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A
project in reducing the technology gap that
exists between middle and
high school in Design and Technology |
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School: Cowes High School |
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Fellow: Mike Cargill |
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Email: mikealicargill@hotmail.com |
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1. Aims |
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The project was carried
out in Cowes High School , a 13-18 mixed comprehensive
on the Isle of Wight . To develop and pilot
a programme which would allow able pupils
from year 7 and 8 to access high school resources
and staff with the intention of removing learning
restrictions placed on students until they
transfer into high school in year 9. This
‘Master class’ programme focused
on areas of CAD/CAM within Design and Technology
and allow students to experience and gain
confidence in using sophisticated hardware
and software. |
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2. Curriculum |
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The programme was set up
in eight session modules. Each session lasted
for 2 hours, giving 16 hours per module. 10
students were invited to attend each module
and the curriculum was planned as follows:
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| Week |
Description of
work |
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| 1 |
Using 2D design and the CAMM3 to create
individual mirrors |
| 2 |
Continue cutting, painting and assembling
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| 3 |
Using crocodile clips to design timer
circuits. Assembling these circuits
with melody generator outputs –
novelty door bells. |
| 4 |
Continuing assembly |
| 5 |
Using ProDesktop to model their casing
designs. |
| 6 |
Continuing with ProDesktop |
| 7 |
PIC Logicator, controlling buggies
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| 8 |
The final buggy challenge. |
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3. The students
and their selection |
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Middle school teachers nominated students
who they felt would benefit from taking part
in the project. The general criteria was: |
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Are they sufficiently
keen to turn up? |
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Will they benefit from taking part?
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The number in each cohort
was limited to ten. Attendance at Saturday
morning classes varied between 6 and 9. To
try and improve this the timing of the last
sessions was changed to Thursday after school
and the attendance immediately improved. |
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4. Responses to
the project |
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The only true evaluation
of this project is in the long term reflection
by the students, colleagues and myself. In
the short term the comments received back
from students taking part have been put together
below. |
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5. Conclusions and
the next step |
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The project was a success
but the problem that remains is how to extend
its coverage to more pupils whilst not becoming
a burden on the existing teaching load. Working
to remove the gap between the phases had a
positive affect on teaching staff on both
sides – particularly helping middle
school colleagues who felt that they were
being more involved in Design and Technology
overall and enjoyed seeing their pupils going
on to further enjoyable projects. |
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Two tasks to carry out are: |
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Survey students that took
part to see how the experience helped
their options choices and general move
to High school (paper survey before
half term). |
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Talk with colleagues in all schools
about how the project can be continued
either in a similar form or an alternative
approach (using the Cowes ‘pyramid’).
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I hope to be able to report
back in the future on progress made –
it is a lively area and one which I am personally
committed to working on. |
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