Design and technologies / Year 9 and 10 / Design and Technologies Knowledge and Understanding

Curriculum content descriptions

Critically analyse factors, including social, ethical and sustainability considerations, that impact on designed solutions for global preferred futures and the complex design and production processes involved (ACTDEK040)

Elaborations
  • evaluating design and technology professions and their contributions to society locally, nationally, regionally and globally, for example Aboriginal designers collaborating with international craftspeople for local enterprises
  • recognising the impact of past designed solutions and possible decisions when creating preferred futures, for example the design of public transport systems that use renewable energy and the design of rural communities to reduce fire risk
  • considering the factors that influence design and professional designers and technologists, including time, access to skills, knowledge, finance, expertise, for example Australian designers working with rapid prototyping manufacturers in China
  • explaining how product life cycle thinking can influence decision-making related to design and technologies, for example rethinking products to provide for re-use, selecting a material for a product that has a lower carbon footprint
  • critiquing mass production systems taking into account ethics and sustainability considerations, for example the mass production of food, clothing and shoes and why manufacturers produce different versions of the same product
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Personal and social capability Personal and social capability
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
ScOT terms

Human impact,  Designers,  Environmental sustainability,  Manufacturing processes,  Futures education,  Design

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Engineering is not just for maths geniuses!

You don't need to be a big maths brain to become an engineer. Listen as Ashwini Ranjithabalan from Women in Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) describes how her understanding of maths grew from her interest in engineering. Sometimes understanding how maths can provide solutions to problems in ...

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Spark: A better way to predict the spread of bushfires

In recent years, new technologies have helped us respond to natural disasters more quickly by providing up-to-date information as it becomes available. What if we could take this one step further with new technologies that can also predict disasters? Learn how Spark, which uses our existing knowledge of bushfire behaviours ...

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Imagining other uses for robotics technology

It's cool to program robots to play football, but there are many more useful applications for programming robots to react to what they are seeing. What are some of the examples David McKinnon gives? Can you think of some more examples?

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Introduction to Food Security

This is a video that defines and explores the concept of food security using animated illustrations, spoken commentary, and pauses for discussion. Identifying the accelerating growth of population and the proportion of people who are chronically hungry, it provides the United Nation's definition of food security and its ...

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Food and fibre production: an Aboriginal perspective

This resource investigates historical Australian Aboriginal agricultural production. Chapters include: Aboriginal agriculture- Firestick farming, Cultivation and cropping and aquaculture, Farming and living to the calendar, and the environmental impacts of firestick farming. Suggested answers document also available. The ...

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Future transport – air taxis

In this lesson, students learn about advanced air mobility, and explore the infrastructure requirements to adapt cities and towns for eVTOLs.

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Climate-resilient homes lesson

In this lesson, students explore how architects consider sustainability factors when designing innovative climate-resilient homes. Students then design their own climate-resilient home for a location of their choice. In their designs they are asked to consider many factors such as the climate of the location, orientation ...

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Engineering is futures-focused and multidisciplinary

In this lesson, students explore the multidisciplinary nature of contemporary engineering, and how engineering is pivotal to solving future challenges such as climate change, renewable energy and food security.

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Cotton Australia photo library

This is a library of freely reusable photos and videos of the modern Australian cotton industry. Photos and videos are of the farms, practices, crop and the technology used to grow and process the cotton crop. They include the plant at various stages, flowers, bolls, farm machinery like pickers and seeders, bales and cotton gins.

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Faith Lutheran College – – Final report

This report provides details of Faith Lutheran College's participation in the Digital Technologies in Focus project, including a Research question, criteria for success, data collection, resources, challenges, milestones and next steps.

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Good teaching practice with Digital Technologies

This PDF lists seven characteristics of good teaching practice in the Digital Technologies curriculum.

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Expert webinar video: Dr Rebecca Vivian - The CSER Digital Technologies Education Program

Dr Rebecca Vivian provides an overview of the CSER Digital Technologies Education Project from The University of Adelaide. The project includes free professional learning, a digital equipment lending library and a range of resources designed to support teachers in the implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Digital ...

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Effective DTiF strategies

This PDF lists eight ways in which Digital Technologies in Focus (DTiF) supported the implementation of Digital Technologies in disadvantaged schools.

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Faith Lutheran College – Timeline

This document presents the milestones in Faith Lutheran College's participation in the Digital Technologies in Focus project.

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Faith Lutheran College – PL ecosystem

This document illustrates the network of people and resources that make up Faith Lutheran College's Professional Learning ecosystem.

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Supporting the Implementation of Digital Technologies in Disadvantaged Schools: Case study of impact, outcomes and sustainability (2020)

This PDF is an extensive report on the success of the Digital Technologies in Focus (DTiF) project, with a focus on supporting the Implementation of Digital Technologies in disadvantaged schools. The evaluation gathered qualitative data to create rich case study accounts of six schools' engagement in the project and its ...

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Supporting Digital Technologies curriculum in schools

This PDF lists seven ways in which schools can support the Digital Technologies curriculum

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Supporting Implementation of Digital Technologies: Progress report – Focus on curriculum and pedagogy and learning outcomes (2019)

This PDF is an extensive report on the success of the Digital Technologies in Focus (DTiF) project, with a focus on curriculum and pedagogy and learning outcomes. The evaluation gathered qualitative data to create rich case study accounts of six schools' engagement in the project and its impacts and outcomes.

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Digital Technolodgies in Focus: external evaluation - findings on a page

This PDF is a one-page summary of the key findings of an external evalation of the Digital Technologies in Focus project in Australia’s most disadvantaged schools.