Little Bears Family Homeschool Study Notes
Design and Technology
Contents
* Introduction * Themes * Textbooks & Literature * Internet Resources * Suppliers *
Introduction
My experience of "D & T" in school was of no more than just one term of Woodwork and one of Metalwork for an hour a week in the workshop at secondary school, and obviously that may or may not be totally practical for home educators (not many of us have workshops on the premises!) but those things are something I would hope to be able to look into doing at a later stage. As I recall, though, the topic of "design" was never discussed in those lessons at school, and it seems to me that a great deal of opportunity was missed by that omission.
For the early years, I'm not quite sure how we are going to approach "design and technology", although it seems to me that a good starting point would be to look at the designs all around us, discuss and evaluate them (in terms of practicality and aesthetics) and then to try our hand at designing for ourselves. I thought a good way to do that might be to look at one type of design at a time, and after brainstorming, I have put together the following list of themes, which I think will probably keep us going for a fair long time!
One thing we could do from early on is to make materials like wood available, so that the children become familiar with them and their properties.
Themes for Design & Technology
* Architecture: Houses, offices
& public buildings, churches, windmills, etc.* Civil
engineering: Bridges, aqueducts, viaducts, (town planning) * Furniture:
seats, beds, tables, storage, kitchen, bathroom * Clothing &
Soft furnishings * Engines, motors & machines: motor
cars, trains, planes, buses, trams, defence: tanks, space:
rockets, etc. Clockwork, radio, TV, video, computer, etc., tools,
etc. * Household objects: cutlery, hoovers, etc., office
equipment (e.g. paper clip!) * Interior design &
decoration * Garden design & landscaping * Fabrics:
use of/ design on * Materials: metal, wood, plastic,
glass, building materials: brick, stone, mud, straw! * Graphic
Design *
* Practicality v beauty *
Recommended Textbooks & Literature
Suggestions would be welcome
Internet Resources
We will be using the National Curriculum for Design and Technology as a guide, although we won't follow it religiously
The UK Schools Resource Technology Index:- http://www.liv.ac.uk/~evansjon/technology/menu.html
Blue Web'n:- http://www.kn.packbell.com/wired/bluewebn
Suggestions would be welcome
Suppliers
Take a look in your local library for books, both in the children's reference section and individual sections in the adult library.
As with art, the cost of materials and equipment (for putting designs into practice) can be prohibitive for home educating families on a one-income budget, so we're hoping to list firms that can supply design materials to home educating families at a reduced rate.
If your firm can provide design & technology materials at special reduced rates for home educating families and would like to be mentioned here, please e-mail us:- littlebears@tesco.net .
This site is under construction
Please be patient - I am working on it! Links to follow!
Comments & Suggestions Welcome
© Sharon Mortemore
18 August, 1999
