Big Ideas

Big Ideas

Design for the life cycle
taking into account economic costs, and social and environmental impacts of the product, from the extraction of raw materials to eventual reuse or recycling of component materials
includes consideration of social and environmental impacts
including manufacturing, packaging, disposal, and recycling considerations
.
Personal design interests require the evaluation and refinement of skills.
Tools and technologies
tools that extend human capabilities
can be adapted for specific purposes.

Content

Learning Standards

Content

simple circuit design and construction
Ohm’s law
including the relationship between voltage, current and resistance
Watt’s law
including the relationship between power, voltage and current
circuit board manufacturing processes
for example, layout, printing, etching, drilling
potential electrical hazards
measurement using advanced diagnostic and testing instruments
for example, meters, signal generators, frequency generator, oscilloscope
function and application of common electronic components
for example, resistors, capacitors, diodes, silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs), transistors, integrated circuits, transformers
schematic diagrams
operation and application of circuits
for example, digital, analogue, amplifiers, oscillators, timer circuits
purpose and operation of microcontrollers/microprocessors
strategies for isolating problems and implementing solutions in circuit construction
design for the life cycle

Curricular Competency

Learning Standards

Curricular Competency

Applied Design

Understanding context
  • Engage in a period of user-centred research
    research done directly with potential users to understand how they do things and why, their physical and emotional needs, how they think about the world, and what is meaningful to them
    and empathetic observation
    aimed at understanding the values and beliefs of other cultures and the diverse motivations and needs of different people; may be informed by experiences of people involved; traditional cultural knowledge and approaches; First Peoples worldviews, perspectives, knowledge, and practices; places, including the land and its natural resources and analogous settings; experts and thought leaders
Defining
  • Establish a point of view for a chosen design opportunity
  • Identify potential users, intended impacts, and possible unintended negative consequences
  • Make inferences about premises and constraints
    limiting factors, such as task or user requirements, materials, expense, environmental impact
    that define the design space, and identify criteria for success
  • Determine whether activity is collaborative or self-directed
Ideating
  • Generate ideas and add to others' ideas to create possibilities, and prioritize them for prototyping
  • Critically analyze how competing social, ethical, and sustainability considerations impact creation and development of solutions
  • Choose an idea to pursue based on success criteria and 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
  • Analyze the design for the life cycle and evaluate its impacts
    including social and environmental impacts of extraction and transportation of raw materials; manufacturing, packaging, and transportation to markets; servicing or providing replacement parts; expected usable lifetime; and reuse or recycling of component materials
  • Visualize and construct prototypes, 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 and communicate with sources of feedback
    may include peers; users; First Nations, Métis, or Inuit community experts; other experts and professionals both online and offline
  • Develop an appropriate test
    includes evaluating the degree of authenticity required for the setting of the test, deciding on an appropriate type and number of trials, and collecting and compiling data
    of the prototype, conduct the test, and collect and compile data
  • Apply information from critiques, testing results, and success criteria to make changes
Making
  • Identify appropriate tools, technologies, materials, processes, cost implications, and time needed
  • Create design, incorporating feedback from self, others, and results from testing of the prototype
  • Use materials in ways that minimize waste
Sharing
  • Determine how and with whom to share
    may include showing to others or use by others, giving away, or marketing and selling
    design and processes for feedback
  • Share the product with users to evaluate its success
  • Critically reflect on plans, products and processes, and identify new design goals
  • Analyze new possibilities for plans, products and processes, including how they or others might build on them

Applied Skills

Apply safety procedures for themselves, co-workers, and users in both physical and digital environments
Individually or collaboratively identify and assess skills needed for design interests
Demonstrate competency and proficiency in skills at various levels involving manual dexterity and circuitry techniques
Develop specific plans to learn or refine identified skills over time

Applied Technologies

Explore existing, new, and emerging tools, technologies, and systems to evaluate suitability for design interests
Evaluate impacts, including unintended negative consequences, of choices made about technology use
Examine the role that advancing technologies play in electronics-related contexts