Hello and welcome to today's Design and Technology lesson.

Today's lesson is called "Card functional properties" and it's part of the "Shell structures: packaging" unit.

My name's Mrs. Fletcher and I'm here to help you with your learning today.

Today's lesson is all about one particular material, cardboard.

We'll be looking at why it's often used for packaging and how it can be shaped to suit different types of uses.

So let's have a look at what we'll be learning about today.

The outcome of today's lesson is I can use different techniques to shape card, so we'll be learning about cardboard as a type of material that's often used for packaging, and by the end of the lesson you'll have some techniques to be able to change the shape of cardboard for use in different types of ways.

There are some keywords that we're going to need to use in today's lesson, so let's have a look at those before we start.

First of all, we have that word, packaging.

Can you repeat that after me? Packaging.

Well done, and that is used to describe any kind of material that is used to wrap, cover, or protect a product.

Then we have the word technique.

Can you repeat that? Technique.

Well done, and a technique is a particular way of doing something.

And then finally we have scoring.

Can you repeat that? Scoring.

Well done, and scoring is a technique whereby we press a line into paper or card to help us with folding and cutting, and we'll be finding out how to do that in this lesson as well.

Today's lesson is broken down into two parts.

First of all, we're going to be looking at packaging design, particularly packaging that is made from cardboard, and we're going to be learning about a man called Robert Gair who is very important in our use of cardboard as packaging today.

And then we're going to move on to looking at how we can shape card for different uses.

So let's get started with packaging design and Robert Gair.

Packaging is a word that's used to describe any type of material that's used to wrap or cover or protect a product.

All products have some type of packaging, and this could be a bag, a box, a sleeve, or a wrapper.

So everything that we buy or that manufacturers produce have some type of packaging associated with them.

Paper, glass, metal, and wood have all been used as packaging materials for a very long time.

Since the 1960s, though, the use of plastic packaging has become more common and it's replaced lots of other materials as a preferred packaging material.

So glass bottles that were used for milk and water in the past have been replaced by plastic bottles in more recent times, and plastic wrapping is now quite often found on lots of products instead of paper bags and paper packaging that was used in the past.

A quick check then before we move on.

Which material was I just saying has replaced many of the glass and paper designs from the past? Was it wood, metal, or plastic? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well done if you said plastic.

Since the 1960s, plastic has replaced many of the things that used to be made from glass and paper.

Cardboard box packaging is the main way in which products are stored and transported because cardboard is lightweight, it's easy to stack, and it's low cost, so it doesn't cost very much to produce.

Have you ever wondered, though, who invented the folding cardboard boxes that we see every day? Well, the man who is responsible for inventing the folding cardboard box is Robert Gair, and Robert Gair was a Scottish printer and paper bag maker who is best known for accidentally inventing the folding cardboard carton, which we call a box today.

He recognised that by cutting and folding cardboard at the same time, boxes could be mass produced, so he could make lots and lots of them at once, and they could be assembled into the shape they were later on.

Robert was born in Edinburgh, which is in Scotland, and he was born in 1839, which is quite a long time ago.

He lived in Edinburgh with his father, James, who was a plumber, his mother, Mary, and his two brothers and three sisters.

In 1853, when he was 14 years old, he moved to America with his family to start a new life and to find new opportunities.

After spending some time in the Army, Robert Gair opened his first paper packaging company in 1864, and the factory that he opened was responsible for making lots of different types of packaging using paper.

At this time, most small items sold in shops were wrapped in paper and tied up with string, and food such as cereals were kept in large barrels inside the shop and placed in paper bags for customers when they came to buy them.

In 1879, there was an accident with one of Robert's printing machines.

The ruler that was supposed to crease the paper for folding cut straight through the paper instead.

He realised when he saw that this could happen that if you could have a machine that could cut and crease, so that's fold, the paper at the same time using the same tool, then he could make a pre-folded box that could be assembled later and would save lots of space.

So if he didn't have to make the box in its final shape, if he could just make it flat, then he could make lots more of them and he could ship them out to the people who were using them and they could put them into the shape that they should be later on.

One of the first people to use Robert's new style of packaging was the National Biscuit Company, and they used it to package their Uneeda Biscuit product.

So this was one of the first types of products to be packaged in a folded box.

Several more biscuit companies and cereal companies followed when they saw what a good idea this product was and it quickly became a very popular way to package food products.

The use of Robert's boxes continued to grow, and by the early 1900s, he was producing lots of strong, thick cardboard boxes that were being used instead of wooden and metal crates to ship goods overseas, so they were using them on boats to package lots and lots of goods to send them far away, and traditionally they would've used metal and wooden crates, so his boxes were taking over.

Robert built so many factories in Brooklyn, in New York, which was where he was based, to make his cardboard boxes that the area was nicknamed Gairville after him.

So let's have a look at the timeline for Robert Gair's life.

So he was born in 1839.

In 1853, he emigrated, or moved, to the United States.

In 1864, he opened his first paper packaging company.

By 1879, he had invented the folding box through that accident with his machine.

In 1888, he built several new factories because the demand for his boxes was so great that he needed to make more of them.

And he sadly passed away in 1927 after having a very successful life in the boxing and packaging business.

A quick check then about Robert Gair before we move on.

What type of product was one of the first to be packaged in Robert Gair's folding box carton? Was it books, biscuits, or drinks? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, did you remember which type of product was first to be put in one of Robert's boxes? It was biscuits, well done.

The Uneeda Biscuits were the first ones to be packaged in one of Robert's boxes.

Okay, time for a task there.

So we've learned that Robert Gair's box design made it much easier and much quicker to produce very large numbers of boxes at once.

I would like you to discuss with your partner on your table which features of his design, so what was special about his design, that helped make the boxes much quicker and easier to produce? Think about how the box was made, think about how it was stored, so how he would keep them before sending them to his customers, and how the box was used by the customer, so what they did with it when they got it and how they used it.

Think about those three things and use them to discuss how it made his box product much easier and quicker to use.

Pause the video while you do that and come back when you're done.

Welcome back, how did you get on? Well, Lucas has been talking about Robert Gair's box design and this is what he had to say.

"The box was cut into shape and folded at the same time, which saved lots of time during production," so while it was being made.

"The boxes could then be stored flat, which took up less space, and sent to the factories that used them.

Because the boxes had already been folded, they could be quickly assembled and made ready for use, which also saved time for the customers." So Lucas has been thinking about all of those things about how the box was made, how it was used by the customers, and how it could be stored by the manufacturers and by the customers as well.

Well done if you managed to think about those three things and had some similar ideas to Lucas.

Time for the second part of our lesson now.

So in this part of the lesson, we're going to be looking at different techniques, different ways that we can shape card, a bit like Robert did using his machine, to make it function or work in different ways.

One of the key features of Robert Gair's folding box design was the use of a pre-made fold or crease, so it was already folded, ready to be used.

And because that was there, it allowed it to be easily shaped later on.

Card can be shaped using different techniques, including scoring, bending, and curling.

We're going to be looking at each one of those now.

Practising those skills can help us to create our own packaging design, so learning how we can shape card can help us design different types of cardboard packaging.

Cardboard comes in different thicknesses that's used for different purposes.

The thicker the card, the more strength it has.

So if we think about products like a tissue box, it only requires a very thin card because it doesn't really need to protect the tissues, it just needs to be the right shape to house that type of product.

A thicker card might be used for something like shoes or trainers because they are much heavier products, so they need a much sturdier box to protect them and to store them.

But if we think about bigger products or heavier products, then they might need to be packaged in something made from corrugated card.

Corrugated card is a really thick type of card that has two thinner layers of card and inside it has a layer of wavy or corrugated card material.

It's all sandwiched together, and having those different layers means it's very thick and very protective of whatever is inside that package.

Okay, let's have a quick check of our understanding about cardboard that's used for packaging.

All cardboard packaging is the same thickness.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? It's false, but why? Why is that false? Well, it's because cardboard packaging can be lots of different thicknesses depending on its purpose.

For example, we saw that a box made for something like tissues or cereal doesn't need to be as thick as one that might be made for shoes or something heavier.

Well done if you got that right.

So if we're going to learn how to shape card for use in different ways, then we're going to need some resources to help us.

So for this next part of the lesson, you're going to need a safety ruler, a pencil, a pair of scissors, and some pieces of scrap card, and make sure you've got lots of different thicknesses of card as well, some thin, some medium, and some thick card.

See if you can also get some corrugated card as well.

So first of all we're going to look at the bending techniques, so this is where we take a piece of card and we change the direction that the card is facing or part of the card is facing by bending it.

So let's have a look at how to do that.

So you need to take a piece of scrap card and place the ruler in the centre, and you're going to very carefully bend one half of that card up towards the ruler.

Once it's in place, you can run your finger along the bend that you've created where the ruler is, pressing it down, and that will make sure that that bend stays in place.

Then, in order to shape the card further, you're going to find the centre of each half of that card and repeat that process of bending it up towards the ruler and pressing it with your finger.

So in the end, you should have three bends, one you made in the centre and the one you make in the centre of each half that you made earlier on.

You can then shape that card, bend it round those three bends to create a kind of cuboid shape.

And this shows you how packaging can be bent into place to create a different shape, like a box.

Let's have a look at the scoring technique now.

So this is a method of pressing a line into a piece of card, which makes it easier to cut or bend later on.

To do that, you need to take another piece of card.

This time, make sure it's a thick piece of card.

Scoring is best done on thick card, works best on thick card.

Use the ruler to draw a line where you want to fold the card, so decide where you need to do a fold.

Then you're going to very carefully run the blade of the scissors along the pencil line that you've made, pressing down very gently.

So keep the scissors closed, keep those blades together, and press very gently, holding that ruler in place as well so it doesn't move, and you're pressing the scissors against the ruler to press that line that you drew with the pencil.

Then you should be able to bend the card back easily along that line and you'll find it's much easier than trying to bend card without scoring a line.

So if you're going to be making a box from cardboard, you could score the places where the cardboard needs to bend so that when you come to fold it, it folds along a much neater, straight line than if you tried to do it without.

Let's have a look at the curling technique now, so this is a method of creating a curving card.

So if you have a type of packaging that has a curve around it, like a cylinder shape, then this is the method you would need, the technique that you would use to create that shape out of card.

So first of all, you're going to take a rectangular strip of quite thin card, so this works better with thin card.

Cut the shape of a rectangle if you need to.

And then place the ruler across one of the short ends of the rectangle.

So look at the image there, you can see where to place the ruler at the end of that rectangle.

Then you're going to take hold of the edge of the card with one hand and you're going to hold the ruler in place with the other hand.

And whilst you're gently pressing down that ruler so it doesn't move, you're going to pull that card up through from underneath the card in an upwards direction.

So you need to make sure you're pulling up with the card whilst holding that ruler into place.

If you just pull it out from underneath the ruler, it won't change the shape of the card.

You need to make sure you pull it up so that it drags along the edge of that ruler and that is what will create that curve in your piece of card.

So it should look like that last image there, we've created that curved shape from the card.

A quick check then before we move on to your task.

What is scoring? So we've just seen the technique for it there.

Which one was it? What was it? Was it bending a line in card? Was it pressing a line in card? Or was it cutting through the card? Which one of those was the scoring technique? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well done if you said it was pressing a line into the card, so it was using those scissors to press a line, so we're not cutting through, we're pressing that line in, which then makes it easy to bend the card later on.

Well done if you got that right.

So time for a task now in the second part of the lesson.

Bending and shaping card was the key to Robert Gair's success, so practising these techniques is important if we're going to use them to help us shape and make packaging in the future.

So first of all, you're going to practise the bending technique.

And to practise the technique, you're going to try two things.

You're going to take a piece of scrap card and make two bends in the card and use that, fold that together to create a triangular shape, so two bends will create a triangular shape.

If you take another piece of scrap card and make three bends in the card, then you can make a cuboid shape, so just like we saw in the steps earlier.

Make sure the bends are equally spaced apart on your card so that they fold into that equal-sided cuboid shape.

Pause the video while you have a go at that task and come back when you're done.

Once you've had a go at that, you're going to try using the scoring technique, so you get a new piece of scrap card and work out where you want to fold the card, draw the lines that you want to score along, and try doing two of those.

And by bending those, you can make that same triangular shape you made in the first task.

And then by trying it again, marking out three folds this time on a new piece of scrap card, making three bends will mean you can create a cuboid shape.

Again, they need to be equally spaced, so make sure you score and bend in the correct place.

Pause the video and have a go at that technique.

Once you've done that, have a go at using the curling technique.

So this is where we're creating that curve in the card by curling a thin piece of card and shaping it into a cylinder shape, so it works best with that thin piece of card.

Once you've tried all those three techniques, I want you to think about for each one how it worked differently with different thicknesses of card, so you might need to go back and try them again with a different thickness of card.

So if you did it with a thin piece of card first, try it with a thicker piece of card and see if there's any difference in the way it works.

So as we said earlier, these different techniques work differently on different thicknesses, so by having a go and having a play around with these different techniques, you will see how they work on different types of card.

Pause the video while you complete those two tasks.

Welcome back, how did you get on? Well, you should have learned by playing around with the card and those different techniques that the number of bends that you create using those different methods creates different shapes in the card, and curling can help you make that cylinder shape in a card as well.

All types of card can be bent into shape, but thicker card is usually easier to score and thinner card is usually easier to curl, so you may have found that by experimenting with the different types of card as well, well done.

So we've come to the end of the lesson now, so we've looked at lots of different functional properties of cardboard, we've learned why it's used so widely for packaging, and we've even learned some techniques that will help us shape card into different ways in the future if we're using it for packaging design.

Robert Gair was the person who devised the concept of the paperboard folding carton, so that box that we know today for packaging.

And it was mass produced, which means he made lots and lots at the same time, and it was flat-packed, so it didn't take up lots of space, and it could be assembled later on, and it's the same kind of box that we use today.

Card can be shaped in different ways, and we learned some techniques to do that.

Bending, scoring, and curling techniques can all be used to make shaping card much easier.

And scoring before you fold or cut card improves the accuracy because it creates that neat, straight line that you can bend or cut along later on.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson.

Hopefully you've learned lots about that wonderful material of cardboard, and I'll see you again in another lesson for some more learning about packaging.

Goodbye for now.