NSC Senior School Subject Selection Handbook

VCE: Technologies

Applied Computing, Food Studies, Product Design and Technologies: Fabric or Wood

Applied Computing

Unit 1

This unit focuses on introducing students to problem-solving methodologies, emphasising the use of data within software tools like databases and spreadsheets for creating visualisations, and developing working software solutions with object-oriented programming (OOP). Through data analysis in Area of Study 1, students create charts and maps, and develop databases and spreadsheets, applying data manipulation and validation techniques. In programming-focused Area of Study 2, they use an OOP language to design, test, and debug software solutions, incorporating data structures and validation. The curriculum combines computational and design thinking across both areas to equip students with practical and analytical skills.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Data Analysis
  • Programming

Unit 2

This unit delves into developing innovative solutions for identified problems, needs, or opportunities, and understanding network environments alongside cyber security risks, including strategies to mitigate these risks. In Area of Study 1, students collaborate to select a topic, apply problem-solving methodologies, and create innovative solutions ranging from concepts to prototypes. Area of Study 2 introduces students to cyber security through the exploration of networks, threats, and protective strategies, emphasizing the application of legal and ethical standards. Throughout, students utilise computational, design, and systems thinking to approach both innovative solution development and cyber security analysis.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Innovative solutions
  • Cyber security

Unit 1 & 2 Assessments (suitable tasks may include):

  • An innovative solution that includes an analysis, designs, the development of a proof of concept/ prototype/product and an evaluation
  • A presentation (oral, multimedia, visual)
  • A written report
  • An annotated visual report
  • A teacher-provided case study with structured questions

Unit 3: Software Development

In this unit, students harness object-oriented programming (OOP) to develop working software modules, applying the problem-solving methodology specifically in the stages of analysis, design, and development. Area of Study 1 concentrates on programming, where students create software modules in response to provided requirements, employing an OOP language for coding, validation, testing, and documentation. Area of Study 2 prepares students for the School-Assessed Task (SAT), focusing on identifying community-based problems, needs, or opportunities, planning the project, and designing a software solution. This unit emphasises computational and design thinking in developing functional software modules and in the analysis and design phases leading up to a comprehensive software solution.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Software Development: Programming
  • Software Development: Analysis and Design

Unit 4: Software Development

Students explore software solution creation for individual and organisational needs using object-oriented programming (OOP), while addressing cyber security risks stemming from insecure software development practices. Area of Study 1 involves refining and developing the preferred design from Unit 3 into a functional software solution, applying development and evaluation stages, including testing and project assessment. This stage culminates in the School-Assessed Task (SAT). In Area of Study 2, the focus shifts to analysing and evaluating an organisation's software development and security practices, identifying risks, and recommending enhancements to foster secure development environments. Throughout, students apply computational, and systems thinking to develop, assess, and secure software solutions, ensuring they meet specified needs and mitigate security vulnerabilities.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Software Development: Development and Evaluation
  • Cyber security: secure software development practices

Unit 3 & 4 Assessments (suitable tasks may include):

  • In response to teacher-provided solution requirements and designs, develop working modules with increasing complexity of programming skills
  • structured questions
  • a report (multimedia or written)
  • case study scenarios
  • a folio of design ideas

External Assessment

The level of achievement for Units 3 & 4 is also assessed by an end-of-year examination.

Food Studies

Unit 1: Food origins

In this unit students focus on food from historical and cultural perspectives and investigate the origins and roles of food through time and across the world. In Area of Study 1 students explore how humans have historically sourced their food, examining the general progression from hunter-gatherer to rural-based agriculture, to today’s urban living and global trade in food. Students consider the origins and significance of food through inquiry into one particular food-producing region of the world.

 

In Area of Study 2 students focus on Australia. They look at Australian indigenous food prior to European settlement and how food patterns have changed since, particularly through the influence of food production, processing and manufacturing industries and immigration. Students investigate cuisines that are part of Australia’s culinary identity today and reflect on the concept of an Australian cuisine.

 

Students consider the influence of innovations, technologies, and globalisation on food patterns. Throughout this unit they complete topical and contemporary practical activities to enhance, demonstrate and share their learning with others.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Food around the world
  • Food in Australia

Unit 2: Food makers

In this unit students investigate food systems in contemporary Australia. Area of Study 1 focuses on commercial food production industries, while Area of Study 2 looks at food production in domestic and small-scale settings, as both a comparison and complement to commercial production. Students gain insight into the significance of food industries to the Australian economy and investigate the capacity of industry to provide safe, high-quality food that meets the needs of consumers.

 

Students use practical skills and knowledge to produce foods and consider a range of evaluation measures to compare their foods to commercial products. They consider the effective provision and preparation of food in the home and analyse the benefits and challenges of developing and using practical food skills in daily life. In demonstrating their practical skills, students design new food products and adapt recipes to suit particular needs and circumstances. They consider the possible extension of their role as small-scale food producers by exploring potential entrepreneurial opportunities.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Australia’s food systems
  • Food in the home

Unit 1 & 2 Assessments (suitable tasks may include):

  • A reflection on three practical activities and records of two practical activities per unit
  • Short written report such as media analysis, research inquiry, historical timeline, comparative food-testing analysis, or product evaluation
  • Oral presentation / practical demonstration
  • Structured questions

Unit 3: Food in daily life

In this unit students investigate the many roles and everyday influences of food. Area of Study 1 explores the science of food: our physical need for it and how it nourishes and sometimes harms our bodies. Students investigate the science of food appreciation, the physiology of eating and digestion, and the role of diet on gut health. They analyse the scientific evidence, including nutritional rationale, behind the healthy eating recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (see www.eatforhealth.gov.au), and develop their understanding of diverse nutrient requirements.

 

Area of Study 2 focuses on influences on food choices: how communities, families and individuals change their eating patterns over time and how our food values and behaviours develop within social environments. Students inquire into the role of food in shaping and expressing identity and connectedness, and the ways in which food information can be filtered and manipulated. They investigate behavioural principles that assist in the establishment of lifelong, healthy dietary patterns.

 

Practical activities enable students to understand how to plan and prepare food to cater for various dietary needs through the production of everyday food that facilitates the establishment of nutritious and sustainable meal patterns.

 

Areas of Study:

  • The Science of Food
  • Food Choice, Health and Wellbeing

Unit 4: Food issues, challenges and futures

In this unit students examine debates about Australia’s food systems as part of the global food systems and describe key issues relating to the challenge of adequately feeding a rising world population.

 

In Area of Study 1 students focus on individual responses to food information and misinformation and the development of food knowledge, skills, and habits to empower consumers to make discerning food choices. They also consider the relationship between food security, food sovereignty and food citizenship. Students consider how to assess information and draw evidence-based conclusions, and apply this methodology to navigate contemporary food fads, trends, and diets. They practise and improve their food selection skills by interpreting food labels and analysing the marketing terms used on food packaging.

 

In Area of Study 2 students focus on issues about the environment, climate, ecology, ethics, farming practices, including the use and management of water and land, the development and application of innovations and technologies, and the challenges of food security, food sovereignty, food safety and food wastage. They research a selected topic, seeking clarity on current situations and points of view, considering solutions, and analysing work undertaken to solve problems and support sustainable futures. The focus of this unit is on food issues, challenges, and futures in Australia.

 

Practical activities provide students with opportunities to apply their responses to environmental and ethical food issues, reflect on healthy eating recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, and consider how food selections and food choices can optimise human and planetary health.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Navigating Food Information
  • Environment and Ethics

Unit 3 & 4 Assessments (suitable tasks may include):

  • A reflection on three practical activities and records of two practical activities per area of study
  • Short written report
  • Case study analysis
  • Media and statistical data analysis
  • Research inquiry
  • Structured questions

External Assessment

The level of achievement for Units 3 & 4 is also assessed by an end-of-year examination, contributing 40% of the final assessment.

Production Design and Technologies: Fabric or Wood

Unit 1: Design practices

This unit focuses on the work of designers across relevant specialisations in product design. Students explore how designers collaborate and work in teams; they consider the processes that designers use to conduct research and the techniques they employ to generate ideas and design products. In doing this, they practise using their critical, creative, and speculative thinking strategies. When creating their own designs, students use appropriate drawing systems – both manual and digital – to develop graphical product concepts. They also experiment with materials, tools and processes to prototype and propose physical product concepts.

 

In this unit, students analyse and evaluate existing products and current technological innovations in product design. They achieve this through understanding the importance of a design brief, learning about factors that influence design, and using the Double Diamond design approach as a framework.

 

In their practical work, students explore and test materials, tools, and processes available to them in order to work technologically, and they practise safe skill development when creating an innovative product. This is achieved through the development of graphical product concepts and the use of prototypes to explore and propose physical product concepts.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Developing and conceptualising designs
  • Generating, designing and producing

Unit 2: Positive impacts for end users

Designers should look outward, both locally and globally, to research the diverse needs of end users. They should explore how inclusive product design solutions can support belonging, access, usability, and equity. In this unit, students specifically examine social and/or physical influences on design. They formulate a profile of an end user(s), research and explore the specific needs or opportunities of the end user(s) and make an inclusive product that has a positive impact on belonging, access, usability and/or equity.

 

Students also explore cultural influences on design. They develop an awareness of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples design and produce products, how sustainable design practices care for Country, and how traditions and culture are acknowledged in contemporary designs. Students also have opportunities to make connections to personal or other cultural heritages.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Opportunities for positive impacts for end users
  • Designing for positive impacts for end users
  • Cultural influences on design

Unit 1 & 2 Assessments (suitable tasks may include):

  • multimodal record of evidence of research, development and conceptualisation of products addressing a need or opportunity related to positive impacts for the end user(s)
  • practical work: demonstration of graphical and physical product concepts including prototyping and making final proof of concept along with the finished product addressing a need or opportunity related to positive impacts for the end user(s)
  • case study analysis or research inquiry of a designer and end user(s) that explores the influence of culture in product design

Unit 3: Ethical product design and development

In this unit students research a real personal, local, or global need or opportunity with explicit links to ethical considerations. They conduct research to generate product concepts and a final proof of concept for a product solution that addresses the need(s) or opportunities of the end user(s).

 

Product designers respond to current and future social, economic, environmental, or other ethical considerations. This unit focuses on the analysis of available materials in relation to sustainable practices, tensions between manufacturing and production, modern industrial and commercial practices, and the lifecycles of products from sustainability or worldview perspectives.

 

Students plan to develop an ethical product through a problem-based design approach, starting with a need or opportunity and using a design process and testing to problem-solve. The design brief, product concepts and the final proof of concept are developed through the Double Diamond design approach, using design thinking. Students undertake the role of a designer to generate, analyse and critique product concepts, with the chosen product concept becoming the final proof of concept. Throughout a design process, the product concepts and the final proof of concept are evaluated using relevant factors that influence product design and shaped using design thinking. Students learn about ethical research methods when investigating and defining their design need and/or opportunity and generating and designing their product concepts.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Influences on design, development and production of products
  • Investigating opportunities for ethical design and production
  • Developing a final proof of concept for ethical production

Unit 4: Production and evaluation of ethical designs

In this unit students continue to work as designers throughout the production process. They observe safe work practices in their chosen design specialisations by refining their production skills using a range of materials, tools, and processes.

 

Students collect, analyse, interpret, and present data, use ethical research methods, and engage with end user(s) to gain feedback and apply their research and findings to the production of their designed solution. Students also focus on how speculative design thinking can encourage research, product development and entrepreneurial activity through the investigation and analysis of examples of current, emerging, and future technologies and market trends.

 

Areas of Study:

  • Managing production for ethical designs
  • Evaluation and speculative design

Unit 3 & 4 Assessments (suitable tasks may include):

  • Any one or a combination of: data analysis, product analysis or research inquiry
  • multimodal record of evidence that records: formulation of a design brief and gathering evidence of research that explores market needs or opportunities; generation, design, and evaluation of product concepts; justification of final proof of concept; scheduled production plan, including progress during the production process and decisions and modifications made to the scheduled production plan
  • practical work that demonstrates: use of technologies to develop physical product concepts including prototypes and finished product management of time and other resources.

External Assessment

The level of achievement for Units 3 & 4 is also assessed by an end-of-year examination, contributing 30% of the final assessment.