Technology
Most of the objects that we use every day have been designed by someone. Design is all around us. It is what drew you to the last piece of clothing you purchased and it’s what attracts you to different food at the local café. Design has made mobile phones smaller and faster and Kylie Minogue a household name. Design decisions impact on nearly every part of our lives, be it the house we live in, the way we get to the beach or how we go about taking the lid off the Vegemite jar.
Designing is not limited to those individuals who are employed as professional designers. It is important to realize that we all design as part of our day-to-day lives. The Technology KLA provides many opportunities for students to work with the design process. Students will have the chance to combine their understanding of numerous materials, tools and techniques with the design process to produce many and varied quality design solutions.
There are four contexts available at Wynnum State High School to explore the key concepts of design within a technology framework. These are:
- Graphics
- Practical workshop
- Living Technology
- Business Technology
Graphics
The origin of graphic communication can be traced to the earliest cave dwellers. Their recorded messages can still be seen in protected sites around the world. The word “graphics” means the art or science of drawing by mathematical principles. The technical aspects of graphic communication grew from the need for early craftsmen, and later, engineers, designers, architects and builders, to convey to each other clearly and concisely, technical information about real things or ideas.
Any person aspiring to work in the related fields of engineering and building must clearly understand the technical language of graphics. All through life we are bombarded by technical drawings, be it when buying a house, car or when studying the assembly instructions of a model car or flat pack furniture.
This course is concerned with the development of an understanding of the basic principles of graphics and to develop a student’s ability to solve problems using these principles.
Practical Workshops
How many times have you touched something made from timber today? Perhaps you walked barefoot on floorboards, opened timber doors, windows, cupboards or drawers, sat on a chair or at a table or a desk made from wood; played a stringed or woodwind instrument; stirred a pot with a wooden spoon; traveled on a wooden ferry; emptied the shavings from a pencil sharpener; or had a hit with a cricket bat or hockey stick?
Metals form about a quarter of the weight of the Earth’s crust. They are strong, opaque and good conductors of electricity. Without metals, we wouldn’t have large structures such as buildings, bridges, railway lines, factory machinery, jet planes or spacecraft. Yet many metals are so easily shaped that they can be made into tiny pieces of jewellery or sculptures that appear very delicate. Metals are also very durable – bells cast centuries ago still ring true.
Which material is strong, lightweight, sometimes transparent, sometimes black, also bright colours, can be moulded into any shape, often imitates other materials such as leather and silk, is cheap to produce and can be recycled? The answer is the synthetic (manufactured) material we know as plastic. All plastics are polymers and we can’t do without them. Polymers can be made into many different things: car and bike tyres, food containers, drink bottles, kitchen bench tops and much more.
These three materials are explored throughout the units of study known collectively as Practical workshop. The principles of design are applied to produce articles that use one or more of these materials to form a basis of understanding how important they are in everyday life.
Living Technology
People cannot live without food and for many eating is an enjoyable daily routine. Food also has cultural and social significance, reflecting national origins and bringing families and friends together. Food often plays a central part in celebrations.
Food design can mean deciding what ingredients to put in tonight’s stir-fry, developing new food products, designing a menu, formulating recipes and even arranging food to enhance its visual appeal. We consume few foods in their natural state; most must be cooked, combined or arranged to make them more palatable. The decisions we make during these processes are food design.
Business Technology
Our world relies on technology for information and communication. The ‘digital age’ or ‘information revolution’ enables us to access and process information speedily, anytime and almost anywhere. There are computer systems in homes, schools, hospitals and the travel industry, at major sporting events, in entertainment business, in banks and supermarkets and in many other places. Information technologies consist of computer hardware and software. Together they allow us to acquire, process, modify, store, present, retrieve and communicate information.
Business technology units enable individuals to access, construct and publish information for particular purposes and audiences. It draws on the disciplines of computer science, graphics and commerce to develop communication products using a variety of software.
Senior Technology Subjects 2010 [816kb]
