Future thinking: passion, engagement and knowledge

Design and Technology Week a success

Northcote High School students were engaged in another fun filled week of celebrating the Design and Technology learning area.

During the week our students could be found constructing personal projects in Makerspace, hunting down the school programmable drone, watching inspirational videos in tutorial and learning about study and career opportunities in design and engineering.

Our main event was the student and parent information evening – Design & Engineering on the Move - the Present & Future of the Automotive Industry.  It was a full house and the level of insight we gained into a very secretive industry was amazing.

What was even more astonishing was the depth of understanding and thought-provoking questions that our students had for our guest speakers: Senior Designer for Ford and Automotive Design lecturer at Monash University Mark Johnson and an engineer for the Society of Automotive Engineers Australia, Sid Sheth.

Mark shared this comment with us recently by email.

“When I got home on Tuesday night it really occurred to me that while it's interesting to present what is happening with production cars today there is also real passion, engagement and knowledge on where the future of mobility lies with topics such as autonomy and electrification.

The quality of questions and the knowledge your students presented makes me pleasantly surprised. This was a great professional experience for me, when I go back to Monash I will structure the learning to better reflect where their interests are. There has been a real lack of engagement from the younger generation with the vehicles of today because they can't relate to them. I see it at uni and now it's confirmed on a school level. It's old basic technology to them (which is fundamentally true). So there will be a lot more talk about "smart" vehicles in the future!”

Another great example of Northcote helping to shape the future through design and technology. Hope to see you all at our info events next year!

Peter Murphy

Head of Design Faculty