Design and Technologies / Year 9 and 10 / Knowledge and understanding / Technologies and society

Curriculum content descriptions

analyse the impact of innovation, enterprise and emerging technologies on designed solutions for global preferred futures (AC9TDE10K02)

Elaborations
  • investigating how the knowledges of First Nations Australians have led to the discovery of potential innovative solutions, for example biodegradable polymers using spinifex grass to reduce landfill and strengthen latex, plastics and concrete
  • exploring the ways commercial enterprises respond to the challenges and opportunities of technological change, for example e-commerce, and considering their carbon footprint
  • investigating scenarios of how the future may unfold and what opportunities and impacts there may be for society and particular groups in a preferred future, for example by using forecasting and backcasting techniques
  • examining real-world problems and understanding basic needs when considering designed solutions, for example students collaborating to design solutions to challenges in the Asia region; or artists from a country in South-East Asia creating posters for the world to take action in a pandemic
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and Creative Thinking
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Design,  Future,  Innovation,  Technologies,  Enterprise (Behaviour)

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Zombies and network models

In this lesson, students explore the use of network diagrams to represent connections, then apply a network-based COVID transmission simulation to hypothesise how a virus might spread through a small population.

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Assist me

This set of learning activities challenges students to students consider the role that STEM plays in healthcare. They explore how biomedical engineers and doctors work together to improve and invent devices that enable people with disabilities to complete daily life tasks efficiently and effectively. Students consider ethics, ...

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Apples All Year Round

In this sequence of two lessons, students explore Australia’s apple industry, current innovations and technology, the features of Australian apples and value-added products and their function in addressing food security challenges. Students explore the stages of the value supply chain for Australian apples and the occupations ...

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Sustainable Seafood in Australia

This collection of worksheets accompanied by videos explore careers, sustainability and technology in Australia's aquaculture and wild-catch fishing industries. These resources include multimedia content, real-world case studies, and differentiated activities for students in Years 5-10. There is also a printable Seafood ...

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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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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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Contemporary fire management

In this resource, students learn about ways that groups are combining traditional indigenous knowledge of fire management with satellite imagery, fuel load mapping, and aerial incendiary technology. Students will investigate the interaction between traditional knowledge of fire management and new technologies. Using case ...

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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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Growing exotic fruit - a niche market enterprise

This is a video(3:15 min) about John and Lyndall Piccone’s exotic fruit orchard at Tyagarah in New South Wales. The resource describes how the property produces more than 200 different tropical and sub-tropical fruits with the harvest beginning in early spring. Successive harvests serve to maintain customer interest in ...

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Travel Times

Life would be very different today if we did not have modern transport. In this activity, students calculate the time it would take for humans to travel long distances through different modes of transport. They then analyse the impact of these technological developments.

Interactive

Invictus Games Sydney 2018 – Design and Technology – Stage 5

How can we make our contemporary world more inclusive? This Stage 5 Design and Technology module, Build a better world - investigating inclusive and accessible technologies and spaces, explores inventions and architectural designs that seek to improve access for those with disabilities throughout their everyday routines. ...

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Growing carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes are a very tiny but super strong material used in manufacturing to create strong, lightweight products. Besides sporting equipment, find out what other kinds of products are made using these tiny molecules. What other qualities (besides size and strength) do carbon nanotubes have that makes them even more ...

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Engineering clean rivers

Figuring out how to clean up contaminated rivers is a big challenge. It's also tricky to work out where the most contaminated parts of a river system are and whether its fish are safe to eat. Watch this video and learn how engineering has helped to solve these problems. Why do you think engineers looked to the bottom of ...

Interactive

Thermal comfort – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

This thermal comfort learning resource will guide students through an extended school based investigation. Students will develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate and reflect on their success and their learning.

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Precision Sheep Management: video

This is a video (4:09 min) about the University of New England’s Kirby Research Station and how its work with sheep has been transformed by technology, particularly the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag. The video is presented by members of the Enhanced sheep wellbeing and productivity research program and includes ...

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Why become an engineer?

Are you interested in improving the way people live? What are some of the other reasons Ashwini Ranjithabalan gives for wanting to be an engineer?

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CERES Environment Park

This is a video about the sustainable not-for-profit agribusiness operated by the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES) in inner Melbourne. CERES Environment Park runs an organic farm, fruit and vegetable delivery business, and delivers educational programs to schools. Presented by the ...

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Breeding a sustainable future

This is a unit of work that focuses on improvements in livestock and crop production brought about by agricultural practice, scientific research and technology. The unit is organised around six learning experiences that include investigating how agricultural products have developed over time; identifying the role of technology ...

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Exploring the production and marketing of seafood

This is a teacher resource containing a series of inquiry teaching sequences relating to seafood production and marketing in Australia. It contains material to assist planning, implementing and assessing a research task about the technologies and methods used in the fishing and aquaculture industries to catch and farm seafood, ...

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Computing turns 60

This is a collection of eight articles that mark the 60th anniversary of the first computer in an Australian university. The series covers topics from the history of computing, its role in studying global health or species conservation, and how computers can help understand the brain.