My Design Project

For my design project I am creating classroom desk storage made out of recycled everyday household items which would be a creative activity and a practical item for the lower Primary school students to use on a daily basis. Students can incorporate their personal interests outside of school into their design. By incorporating what students are passionate about into their design project will act as a natural motivator to engage the students in the activity. Students can make, for example their favourite animal, character, or anything from their imagination. In my example I have made a monster which was simply made out of a green shampoo bottle. The storage containers can be used on the students desks to hold their pencils/rubber/ruler, used at home for their own personal storage or even used as classroom storage which would be named and placed to the side of the room such as an paintbrush holder for each student in the arts and craft section. Students can bring in any recycled bottle, bag or container from home that their parents and themselves might use on a daily basis such as a milo, coffee, or Pringles container. If I were to teach this unit in a classroom I would incorporate it into Health and Physical education unit and Design an Arts as I can focus on the importance of recycling and how using creativity skills can effectively change an item and recycle for better use. I would lean towards the Year 3-4 age groups for this activity as it requires your imagination and arts and crafts hands on practical work.

Concept mapping is a powerful learning tool in the facilitation of meaningful learning because it serves as a template to aid in the organization and structuring of knowledge even though this knowledge is built up piece by piece. The benefits of using concept maps in a classroom environment is that it visually illustrates the relationships between concepts and ideas.
 They benefit a students learning by: 

•  Helping students brainstorm and generate new ideas
•  Encouraging students to discover new concepts 
•  Allowing students to more clearly communicate ideas, thoughts and information
•  Helping students integrate new concepts with older concepts
•  Enabling students to gain enhanced knowledge of any topic and evaluate the information.

My design meets the following needs of the Year 3 and 4 Design and Technology scope of the curriculum.

Learning in Design and Technologies builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit, strengthen and extend these as needed. Students will have the opportunity to create designed products, services and environments incorporating the technologies contexts of engineering principles and systems, food and fibre production and food specialisations and materials and technologies specialisations. In Year 3 and 4 students develop a sense of self and ownership of their ideas and thinking about their peers and communities and as consumers. They become aware of the role of those working in design and technologies occupations and how they think about the way a product might change in the future.
 
References:
Australian Curriculum,. (2015). Design and Technologies Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum by rows - The Australian Curriculum v7.4. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/design-and-technologies/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#level3-4


Identifying a Problem

A problem that I think may occur during the making of my design will be if students have difficulty cutting the plastic as it can be hard and sometimes difficult to cut straight as it is on a curve (shampoo bottle). If this were to occur, a student may need help from the teacher to cut their bottles.