Digital technologies / Year 7 and 8 / Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Curriculum content descriptions

Define and decompose real-world problems taking into account functional requirements and economic, environmental, social, technical and usability constraints (ACTDIP027)

Elaborations
  • determining the factors that influence proposed solution ideas, for example user age affects the language used for instructions, dexterity affects the size of buttons and links, hearing or vision loss influence captioned or audio-described multimedia as alternative ways that common information is presented on a website
  • investigating types of environmental constraints of solutions, for example reducing energy consumption and on-screen output of solutions
  • identifying that problems can be decomposed into sub elements, for example creating a decision tree to represent the breakdown and relationships of sub elements to the main problem or identifying the elements of game design such as characters, movements, collisions and scoring
  • starting from a simplified system, gradually increase complexity until a model of a real-world system is developed, and record the difficulties associated with each stage of implementation
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT capability Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Information and communication technologies,  Problem solving,  Functionality,  Usability

Interactive

Design thinking across the curriculum

This cross-curriculum resource is designed to introduce Stage 2, 3 and 4 students to the design thinking process through a series of videos and interactive activities. This resource is also downloadable as a SCORM file: the downloaded version will only work if you upload it to a webserver, such as Moodle or Canvas.

Online

Computational thinking

Find out about Computational thinking. Use this topic from the Digital Technologies Hub to learn more, get ideas about how to teach about it, find out what other schools are doing and use the applications and games in the classroom.

Online

Design thinking

Find out about Design thinking. Use this topic from the Digital Technologies Hub to learn more, get ideas about how to teach about it, find out what other schools are doing and use the applications and games in the classroom.

Online

Robotics and embedded systems

This is a unit for Year 8 from the Scope and sequence resources from the DT Hub. The topic of creating a digital solution is organised into four key elements. Use this flow of activities to plan and assess students against the relevant achievement standards. Students follow the problem solving process to design and create ...

Online

Data bias in AI

Artificial intelligence can sometimes be biased to certain shapes or colours. When such AI systems are applied to situations that involve people, then this bias can manifest itself as bias against skin colour or gender. This lesson explores bias in AI, where it comes from and what can be done to prevent it.

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Book analysis with AI techniques

This learning sequence explores text analysis through Natural Language Processing, a significant application of Artificial Intelligence. Teachers and students are led through a series of video tutorials to develop a Python program that can break down and analyse the content of a complete text and use smart sentiment analysis ...

Online

Sphero young inventors

In this lesson students will explore the use of Sphero in the everyday world by adding accessories to invent solutions to workplace or other problems or simply by inventing an adaptation to the device. In each case, they are to build the accessory and create the code required for the device to serve a particular purpose. ...

Online

Lilypad Personalised Alert Buzzer

In this lesson students will create a personalised musical buzzer by programming the LilyPad Arduino to play a sound using the Main board, Buzzer and Button, coding the note frequency in Arduino IDE. The lesson can be extended to include LED’s that light up or flash according to the note played to enable the buzzer to be ...

Online

There can only be one

In this lesson sequence students write a simple suite of programs that can be used to facilitate an S.R.C. election though the collection and processing of data. It assumes that students have been introduced to Python programming language.

Interactive

Refugees welcome here

This resource embeds the use of online collaboration tools and 21st century learning skills in a student-centered hands-on project designed to welcome refugees into their community. The syllabus outcomes are aligned to NSW Stage 4 English, Geography or Visual Arts but this could be used with older or younger students by ...

Video

Connecting Digital Technologies to food and fibre - Smart gardens 1

This video explores ways in which students can develop and apply their Digital Technologies knowledge, understanding and skills to create a digital solution through the Curriculum connection of food and fibre. The video is designed for educators who would like to learn how to use a BBC micro:bit to manage the water requirements ...

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Micro:bit missions: Take a chance on me (Integrating Mathematics): years 6-8

This resource comprises two activities that allow students to explore the concept of chance in Mathematics. Students use computational thinking while using a micro:bit as a digital system to generate and collect data. Students implement programs involving branching and iteration in visual and general-purpose programming languages.

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Classroom ideas: Micro:bit environmental measurement (visual and general-purpose programming): years 5-8

This tutorial shows ways in which environmental factors such as lighting and temperature can be measured and improved using micro:bits and sensor boards, and programmed using pseudocode, visual programming and general-purpose programming.

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Data knowledge and skills tutorial: part 4 - analysing and visualising data

This video demonstrates ways in which data can be analysed and visualised. It is the final in a series of four.

Video

Expert webinar video: Professor Tim Bell – Computational thinking

In this video, Professor Tim Bell discusses helpful ways of understanding and teaching computational thinking, a key idea of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies.

Video

Expert webinar video: Jennifer Hemer: Tasmanian Smart Seafood Partnership

Jennifer Hemer from Natural Resource Management Tasmania explains what's happening in the seafood industry in her state and how digital technologies are used to make the industry more sustainable.

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Faith Lutheran College – Project proposal

This PDF outlines Faith Lutheran College's proposal to participate in the Digital Technologies in Focus project.

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Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies Years 7-8 Sample Assessment Task: Digital Systems

The Years 7-8 assessment task focuses on digital systems (integrating Digital Technologies and Science). The digital systems assessment task provides a scaffold to teach about and assess students’ understanding of how digital systems can be used to monitor the classroom learning environment. learn how to create environmental ...

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Computational thinking cut out cards

This set of printable cards provides definitions of six aspects of computational thinking.

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Creating a digital start line and finish line with micro:bits: years 7-8

This PDF provides a sequence of activities in which students create algorithms to measure the time taken for a vehicle to travel from a starting line to a finish line. Students connect micro:bits and laser receiver sensors to measure time, then create programs to undertake the timing using visual and general-purpose programming.