Lesson video

Hello.

Thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson.

My name is Mrs. Conway and I will be guiding you through your learning today.

So today's lesson outcome is: I can evaluate my product against the agreed design criteria.

And these are our keywords for today: review, feedback, impact, and adapt.

And I'll go through each one of these as we work through the lesson.

So first of all, we're going to look at reviewing design specifications.

Evaluation is an important part of designing.

It's a chance to review how well a product performs. Evaluations can be done at any stage of the design process, but they are often done once the product is complete.

This means you can see how well the product meets the design criteria.

You can also consider its impact on the user and make changes or adapt if necessary.

Let's remind ourselves of our design criteria.

The local Science Museum are creating a new display called Products That Use Air, which will help primary school pupils explore how air can be used to make things move.

They invited local schools to design pneumatic, or moving air, animal toys to use in the interactive display.

Now, Jun wrote a design specification for a moving animal toy.

Let's have a look at this design specification.

First of all, he used headings to help him write it, and these headings were: product, function, which is what it should do, user, which is who should use it or who will use it, performance, which is how it will work, materials, which is what it is made from, and lastly, appearance, which is what it would look like.

He then wrote his ideas for each of these headings.

So under product he wrote that he's making a moving animal, specifically a crab.

Under function, he's explained that it's to show how air can make something move.

For user, it was primary school pupil.

For performance, he's explained, "Syringes will move eyes up and down." For materials, he suggested small cardboard egg box, plastic tubing, Y-connector, two small and one large syringe.

And under appearance he explained it'll be, "Pink with added eyes and claws." So this explains the needs or the wants for his product.

Now Jun made a moving animal toy using a simple pneumatic or moving air system.

His simple pneumatic system used syringes and it had an input of a larger syringe and output of two smaller syringes.

He used a Y-connector to be able to create two outputs.

And you can see this is how it worked in his final moving toy.

The two syringes controlled the eyes of the crab that went up and down.

He embedded the system that created movement.

Now, Jun reviewed his design specification, and first, he thought about the product design.

The Science Museum wanted an interactive model for their new display to help primary school pupils see how some products use air to make them work.

This product is a fun way to see how a simple pneumatic system can be used to make parts of a model move.

So he's explained that he thinks he has made something that is fun and shows the pneumatic system as being something that can make a model move, which means he's been successful.

Jun thought about the impact the product would have on the user as well.

"The moving toy is a fun and engaging way to see how moving air can be used in a product.

It will help pupils understand how it works." I think he's right.

"It could also get them to use their imagination to design their own products that use moving air." That's a great idea from Jun there.

Bit of a question for you now, though.

What do we mean when we talk about the impact a product has? Is it A, how a product compares to others; B, how a product is made; or C, how it affects someone or something? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer? It was how it affects someone or something.

So if we talk about the impact of a product we are considering how that product affects someone or something.

Well done if you got that right.

That was a tricky question.

Now Jun asked Izzy to review his product and Izzy says this, "It shows how air can move syringes to create movement.

I think it is suitable for a primary school pupil to explore.

It makes the learning fun.

The syringes are a bit loose and I'm not sure they would stay in place after lots of pupils have had a go." So Izzy really likes the idea and thinks it's suitable for the user, but she's just a little concerned with whether or not it would stand up to the wear and tear of lots of pupils having a go at it, which is a fair observation and concern from Izzy.

Okay, true or false? Feedback is a list of things that are wrong with the product.

Is that true or is it false? Think about the feedback that Izzy gave.

Pause the video here to have a think about your answer.

And the correct answer? It is false.

Feedback can highlight things that could be improved, like Izzy suggested, but it should also tell you what works well, which Izzy also included in her feedback.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, it's going to be over to you now to have a go at a couple of tasks.

I'd like you to review your moving animal toy.

To do this, you need to think about some of the following: its purpose, what has it been made for? The user, who will be using it? The design, how did you make it? You may want to look back at your design specification to help you with this.

I also want you to think about, does it meet the criteria set by the museum that I read out right at the start of this lesson? So is it interactive? Can it be played with? Is it suitable for primary school pupils? And is it able to demonstrate how air can be used to make movement? The second part of the task, then, I'd like you to ask your partner to review your final product.

And ask them these questions: does it meet the criteria set by the museum? Is there anything that could be improved? And the last thing I'd like you to do, I'd like you to explain the impact your product will have.

To do this, you'll need to explain how the product works, what it demonstrates or shows the user and how it will help the user as well.

Lots of work to be doing there.

Pause the video here to have a go at these tasks and good luck.

Right.

How did you get on with those three tasks? Jun reviewed his product and he was happy that it met the criteria set by the museum.

That's great.

Jun then asked Izzy to review his product and she gave him some feedback to improve the design.

Jun then explained the impact his product will have, and he's just said here, "The product will let the school pupils see how a simple pneumatic system works in real life.

It will help them understand how it uses moving air to create movement." Did you complete each of those tasks? Were you able to review your product and see if it met the criteria set by the museum? Did you get some feedback from a partner and have you managed to explain the impact your product will have? Well done if you completed all of those tasks.

So next, we're going to look at adapting a design.

Reviewing design specifications and final products can help us to see if any improvements could be made.

Getting feedback from others can be helpful because they can see what the user will see.

So Jun is asking here, "What do you think?" Jun thought about Izzy's feedback and how he could improve the design, so he suggested, "The syringes inside the model are secured using masking tape.

This is not strong enough to keep them in place when they move." This is a really good point.

Now, Izzy made this point that she was concerned that after lots of primary school children playing with it, it may become broken or it may move around or the syringes may end up moving.

So do you have any ideas that will help Jun? How can Jun keep the syringes in place? Pause the video here to have a little think about that.

Before we go on to think about those answers, just gonna have another little question for you.

True or false? You have to review your design on your own.

Is that true or false? Pause the video again just to think about this question.

It was false.

As you've seen, you can ask others, and asking other people for their feedback or opinion can be useful.

They can see what the user will see.

These pupils had some suggestions for Jun.

Let's see if they're similar to the ideas that you had.

And these ideas were based on how can we stop his syringes from moving about.

So Jacob has suggested, "You could use a stronger tape." That's a great idea.

Did you have a similar one? Sam has suggested, "You could use a stronger joining method such as hot glue." And Aisha has suggested, "You could add some extra supports made from cardboard or plastic." These are all great ideas.

Did you come up with the same ones? Did you have any others? Jun considered the options or choices.

"Even if the tape is stronger, it could and still be pulled away from the egg box material.

Hot glue could damage the tubing or the syringes.

It could also rip the egg box, which is weaker.

An extra support is a good idea because it could strengthen the whole structure." He's worked through those suggestions and decided on which one could be the best idea.

Jun decided to strengthen the syringes with a support.

He sketched an idea for how he could do this.

So if you have a little look in the picture, he's used a cardboard tube.

He's going to secure that using glue and staples.

That's gonna add some extra strength to that syringe.

"I'll use thick recycled card to make the tube strong." Now, Jun adapted his product by adding the extra feature, the supports added to the syringes, and you can see there in the picture, he's adapted his product.

He's also adapted the system into the position of the toy as well.

He's just explained, "I had to remove the pneumatic system to make the changes." And sometimes this does have to happen.

You do have to go backwards a little bit to improve your product and adapt and change it.

Quick question for you then.

How did Jun adapt his design? I'd like you to choose two answers here.

Is it, A, he changed the joining method; B, he used a different pneumatic system; or C, he added supports? Pause the video here to think about your answer.

You could have had A, he changed the joining method and C, he added supports.

So Jun adapted his design by changing the joining methods and adding supports.

Well done if you've got both of those.

It's going to be over to you now to have a go at a few more tasks.

First thing I'd like you to do, then, is to consider your own and partner's review.

How could your product be improved? How can the product be adapted to make the improvements? Secondly, I'd then like you to discuss or sketch your ideas for adapting your product.

And lastly, I'd then like you to actually use suitable tools and materials to make the changes to your product that you've suggested.

Okay, it's going to be over to you now.

Pause the video here to have a go at this task.

Right.

How did you get on with those three tasks? Now, Jun used Izzy's feedback to consider how he could adapt his product to improve it.

He then designed and then went on to make the changes to his product, and we saw the examples of that previously.

He's explained "The changes make it much stronger so it will last longer." How did you get on with your changes? Were you able to find a way to improve or adapt your design? And then were you able to do that to your final moving toy? Hopefully you all now got to the best version that your moving toy can possibly be and you've considered all the improvements and made those to your product.

Okay, let's summarize today's lesson.

Today, we've been looking at evaluating pneumatic systems. Reviewing design specifications can ensure the product is fit for purpose.

Reviewing design specifications leads to considering the impact of the product.

And feedback can help us adapt and improve a product.

Well done for all of your hard work in today's lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me, and I will see you soon.