Eco Engineers
Australian Curriculum: Design and Technologies
This Year 5 Design and Technologies "Eco Engineers" unit was designed to provide students opportunities to investigate sustainable considerations for our needs and how they can participate in finding sustainable ways to make our community more eco-friendly. Students will explore and engage in collaborative work with specific roles to give them responsibility and ethical understanding of real-world issues. Students will explore and utlise many technological and communication modes throughout this learning journey. By doing so, students can apply what they have learnt to finding solutions to real-life problems. The aim of this learning journey is to challenge students to collaboratively work together and use their innovation and creativity to create a sustainable house. Students will be provided with opportunities to plan, design and create their sustainable house in different modes and present their findings with others.
Design and Technologies
Content Descriptor:
Examine how people in design and technologies occupations address competing considerations, including sustainability in the design of products, services, and environments for current and future use (ACTDEK019)
Elaborations:
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Evaluating the sustainability implications of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment, for example materials can be recycled or re-used to reduce waste; systems may benefit some, but disadvantage others.
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Identifying the impact of the designed features of an environment , for example a modification to a home to reduce environmental impact;
Teacher Resources
General capabilities are also implemented within the Eco Engineers learning activities. Click the hat to read more.
Click the book to access the rubric criteria the students will be assessed upon.
Sustainability
The cros curriculum priority of Sustainability is clearly underlined in all aspects of these resources.
Sustainable living is a commitment to creating and living as one with the environment.
Click here for further information about sustainability in the Australian Curriculum.
Design and Technologies
Content Descriptor:
Generate, develop and communicate design ideas and processes for audiences using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques (ACTDEP025).
Elaborations:
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Analysing and modifying design ideas to enhance and improve the sustainability of the product, service, environment or system.
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Representing and communicating design ideas using modelling and drawing standards including the use of digital technologies, for example scale; symbols and codes in diagrams; pictorial maps and aerial views using web mapping service applications.
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Experimenting with materials, tools and equipment to refine design ideas, for example considering the selection of materials and joining techniques to suit the purpose of a product
Watch this video which discusses more about teaching sustainability.
Student Task and Activity Resources
Students are required to engage in two learning activites; Design it and Sketch it! These activities were created and influenced by the Design and Technologies curriculum stated above.
Task 1 - Design it!
Students are required to work in groups with specific society roles to create and design a sustainable house for the future. They must consider the current materials and their sustainable practice and investigate alternatives.
Task 2 - Sketch it!
Students are required to use their annotated diagram to guide them to create a three-dimensional representation of their sustainable house. (ACTDEP025).