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

historical background of remotely operated vehicles and recent developments
uses
for example, oceanography, space exploration, broadcasting, photography, videography, search and rescue, meteorology, firefighting
of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), remote control vehicles (RCVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones)
factors
for example, articulation, traction, speed
affected by terrain for land-based vehicles
underwater considerations
for example, seals, fluid dynamics, pressures, buoyancy, density, conductivity, thermal effects, flotation, ballast
for ROVs
principles of flight
for example:
  • forces: lift, drag, thrust, weight
  • rotations: roll, pitch, yaw
control surfaces
for example:
  • primary control surfaces: ailerons, elevators, rudder
  • secondary control surfaces: spoilers, flaps, slats, air brakes
of an aircraft
ethical, legal, and regulatory considerations
  • Transport Canada
  • Canadian Aviation Regulations
  • Federal Aviation Administration
  • prohibited airspace, restricted flight zones, no drone zones
tethered control
navigation
for example:
  • position: latitude, longitude, altitude
  • Inertial Navigation System (INS): accelerometers (motion sensors) and gyroscopes (rotation sensors)
  • Global Positioning System (GPS)
  • compass, loxodrome, radar, echo sounder, satellite navigation
propulsion
for example, AC and DC motors, speed controllers, wheels, tracks, propellers and thrusters
structure, sensors, and attachments
  • structure: design considerations for chassis, frame or airframe, such as shape, geometry, and materials
  • sensors: cameras, laser light, radar, sonar, rotation angle sensors, pressure sensors, depth sensors, inclination sensors, accelerometers and proximity switches, GPS
  • attachments: manipulators, arms, claws, rakes, wrenches, hammers
radio-controlled

for example, crystal, pulse, frequency spectrum

(RC) communication
operational planning from remote locations
programming and coding
emerging technologies
for example, autonomous cars, autonomous flight, formation flight of autonomous aerial vehicles, autonomous vehicles in formation
design for the life cycle
future career options and opportunities in UAV design, production, and emerging applications
interpersonal and consultation skills
for example, professional communications, collaboration, follow-ups, courtesies, record keeping, ways of presenting visuals
for interacting with colleagues and clients

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
    to understand design opportunities
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 develop criteria for success
  • Determine whether activity is collaborative or self-directed
Ideating
  • Identify and examine gaps for potential design improvements and innovations
  • Critically analyze how competing social, ethical, and sustainability considerations impact creation and development of solutions
  • Generate ideas to create a range of possibilities and add to others’ ideas in ways that create additional possibilities
  • Evaluate suitability of possibilities according to success criteria, constraints, and potential gaps, and prioritize for prototyping
  • Work with users throughout the design process
Prototyping
  • Choose an appropriate form, scale, and level of detail for prototyping, and plan procedures
  • 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
  • Evaluate design according to 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
  • Decide how and with whom to share
    may include showing to others or use by others, giving away, or marketing and selling
    creativity, or share and promote design and processes
  • Share the product with users and critically evaluate its success
  • Critically reflect on plans, products and processes, and identify new design goals
  • Evaluate 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 complex mechanical, electrical, and electronic problems
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
Analyze the role that changing technologies play pertaining to land, water, or air vehicles