and structure of materials, how their properties can be enhanced through manipulation or transformation, the performance criteria required by technological products and an understanding of the physical and social context within which the technological product will be situated;
• support students to identify and analyse examples of how materials have been evaluated to allow material selection decisions that maximize the potential fitness for purpose of particular technological products and to gain insight into how material evaluation procedures can be used to identify product maintenance and disposal implications and therefore inform design, development and post production care decisions. Examples should include the material evaluation practices of technologists.

Teacher Guidance

To support students to develop understanding of technological systems at level 7, teachers could:

• support students to understand the concepts of redundancy and reliability in relation to technological systems.Redundancy relates to the inclusion of additional components and/or subsystems to duplicate a function or functions. This duplication provides ‘back-up’ or allows for increased ‘fail safe’ tolerances. Reliability relates to the probability that a system will perform a required function under stated conditions for a stated period of time;
• support students to identify and analyse a range of examples of technological systems to gain insight into how redundancy and reliability factors have impacted on system design, development and maintenance decisions. Examples should include system design, development and maintenance practices of technologists.

Indicators

Students can:

• discuss examples to illustrate why the status of evidence gained from technological modelling might change across contexts
• explain why different people accept different types of evidence as valid and how this impacts on technological modelling
• explain the role of technological modelling in ascertaining and mitigating risk
• describe examples to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of technological modelling for risk mitigation.

Indicators

Students can:

• discuss a range of subjective and objective evaluative procedures used to determine the suitability of materials and describe the underpinning concepts and processes involved in particular procedures;
• discuss examples of material evaluation procedures undertaken to support material selection decisions and justify the appropriateness of these procedures;
• discuss examples to explain how material evaluation impacted on design and development decisions;
• discuss examples to explain how material evaluation impacted on maintenance and disposal decisions.

Indicators

Students can:

• explain the concept of redundancy in relation to technological systems;
• discuss examples of particular technological systems to illustrate how factors related to redundancy impacted on system design, development, and/or maintenance decisions;
• explain the concept of reliability in relation to technological systems;
• discuss examples of particular technological systems to illustrate how factors related to reliability impacted on system design, development, and/or maintenance decisions.