GCSE Key Resources: Designing in Contexts classroom teaching resource

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Curriculum and Lesson Planning Design skills KS4 Secondary
GCSE resource with activities, worksheets and CPD on designing in context, exploring needs, generating ideas and evaluating products for contextual challenges.

Designing in Contexts classroom teaching resource

Ages 14-16
First published 2017

This D&T GCSE Key Resource is based on five separate classroom activities that can be delivered consecutively or as separate lessons, where appropriate. The topics for each activity are:

  • Designing in context
  • Exploring the situation
  • Identify the needs and wants of people 1 & 2
  • Develop design ideas to meet users’ needs and wants
  • Evaluate existing products

It includes a PowerPoint presentation that can be adapted to suit your needs and includes worksheets and accompanying teacher notes outlining the different aspects. The presentation outlines several contexts as the starting point for design and links to the GCSE specification.

The DfE guidance states:

Contextual challenges must:

  • offer a broad range of real-world contexts, representing contemporary issues and concerns
  • be open-ended, avoiding predetermining the materials or processes to be used to achieve a design solution
  • focus on needs, wants and values of individuals and groups, leading students to address problems and/or opportunities
  • be accessible and relevant to the full range of design and technology materials and components outlined in the Technical Principles section of the Guidance Document

Also included:
Teaching for the Contextual Challenge

Also included is the bonus CPD resource: Teaching for the Contextual Challenge, enabling you to prepare your students to engage in user centred iterative designing.

This is aimed at supporting teachers to develop their subject knowledge in the area of context centred designing, in readiness for the new GCSE in Design and Technology. It forms part of a set of CPD resources aimed at modernising your design and technology curriculum at a time when there is a clear need for modernisation in the subject to develop students’ skills and knowledge and to help furnish the needs of industry.

The resource consists of:

PowerPoint (12 slides) covering:

  • The nature of a contextual challenge
  • The contextual challenge three phases
  • -  Phase 1 exploring to identify needs and wants
  • -  Phase 2 Meeting the identified needs and wants
  • -  Phase 3 Evaluating the outcomes
  • The departmental approach
  • Accompanying notes.

This resource is one of a number supporting the new GCSE in Design and Technology including:

  • Teacher guide: Preparing a Scheme of Work
  • Understanding and choosing materials
  • Systems and control
  • Teaching for the contextual challenge
  • New and emerging technologies
  • Generating design ideas.
  • Developing and communicating design ideas including CAD.
  • Iterative Design in Action

 This item is a download.