Planning a New Level 2 Course with Year 12 students

In a bid to focus in on my NCEA Level 2 course to
improve the results for Year 12 students, I have
decided to assess the course as it is now and make changes for next year.
At the moment, the course is split into 3 parts :-

1. Researching a design era
2. Using the design era to design product
3. Design a sleep out using a shipping container

I have discussed this with some of my Level 2 students this year, and they have said that the sudden change of direction on the 3rd part of the course has been disruptive to them. They had got into their design era work and produced a product design based on that. They then have had to get their head around a totally different subject for the sleep out design.

There is a standard that I have not included in the course so far, which is AS91343, "Use visual communication techniques to compose a presentation of a design". I wondered whether this standard could be introduced instead of the spatial design standard. The students could then present the work that they have done for the design era and the product design project.

When I suggested this to my Year 12 students today, they were very keen on this idea as this would continue the theme but with a slightly different focus on the actual work.

We also looked at a couple of generic technology standards that can run alongside this work so the year overall is starting to look like this.

2017 Planning

Level 2 DVC

 

Term	Work	Standard	Credits
Term 1	Brief development with client.	Tech AS91354	4
	Design era research	DVC AS91340	3
Term 2	Product Design Project using the design era research to influence the design.	Tech AS91356	6
		DVC AS91342	6
Term 3	Presentation of all work.	DVC AS91343	4
			23 internal
Term 3+4	Orthographic drawing of final lighting design	DVC AS91338	4
All terms	Design drawings and notes	DVC AS91337	3
			7 external

I am hoping that this will give time to include AS91338 in term time as we have run out of time for this one this year. Being able to understand and produce orthographic drawings is a good design skill to have.

The next thing we discussed today was what design era to offer. I have focussed in on Art Deco as rule. I have tried giving the students free choice. That was a disaster. I have tried offering a small choice of 3. That was not too successful as they kept flipping from one to another and changing their minds!! Maybe getting the suggestions for eras from the students will make a difference. I want them to have a choice as they need to look at this era for an extended period of time over the year so they need to like it.

Here is the results of the discussion today :-

Student 1

Pacific countries / Maori
Industrial revolution

Student 2
Steampunk
Star Wars
Japanese
Egyptian
Art Nouveau
1970's

Decided to focus in on

Pacific / Maori
Industrial revolution / steampunk
Art Deco
Japanese
Star Wars

I found it an interesting conversation around this decision and showed what the students were interested in.

A particularly interesting point was where the idea for the industrial revolution/steam punk era came from. It is apparently the theme used in a computer game that they play. This lead to a chat about game designers and the fact that they have come through art school training so have a background in design eras etc.

There is still Art Deco in there.... I kind of begged...

The day rounded up with me starting to put together a plan for the year, breaking down everything that needs to be completed against what standard is being covered.

Here is a part of it....work in progress !

The next talk with the boys needs to be about whether the flow of the work needs to follow and fit with the standards and the work needed to complete them or whether it can follow a design process path. As long as everything for the standards is covered, will a more natural workflow be a less disruptive way to work.

 I am really liking getting the students to help with the planning. It is opening up a new way of looking at things.