DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY:

Design & Technology is essentially about learning approaches to problem-solving and opportunities in as creative a manner as possible. It is about raising awareness and instilling knowledge and skills in order to constructively tackle real-life issues and in so doing prepare young people for the demands of the future by becoming open-minded, lateral thinkers and doers, who have the confidence to take on the problems of tomorrow and succeed.

Design and Technology is a complex activity and not purely a body of knowledge. It is a process that uses knowledge, skills, values and materials as resources for action.

What does that mean?

Design is basic to all human activity and has a direct and immediate influence on the lives of every living being. It cannot be isolated as an entity in itself. It is inextricably merged with living and therefore has the potential to change our lives to a great degree, one way or another. Designers think and act in different ways. There cannot be one best method or technique for approaching all design problems. Of essence, designers have to be tuned in on a variety of levels to the problems facing them. It is a fact that designers behave in similar ways to scientists for large parts of their activity. They have to be analytical; investigative; rational; logical; objective; convergent and primarily concerned with the way the world is.

However, at the same time, they also have to operate like artists; intuitive, spontaneous; expressive; subjective; divergent, and primarily concerned with the way people think and feel and with how things might be. They are also operating in the professional world, taking risks, planning, organising, speculating and communicating effectively and delivering the goods on time.

Design skills can be categorised, somewhat artificially, under a number of headings. Although there are widespread variations of categorisation, the ingredients are essentially the same:

investigation and analysis
planning and organisation
evaluation
imagining and developing ideas
realisation (modelling and manipulation)
communication and presentation

We aim to provide technological capability and entrepreneurial understanding for people in the East Cape that will assist them to become self-motivated job creators and entrepreneurs.

A sound understanding of the processes, concepts and skills associated with the technologies that will be taught as well as related problem-solving activities will be where the emphasis will be placed. Particular emphasis will be placed on developing and furthering the natural talents of the East Cape people and finding links between those talents and technological initiatives. Innovation and creative problem-solving ability will form the overall umbrella concept of the initiative.

TERMINOLOGY

Use of the terms Design Education, Design and Technology and Technology Education are integral and inter-related. The word Design is used in the sense of multi-faceted problem-solving processes and constructive, informed decision-making in the process of meeting specific needs in both a practical and innovative way. It is inclusive of originality, creativity and sensitivity. The word Technology is used in the sense of an all round awareness of the technological world and the design and functioning of components of that world as well as the acquisition of appropriate skills to be able to function within that world. Each reference to the above terms also includes a special sense and understanding of environmental and social issues of our country and global perspectives.

IGCSE Design & Technology Course

Offered as a seventh subject at a grade 10 level, the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) in Design and Technology takes the form of an 18 month course and is essentially a practical, project-based subject with a defined theoretical component selected by the pupil.

Students study a Common Core syllabus as well as ONE of the following three options: Technology; Communication; Realization. Students who have basic drawing skills, enjoy problem-solving activities, working with different materials and processes and generally are enthused by the idea of being able to design and realize their own individual creations, usually excel in this subject. The course is managed and controlled by Cambridge University in the UK and is internationally recognized. The teaching staff of the Design & Technology Centre are accredited examiners for this course. Pupils are able to conceive of a project in an area of interest of their choosing and spend 18 months developing and realizing the work. The requirements are that a detailed portfolio of the project must be prepared as well as a full-scale three-dimensional realization of the idea. Pupils will write a theory examination and present their practical work in the middle of their grade 11 year.

The aims of the syllabus are to enable students to:

• foster awareness, understanding and expertise in those areas of creative thinking which can be expressed and developed through designing and making.
• encourage the acquisition of a body of knowledge applicable to solving practical, design and technological problems operating through the process of designing.
• stimulate the development of a range of communication skills which are central to designing, making, evaluating and marketing.
• stimulate the development of a range of making skills.
• promote the development of curiosity, enquiry, initiative, ingenuity, originality, resourcefulness and discrimination.
• relate their work to the needs and opportunities encountered in society (which should demand active and experimental learning based upon the use of materials in practical areas), and to their personal interests and abilities.
• encourage technological awareness, foster attitudes of cooperation and social responsibility, and develop abilities to enhance the quality of the environment.
• stimulate the exercising of value judgements of an aesthetic, technical economic and moral nature.

Click on the thumbnails below to see some previous projects 

      
      

 Extreme Learning - Grade 8 Hang Gliders September 2009 

February 2010:
When James Holmes was presented with the challenge of up-cycling milk cartons into a product for use in natural disasters, he made a breathing device, complete with ergonomically modified clothes peg to all people to breathe following volcanic eruptions.  His second product, currently underway, is a collapsible safety helmet for workers in earthquake recovery teams. 
 

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