Big Ideas

Big Ideas

User needs and interests drive the design process.
Social, ethical, and sustainability considerations impact design. 
Complex tasks require the sequencing of skills.

Content

Learning Standards

Content

design opportunities
Ohm’s law
describes how voltage, current, and resistance are related, as in V = IR
electrical theory
for example, source, load, control, conductor, voltage, current, resistance, insulator, alternating current (AC), and direct current (DC)
 using parallel and series circuits
breadboard circuitry
production of simple circuits from schematic drawings
electronic diagnostic and testing instruments
for example, multimeter, power supplies, test probes, signal-generating devices
function and application of components
for example, light-emitting diode (LED), resistor, diode, light-dependent resistor (LDR), capacitor, voltage amplifiers, audio amplifiers, rectifiers
construction sequences involved in making a working circuit
for example, current, amperage, load, resistance, power, control
function and use of hand tools
for example, screwdriver, pliers, cutter, wire stripper, desoldering pump, snips, punch, soldering iron
 and operation of stationary equipment
for example, box and pan brake, bar folder, shears, punches, drill press, strip heater
cases
for example, wood, 3D printed, metal, plastic
 for enclosing a circuit
sequences involved in making a functional robot
robot elements
for example, input/output sensors, effectors, control systems, movement
block-based coding or logic-based programming for robotics
programming platforms for robotics
flow charts related to robotics behaviour

Curricular Competency

Learning Standards

Curricular Competency

Applied Design

Understanding context
  • Engage in a period of research and empathetic observation
    may include experiences; traditional cultural knowledge and approaches of First Peoples and those of other cultures; places, including the land and its natural resources and analogous settings; people, including users, experts, and thought leaders
Defining
  • Identify potential users and relevant contextual factors for a chosen design opportunity
  • Identify criteria for success, intended impact, and any constraints
    limiting factors such as task or user requirements, materials, expense, environmental impact
  • Determine whether activity is collaborative or self-directed
Ideating
  • Take creative risks in generating ideas and add to others’ ideas in ways that enhance them
  • Screen ideas against criteria and constraints
  • Critically analyze and prioritize competing factors
    including social, ethical, and sustainability
     to meet community needs for preferred futures
  • Maintain an open mind about potentially viable ideas
Prototyping
  • Choose a form for prototyping and develop a plan
    for example, pictorial drawings, sketches, flow charts
     that includes key stages and resources
  • Evaluate a variety of materials for effective use and potential for reuse, recycling, and biodegradability
  • Prototype, making changes to tools, materials, and procedures as needed
  • Record iterations
    repetitions of a process with the aim of approaching a desired result
     of prototyping
Testing
  • Identify sources of feedback
    may include First Nations, Métis, or Inuit community experts; keepers of other traditional cultural knowledge and approaches; peers, users, and other experts
  • Develop an appropriate test
  • Conduct the test, collect and compile data, evaluate data, and decide on changes
Making
  • Identify and use appropriate tools, technologies
    tools that extend human capabilities
    , materials, and processes
  • Make a step-by-step plan and carry it out, making changes as needed
  • Use materials in ways that minimize waste
Sharing
  • Decide on how and with whom to share
    may include showing to others, use by others, giving away, or marketing and selling
     product
    for example, a physical product, process, system, service, or designed environment
     and processes
  • Demonstrate product to users and critically evaluate its success
  • Identify new design goals

Applied Skills

Demonstrate and document an awareness of precautionary and emergency safety procedures
Develop competency and proficiency in skills at various levels involving manual dexterity and circuitry
Identify the skills needed, individually or collaboratively, in relation to specific projects, and develop and refine them

Applied Technologies

Choose, adapt, and if necessary learn more about appropriate tools and technologies to use for tasks
Evaluate impacts
personal, social, and environmental
, including unintended negative consequences, of choices made about technology use
Evaluate the influences of land, natural resources, and culture on the development and use of tools and technologies