Technology News
Design Technology
The year has started well in Design Technology with the students being productive and creatively designing their projects. Classes in the new STEM Centre are full of calm and engaged students who are really enjoying the opportunities the new facility brings.
Year 7 have started their Design Technology journey by working collaboratively to design, build and evaluate a straw bridge. The whole year level has been competing to construct their bridge to hold the greatest possible weight using only 50 paper straws and 5 metres of masking tape.
Many designs have been constructed, some utilising Beams, Arches and Cantilevers. However, the strongest designs all incorporated Trusses in the form of multiple triangles.
Commendation is given to the team named Crispin in third place, holding a mass of 2075g and MFM Designs in second place with 2200g.
The winning team; Ruffs Eggs, made up of Willow, Tereni, Nessa and Zee managed to hold 3350g, and still hadn’t collapsed, an amazing feat. Well done to all of Year 7 for constructing some fantastic bridges and setting the bar extremely high for next year’s students.
Term 2 in Design Technology, we will be moving on to designing and building our own wooden box, and look forward to presenting the best products in our next newsletter.
The Year 8 students are also working in teams to design a sustainable beach house and then build a scale model of it. In the electives they are making enamelled copper bowls, constructing wooden chopping boards, also building and coding robots to meet challenges.
The Year 9 metalwork students are welding a wire sculpture made of steel rod. The textiles students are learning how to hand stitch and use a sewing machine to make a bag. The digital design students are learning to use the laser cutter to make an acrylic phone dock. The resistant materials students are using a wide variety of materials to make a LED light that they designed. The electronics students are learning basic Arduino coding and soldering skills.
The Year 10 students are learning to use the metal lathe, cut with a jewellers saw and weld steel to make a weathervane. In digital design they are using the laser cutter to make a slot- jointed toy so they are designing in 3 dimensions.
The Year 11 Product Design & Technology students are modifying the design of a plant stand that has wood, steel rod and seagrass cord weaving. They will be making their plant stands later this semester. The Systems Engineering students are learning about simple machines, designing a mousetrap dragster, and starting its production.
The Year 12 Product Design & Technology students and Systems Engineering students are working on the design folio for their major piece of work that will be designed and built throughout the year.
The VCE Vocational Major students are making a wooden dart board where they learn a wide variety of woodworking skills.
Year 8 Food Elective - Food With Flair
Focaccia Art
Year 7 Food Studies
Our Year 7 Food Studies students are off to a great start this term. So far, we have learnt about food safety and hygiene, knife safety and stovetop safety. They did an awesome job demonstrating their learning in class while making Spaghetti Bolognaise and even had time to sit and enjoy eating in the sunshine. Well Done!
