Lesson video

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

Thank you for joining me for your learning today.

My name's Mrs. Fletcher and I'm here to help and guide you through this lesson.

Today's lesson is called "Dorothee Pullinger and car design" and it's part of the "Pulleys and gears: electric vehicles" unit.

In this lesson, we'll be looking at the contributions that Dorothee Pullinger made to car design nearly 100 years ago, and we'll also get to look at where car design might go in the future.

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

The outcome of today's lesson is I can describe Dorothee Pullinger's contributions to car engineering and discuss sustainable transport.

So we'll be looking at why Dorothee Pullinger's contributions were so important, particularly in a time when there were very few women working in car engineering, and we'll be looking at what car engineers are doing today to make sure we can have sustainable travel long into the future.

There are some keywords and phrases that we need to make sure we are clear on before we get started on this lesson.

So first of all, we've got that phrase, car engineer.

It's what Dorothee Pullinger was, it's what we're looking at today.

But what does it mean? So a car engineer is someone who designs and builds cars, so they have to think about every aspect of designing and building a car.

And then we've got that word sustainable, and that word means that we're using what we need while protecting the environment so there's enough for the future.

So it means that we can continue to do those practises, continue to make those things long into the future.

So let's have a look at how the lesson will be broken down today.

There are two parts to today's lesson.

First of all, we're going to look at Dorothee Pullinger and her contributions as a car engineer, and then we're going to move on to looking at sustainable travel for the future.

So let's get started with "Dorothee Pullinger, car engineer." Dorothee Pullinger was a pioneering car engineer and businesswoman.

She was one of the first people to recognise that cars could be designed differently for female drivers.

And she was best known for producing the Galloway car, which is a car built entirely by women in Scotland.

Dorothee's childhood began on the 13th of January in 1894 when she was born in Normandy, in France.

She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Pullinger, who was a very well-known car designer at this time, and his French wife, Aurelie Berenice.

In 1902, when Dorothee was just eight years old, the family moved over to England.

After completing her studies at Loughborough Grammar School, 16-year-old Dorothee joined her father at the Arrol-Johnston car factory as a draughtswoman and she used her skills to draw technical designs and plans for the cars that were made in the factory.

Then came World War I.

And during the First World War, Dorothee was employed to supervise over 7,000 female workers who were making ammunition for the war effort.

So this was a time where lots of women were drafted in to help out in factories across the country to help make things that the soldiers needed to fight in the war.

And being able to speak both English and French meant that she could communicate quite clearly with all of the workers in the factory, because many of those were French and Belgian refugees who'd come over to Britain because of the war.

After the war, Dorothee recognised that there was now a new market for women who could drive, many of these women who had learned to drive during the war.

Most of the cars that were being built at the time were quite large and difficult to handle, so Dorothee designed and built a car that was much smaller, lighter, and easier to drive, and that car was called the Galloway.

A quick check before we move on then.

What does a car engineer do? We have some Oak pupils here who are giving us some suggestions.

Andeep says that a car engineer fixes car engines, Sofia is saying that a car engineer designs and build cars, and Laura is saying that they design and build aircraft.

What do you think? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well done if you agreed with Sofia.

Exactly, a car engineer designs and builds cars, just like Dorothee Pullinger.

So, it was difficult for women to be accepted as engineers at the time when Dorothee Pullinger was around.

Many people thought that it was a job that was only suitable for men.

Inspired by Dorothee's determination to be an engineer, her father opened an engineering college and an apprenticeship programme that was just for women, so he wanted to help and support his daughter but he also wanted to help and support other women who wanted to make a career in engineering.

When she became the director of Galloway Motors, which was the company responsible for making the Galloway car, Dorothee employed mostly women to build the car that she designed.

So she was supporting those females that wanted to make their career in engineering.

Dorothee continued to prove herself when she became the first female member of the Institute of Automobile Engineers in 1921, so she was the first female to be allowed into that institution where she was recognised for her skills in building and designing cars.

In 1924, she even became a racing driver driving the Galloway car that she designed and even winning a cup in the Scottish six-day car trials.

Again, at the time, it was something that not very many females were allowed or interested in doing.

In 1944, she was the only woman who was asked to help write a report on helping to rebuild British industry after it was devastated in the Second World War.

So by then she was a very trusted engineer, someone who people would go to for advice on how to build a business and an industry around engineering, just as she had done.

Let's have a look at the timeline of Dorothee's life then.

So she was born in 1894 in France.

In 1902, she came to England with her family.

She began her career as a draughtswoman in the same car manufacturing company as her father in 1910.

By 1918, she designed the Galloway car based on her observations that there were many more female drivers now because of World War I.

And in 1921, she was the first woman to join the Institute of Automobile Engineers, which was a very big privilege for her at the time.

And then she died in 1986.

Quick check then.

What name was given to the car that Dorothee Pullinger designed? Was it the Arrol-Johnston, was it the Pullinger, or was it the Galloway? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well done if you said it was the Galloway.

Of course that was the car that she designed and built.

Throughout history, women have been involved in engineering, but before the First and Second World Wars, it was very uncommon for them to gain qualifications in that area or to hold official positions and make it a career.

Women were able to prove their value to the engineering industry during the wars when they were called upon to take over manufacturing.

So lots of women were taking on new roles during World War I and World War II, which they hadn't been able to access before or weren't typically involved in before the wars, and that gave them the chance to show what they could do.

And since then, women have continued to make valuable contributions in all areas of engineering as well as science, technology, and maths, and that's partly due to those contributions that those women made during the war.

Time for a task then in this first part of the lesson.

So, as we've seen, Dorothee Pullinger fought to be recognised and valued as an engineer at a time when it was very difficult for women.

I would like you to discuss whether you think it's easier for women to become engineers today than it was in Dorothee's time.

I want you to think about education for women, where that was then and where it is now, opportunities that might be available to women today, people's attitudes and opinions towards women engineers, and the impact of people like Dorothee Pullinger on women gaining access to these types of careers.

Pause the video while you complete this task and come back when you're done.

Welcome back, how did your discussion go? Well, Lucas and Sofia have been discussing the role of women in engineering and they've got a couple of thoughts that they would like to share.

So Lucas is saying here that it's easier to go to university and gain qualifications now.

So particularly for women and girls, it's much easier to get those qualifications you need to work in engineering.

And there are more opportunities for women and girls to learn about engineering at school, college, and university and in apprenticeships and things like that.

Sofia agrees with him but she's got some other points as well, that some people still think it's a man's job, so that attitude can still be there.

And women like Dorothee Pullinger did help to change those attitudes and to help change the way people thought about women in engineering, but this belief can still discourage women and girls from choosing it as a career.

So it can still put them off a little bit from choosing it as a career because they still come up against some people who may still believe that it's not a role that women should be taking.

Well done for your discussion, Lucas and Sofia, and hopefully you managed to have a good discussion about that as well and come up with your own ideas.

So it's time to move on to the second part of the lesson now, so this is where we'll be looking at sustainable travel and what car engineers are doing to make sure we can continue to transport ourselves around in the future.

Humans have always needed to travel and move around from place to place.

Over time, we've invented many different ways to make it easier to travel, particularly across long distances.

So we have bicycles, boats, trains, aeroplanes.

What other things do we use to help get us around? Pause the video and talk to your partner or your group about the different ways we use to get around.

Welcome back, how did you get on? There are many other ways that you could have discussed that humans get around.

Of course, roller skates, skateboards, things like that, as well as other types of vehicles.

I'm sure you had quite a list.

In the earliest days of travel, most methods that humans used relied on the power of nature or the strength of humans and animals.

So for example, things like sailing boats, sailing ships, rowing boats, and travelling on animals such as donkeys and horses all involve nature and the power of humans or animals.

These methods did not cause very much damage to the environment because they were working with nature and working with our own strengths.

Then, with the wider use of the combustion engine, which is the type of engine you find in a car, travel became much quicker and easier, so far more people were using cars, trains, and aeroplanes to get around.

Now the problem with that is that those types of engines burn fuel in order to run and that releases harmful gases into the air, which causes pollution.

As we're becoming more aware of the impact that our travel is having on the planet, car engineers are having to develop cleaner, more sustainable solutions for the future.

To be sustainable, vehicles should be manufactured, that means the way they're made, in a sustainable way, so we need to make sure that the process of making a vehicle doesn't damage the environment.

They need to use sustainable materials, so that's what the car is made from, needs to be something we can continue to use without damaging the environment.

It needs to use a clean fuel or power source, which, again, doesn't damage the environment.

And it needs to be easy to dispose of or recycle once we've finished using it so that it doesn't contribute to the waste that we create as humans on the planet.

A quick check then before we move on.

What's the main concern with modern travel methods? Is it soil pollution, noise pollution, or air pollution? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well done if you said it was air pollution, exactly, it's those gases that are released by those combustion engines that are released into the air, and that's the concern modern travel has.

Now electric and hybrid vehicle cars have become more common in recent years.

Electric cars are powered by batteries that are charged using electricity.

Hybrid electric cars have both an electric battery and a combustion engine, and this helps to reduce pollution compared to cars that only use fuel and a combustion engine.

So this is one way that engineers are thinking about the future and the way we can start to reduce our air pollution.

Other forms of transport, such as trains and buses, have also been redesigned to run on electricity.

And whilst these methods do cause less air pollution than vehicles with combustion engines, they still have an impact on the environment.

So it's a first step, but we're still recognising that they still have an impact.

Environmental impacts includes the manufacturing or making of these vehicles uses natural resources and can cause pollution, so the factories that are building these new vehicles are still causing pollution.

And the disposal of the vehicles, that means getting rid of them once they're finished with, is also a problem because not all of the parts of the vehicles can be recycled, so they become waste that we find difficult to get rid of.

So it is a first step that engineers are taking into trying to make our travel more sustainable, but there are still problems with these new methods as well.

A quick check then, what is sustainable travel? So what do we mean by that phrase? Do we mean methods of transport that don't impact the environment? Do we mean methods of transport that get us around quickly? Or do we mean methods of transport that use electricity? What is sustainable travel? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well, sustainable travel is a method of transport that doesn't impact the environment in a negative way.

It could be a vehicle that uses electricity but there are other alternatives as well, so well done if you got that right.

Okay, future engineers, this is your chance to have some brilliant ideas to help those car engineers think about travel in the future.

I would like you to imagine how we might travel in the future.

I want you to use your creativity to design a new method of transport that is both futuristic, so that means something that doesn't exist yet, but is also sustainable, so it won't damage the environment, it'll be much more beneficial for humans to use in the future.

I want you to think about how it will be powered, so how will it move? What will it be made from? So what type of materials can we make vehicles out of that will be easier to recycle or easier to reuse for other things? And what will it look like? So you can go crazy here, these are your ideas of what may come in the future.

And Andeep is saying here that you might base your design on an existing vehicle, but equally, you may come up with something completely new that we've not seen before.

Pause the video while you have a go at this task and I look forward to seeing your ideas when you come back.

Welcome back, how are you getting on? I bet there are some great ideas going on in your classroom.

But it's time for the second part of this task.

So now you've got your idea, I would like you to present it to a group or to your partner and I want you to explain to them how your design will be more sustainable than current vehicles.

How will it be better as a design for the future? You can start your explanation by saying, "My design is more sustainable because.

." And that shows that you're going to give some reasons why your design is better.

And I want you to see if they agree with you.

Do they agree that your design is more sustainable? And can they tell you why or why not? Can they explain to you what they think is good or not so good about your design? So you're going to have a conversation about these futuristic designs.

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

Welcome back.

Wow, lots of good discussions going on there about those new designs and how they will be better for the future.

Now, Andeep has imagined what a sustainable vehicle of the future might look like and here is his design idea, and he's thinking that we might use air to power vehicles in the future.

That would certainly be a much cleaner alternative to the fuel used in combustion engines today.

And he agrees that that would not cause pollution.

And the air could also make the car fly, so Andeep's thinking about the way our vehicles might move in the future.

And that means we wouldn't need rubber tyres, and that's another thing that can be difficult to recycle, difficult to dispose of when they are finished with.

And he's also thinking that the car could drive itself.

So lots of good ideas from Andeep there, I'm sure you had some equally good ideas, futuristic ideas for those vehicles.

Well done for completing that task.

We are at the end of the lesson now and we've learned a lot today about those very early car engineers, particularly female car engineers, and where we might go in the future with car design.

We've learned that Dorothee Pullinger was an Edwardian car engineer, so that means she lived at the early part of the 20th century, that's when she was doing her work.

Car engineers today adapt for the modern world and they're developing more sustainable travel, so better ways of getting around the planet.

Electric cars are that first step that we've seen towards making more sustainable travel and they can cause less pollution than petrol or diesel cars.

And there may be some even better sustainable methods of transports in the future that car engineers have not even come up with yet.

Who knows? Maybe one of your designs may even make its way into our streets in the future.

Thank you for joining me for this lesson today.

I've really enjoyed learning about car engineering with you.

I hope to see you again in another lesson, but goodbye for now.