Technology Group

Technology Courses at St Mary's College

Scroll down for descriptions of: 

• Food Studies
• Product Design and Technology

Food Studies

Course Description

VCE Food Studies takes an interdisciplinary approach to the exploration of food, with an emphasis on extending food knowledge and skills and building individual pathways to health and wellbeing through the application of practical food skills. VCE Food Studies provides a framework for informed and confident food selection and food preparation within today’s complex architecture of influences and choices. Students explore food from a wide range of perspectives. They study past and present patterns of eating, Australian and global food production systems and the many physical and social functions and roles of food. They research economic, environmental and ethical dimensions of food and critically evaluate information, marketing messages and new trends. Practical work is integral to Food Studies and includes cooking, demonstrations, creating and responding to design briefs, dietary analysis, food sampling and taste-testing, sensory analysis, product analysis and scientific experiments.

Course Structure

Unit 1 – Food Origins

This unit focuses on food from historical and cultural perspectives. Students investigate the origins and roles of food through time and across the world. In Area of Study 1 students explore how humanity has historically sourced its 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 particular food-producing regions of the world.

Area of Study

1. Food around the world
2. 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 small-scale domestic settings, as both a comparison and complement to commercial production.

Area of Study

1. Food Industries
2. Food in the home

Unit 3 – Food in daily life

In this unit students explain the processes of eating and digesting food, the utilisation of macronutrients and justify the science behind the Australian Dietary Guidelines. The study includes analysing the factors affecting food behaviours of individuals by examining the relationships between food access, values, beliefs and choices. This knowledge of the principles of nutrition and food behaviours is applied in practical activities to examine specific dietary needs and healthy meals for children and families.

Area of Study

1. The science of food
2. Food choice, health and wellbeing

Unit 4 – Food issues, challenges and futures

In this unit students address debates concerning Australian and global food systems in relation to environment, ethics, innovation and technology. They consider proposed solutions to solve and support sustainable futures for food access, safety and the use of agricultural resources.

Area of Study

1. Environment and ethics
2. Navigating food information

Entry and Recommendations

There are no prerequisites for entry to Units 1, 2 and 3. Students must undertake Unit 3 prior to undertaking Unit 4. Units 1 to 4 are designed to a standard equivalent to the final two years of secondary education.

Assessment

Satisfactory Completion

Demonstration of achievement of outcomes and satisfactory completion of a unit are determined by evidence gained through the assessment of a range of learning activities and tasks.

Level of Achievement

Unit 1 and 2

• Coursework – Unit 1 
  • Practical activities 
  • Report 
  • Presentation 
  • Examination
• Coursework – Unit 2
  • Design and develop food solutions for various settings
  • Practical activities 
  • Report 
  • Presentation 
  • Examination

Unit 3 and 4

• School-assessed coursework – Unit 3 (30%) 
  • Practical activities
  • Report 
  • Presentation
• School-assessed coursework – Unit 4 (30%) 
  • Practical activities
  • Report 
  • Presentation
• Examination (40%)

Product Design and Technology - Materials, Wood, Textiles

Course Description

Product design is a solution-focused approach that engages with the diverse needs and opportunities of individuals, society and the environment in which we live. Product designers aim to improve welfare, which includes quality of life, by designing innovative and ethical solutions. Product design is enhanced through knowledge of social, technological, economic, historical, ethical, legal, environmental and cultural factors. These factors influence the form, function and aesthetics of products.

Central to VCE Product Design and Technologies is a design process that encourages divergent and convergent thinking while engaging with a problem. The design brief identifies a real need or opportunity and provides scope for designing, making and evaluating. Investigation and research inform and aid the development of designed solutions that take the form of physical, three-dimensional products.

In VCE Product Design and Technologies students are designer-makers who design solutions that are innovative and ethical. As designer-makers, they learn about the design industry, teamwork and the collaborative nature of teams, entrepreneurial activities, innovative technologies and enterprise. The development of designed solutions requires speculative, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, numeracy, literacy, and technacy. Students participate in problem-based design approaches that trial, test, evaluate, critique and iterate product solutions. Students prototype and test using a variety of materials, tools and processes.

Knowledge and use of technological resources are integral to product design. Designers safely and sustainably transform materials into products using a range of materials, tools and processes. In this study, students gain an understanding of both traditional and new and emerging materials, tools and processes. They study and experience a variety of design specialisations and use a range of materials, tools and processes as they demonstrate technacy. 

Course Structure

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 practice safe skill development when creating an innovative product. 

Area of Study

1. Developing and conceptualising designs
2. Generating designing and producing

Unit 2 – Positive impacts for end users

As designers students will 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.

Area of Study

1. Opportunities for positive impacts for end users
2. Designing for positive impacts for end users
3. Cultural influences on 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. 

Area of Study

1. Influences on design, development and production of products 
2. Investigating opportunities for ethical design and production
3. 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.

Area of Study

1. Managing production for ethical designs
2. Evaluation and speculative design

Entry and Recommendations

There are no prerequisites for entry to Units 1, 2 & 3. Students must complete Unit 3 prior to Unit 4.

Assessment

Satisfactory Completion

Demonstration of achievement of outcomes and satisfactory completion of a unit are determined by evidence gained through the assessment of a range of learning activities and tasks.

Level of Achievement

Unit 1 and 2

Coursework – Unit 1 

• a multimodal record of evidence of research, development and conceptualisation of products as well as a reflection on collaboration, teamwork and ways to improve in the future 
• practical work: a demonstration of graphical and physical product concepts including prototyping and making final proof of concept along with a finished product
• Examination

Coursework – Unit 2 

• 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
• Examination

Unit 3 and 4

Coursework – Unit 3 

• case study analysis
• research inquiry
• data analysis
• oral presentation using multimedia: face-to-face or recorded as a video or podcast 
• product analysis

School assessed task – Unit 3 and 4

• 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 effectively and efficiently to safely make the product designed in Unit 3

Assessment – Unit 3 and Unit 4

• School assessed taskwork (SAT) 50% of the study score.
• School assessed coursework (SACs) 20% of the study score.
• Examination (30%) of the study score.