Design and Technologies

YEAR 3: PROPELLING INTO SUCCESS

Teaching Resources

Teacher Background Information:

This year 3 Design and Technologies, ‘Propelling into Success,’ is a science and technology unit designed to provide students with opportunities to:

Plan and develop a floating boat
Identify how different materials can affect the makeup of their boats
Describe the properties of the materials used
Investigate how different materials can affect how well the boats can float
Communicate student’s ideas through presentations of their results

Links to the Australian Curriculum:

Design and Technologies
Knowledge and Understanding:
Investigate how forces and the properties of materials affect the behavior of a product of system. (ACTDEK011)

Elaboration:
identifying and exploring properties and construction relationships of an engineered product or system, for example a structure that floats; a bridge to carry a load

Processors and Production Skills:
Generate, develop and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques. (ACTDEP015)

Elaboration:
visualizing and exploring innovative design ideas by producing thumbnail drawings, models and labelled drawings to explain features and modifications

Notes for the Teacher:

This unit is to be taught over 5 weeks
During the introductory lessons to this unit, students would engage with explicit and constructivist approaches to teaching through the use of PowerPoints and interactive websites.
Students would examine different materials and the properties that make up them
Students would investigate the effects of water to different materials
Students would examine example boats and predict which boats were most likely to float by the properties of the materials
Students would learn communicate skills
Students would be handed their task sheet for their assessment
Students would need to:
1. Be handed out the, ‘Floating Boats Workbook.’
2. Plan and develop what their boats are going to look like
3. Decide what materials are going to be used
4. Show planning and drafting to the teacher
5. Create a labelled diagram of the boat – labelling the materials used on the boat
6. Create the boat
7. Make modifications to the boat where necessary
- Communicate modifications using a paragraph
8. Test the boat in water and see if it floats
9. Complete the rest of their Floating Boats Workbook.

Useful Websites:

How to make a floating boat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g48fJg_rCI

Different ideas for the boat design:

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/56539/boat-crafts-kids-make

Background information on the properties of materials:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/characteristics_materials.shtml

The Australian Curriculum: Technologies