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A CASE FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE
Design and Technology
D & T is divided into 13 sections, each section has associated Teachers' Guide and, where applicable, a corresponding Student Activity Sheet. The Teachers' Guide give clear guidance on how each activity may be conducted with links with the National Curriculum and opportunities for further study.
Within this subject are a number of activities which use the countryside as a backdrop to providing teachers and pupils with a range of ways of covering the design and technology syllabus. Several (numbers 1-10) use 'country' material or relate to specific countryside problems. Others (numbers 11-13) use the countryside as a context, for example for health and safety related activity.
The same approach is used for each unit, providing the teacher with a framework for developing other activities and creating their own units. Each one includes suggested starting points, practical tasks and assignments as well as the extension activities. The key experiences, vocabulary and resources used are identified and the relationship to the National Curriculum clearly identified with helpful questions for assessing activity outcomes.
Illustrated student activity sheets designed to be photocopied are provided for most of the units and generally give some background information as well as outlining the method for carrying out the activity brief. The format for these is, again, similar so that teachers can use existing examples to create their own student sheets where they feel this is necessary.
1. Bee Creative
There are a wealth of different crafts practised throughout the countryside, many having been developed over several centuries. Lip work, a simple form of basketry is an example. In this activity, construction techniques are developed through the production of an artefact using traditional methods: the manufacture of a Skep, a woven basket historically used as a beehive.
2. Waxing Lyrical
Many of the commercial products that are available on supermarket shelves have been developed from natural products which have been used for generations. In this activity, students manufacture a wax based polish made from natural materials and compare its uses and limitations with those of modern counterparts.
3. A Sticky Business
A variant on above theme: in this case producing glue from natural resins.
4. Drawing from the Trees
Charcoal has been an important product of our woodlands throughout the ages. Its uses have varied from generating heat for the first furnaces to acting as filters in chemical warfare protective clothing. Within this activity students have the opportunity to explore the various production techniques and uses of charcoal, and to manufacture artists' charcoal on a small scale.
5. Fencing the Woodland Way
The design of enclosures varies considerably throughout the British Isles. Local styles evolved as a result of available materials and inherited building techniques. In this activity the importance of function is considered and how a design may be proposed which uses natural materials.
6. From Fleece to Fabric
As our society becomes more urbanised and dislocated from natural processes, it is important that people make clear associations between the product and its source. In this activity, students process a sheep's fleece from its natural state into a usable piece of fabric, through the stages of carding, spinning, dyeing and weaving.
7. H2O Flow
Water is one of the few essential requirements of living things and is also an important requirement of many manufacturing industries. The large demand for water causes it to be of great value and therefore its control is very important. In the countryside vast amounts of water are used for irrigation and in this activity the student is asked to design a measuring device which will control the amount of water delivered by an irrigation system.
8. Say "Cheese"
Cheese was originally discovered by Arabs storing milk in pouches made from goat stomach linings, where rennet in the lining reacted with the milk to form a basic cheese. Cheese making has been a traditional countryside activity for centuries. In this activity students produce their own cheese, discovering what is involved with small scale manufacture and compare results with commercially available cheeses, investigating how various effects have been achieved.
9. Where there's Dough
The average family's association with bread has changed from the weekly ritual of baking bread for the rest of the week, to the weekly ritual of taking bread off the supermarket shelves. As so many different people buy bread from the supermarket, each of whom have different tastes, the supermarket bakers have to decide what type of bread to bake, how much of each type and how much they can charge for it. In this activity students have to simulate this task by researching, designing, manufacturing, packaging and costing a product to suit market tastes.
10. Whirring Worzel
The scarecrow is a popular image of the countryside but, for the farmer, effectiveness is of more use than aesthetics. In this activity students can apply their ingenuity to the problem of scaring birds electronically, using a moving device.
11. Signs of the Times
We encounter all kinds of signs every day, from the road signs on the way to school in the morning to the name plate on the toilet door. Imagine the plight of someone who came into a building looking for a particular office, where there were no signs and nobody to ask. The only possible course of action would be to check each and every door. The same problem exists in the countryside where visitors are unsure whether they can use certain paths and do not necessarily know how to get where they want to go. A well distributed, clear and succinct sign system can alleviate many of these problems. In this activity students design the means by which helpful information can be provided for visitors to tourist spots.
12. Be Seen, Be Safe
Health and Safety Executive statistics show that not being clearly visible in a farming environment is a serious safety risk. Each year injuries occur as a result of machine operators being unaware of other people's presence. In this activity students are made aware of the dangers involved in farming and produce a garment which mitigates the risk of being unseen and also allows farm workers to carry out their job unimpeded by the garment.
13. Built to Survive
Many young people in this age group participate in outdoor leisure pursuits and need to be prepared for any unexpected event by carrying an emergency kit. This activity encourages pupils to develop their own evaluative skills, particularly around existing products; from which new designs of their own may be generated and produced.
Downloads
To download the Teacher Guide for all the above exercises as a word document click here - 330k
To download the Teacher Guide for all the above exercises as a pdf document click here - 323k
To download the Student Activity Sheets for exercises 1-6, 8-9 and 12
as a word document click here - 847k
To download the Student Activity Sheets for exercises 1-6, 8-9 and 12
as a pdf document click here - 827k