1. Learning Areas
1.1. Technologies
1.1.1. Aims
1.1.1.1. investigate, design, plan, manage, create and evaluate solutions
1.1.1.2. are creative, innovative and enterprising when using traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies, and understand how technologies have developed over time
1.1.1.3. make informed and ethical decisions about the role, impact and use of technologies in the economy, environment and society for a sustainable future
1.1.1.4. engage confidently with and responsibly select and manipulate appropriate technologies − materials, data, systems, components, tools and equipment − when designing and creating solutions
1.1.1.5. critique, analyse and evaluate problems, needs or opportunities to identify and create solutions.
1.1.1.6. These aims are extended and complemented by specific aims for each Technologies subject.
1.1.2. Student diversity ACARA is committed to the development of a high-quality curriculum for all Australian students that promotes excellence and equity in education. All students are entitled to rigorous, relevant and engaging learning programs drawn from the Australian Curriculum: Technologies. Teachers take account of the range of their students’ current levels of learning, strengths, goals and interests and make adjustments where necessary. The three-dimensional design of the Australian Curriculum, comprising learning areas, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities, provides teachers with flexibility to cater for the diverse needs of students across Australia and to personalise their learning. More detailed advice has been developed for schools and teachers on using the Australian Curriculum to meet diverse learning needs. It is available under Student Diversity on the Australian Curriculum website.
1.1.2.1. Students with disability The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005 require education and training service providers to support the rights of students with disability to access the curriculum on the same basis as students without disability. Many students with disability are able to achieve educational standards commensurate with their peers, as long as the necessary adjustments are made to the way in which they are taught and to the means through which they demonstrate their learning. In some cases, curriculum adjustments are necessary to provide equitable opportunities for students to access age-equivalent content in the Australian Curriculum: Technologies. Teachers can draw from content at different levels along the Foundation – Year 10 sequence. Teachers can also use the general capabilities learning continua in Literacy, Numeracy and Personal and social capability to adjust the focus of learning according to individual student need. Adjustments to the delivery of some practical aspects of lessons will be necessary to ensure some students with physical disability can access, participate, and achieve on the same basis as their peers. This might involve students using modified tools, materials or equipment to create solutions. Teachers may also need to consider adjustments to assessment of students with disability to ensure student achievement and demonstration of learning is appropriately measured.
1.1.2.2. English as an additional language or dialect Students for whom English is an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) enter Australian schools at different ages and at different stages of English language learning and have various educational backgrounds in their first languages. While many EAL/D students bring already highly developed literacy (and numeracy) skills in their own language to their learning of Standard Australian English, there are a significant number of students who are not literate in their first language, and have had little or no formal schooling. While the aims of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies are the same for all students, EAL/D students must achieve these aims while simultaneously learning a new language and learning content and skills through that new language. These students may require additional time and support, along with teaching that explicitly addresses their language needs. Students who have had no formal schooling will need additional time and support in order to acquire skills for effective learning in formal settings. A national English as an Additional Language or Dialect: Teacher Resource has been developed to support teachers in making the Australian Curriculum: Foundation – Year 10 in each learning area accessible to EAL/D students.
1.1.2.3. Gifted and talented students Teachers can use the Australian Curriculum: Technologies flexibly to meet the individual learning needs of gifted and talented students. Teachers can enrich student learning by providing students with opportunities to work with learning area content in more depth or breadth; emphasising specific aspects of the general capabilities learning continua (for example, the higher-order cognitive skills of the Critical and creative thinking capability); and/or focusing on cross-curriculum priorities. Teachers can also accelerate student learning by drawing on content from later band levels in the Australian Curriculum: Technologies and/or from local state and territory teaching and learning materials. Technologies education pedagogy and project-based learning allows students to take greater responsibility for their learning and allows them to make decisions based on findings from research, experimentation and testing of design ideas.
1.1.3. Capabilities
1.1.3.1. Literacy :In Technologies, students develop literacy as they learn how to communicate ideas, concepts and detailed proposals to a variety of audiences; read and interpret detailed written instructions for specific technologies, often including diagrams and procedural writings such as software user manuals, design briefs, patterns and recipes; prepare accurate, annotated engineering drawings, software instructions and coding; write project outlines, briefs, concept and project management proposals, evaluations, engineering, life cycle and project analysis reports; and prepare detailed specifications for production. By learning the literacy of technologies students understand that language varies according to context and they increase their ability to use language flexibly. Technologies vocabulary is often technical and includes specific terms for concepts, processes and production. Students learn to understand that much technological information is presented in the form of drawings, diagrams, flow charts, models, tables and graphs. They also learn the importance of listening, talking and discussing in technologies processes, especially in articulating, questioning and evaluating ideas
1.1.3.2. Numeracy: The Technologies curriculum gives students opportunities to interpret and use mathematical knowledge and skills in a range of real-life situations. Students use number to calculate, measure and estimate; interpret and draw conclusions from statistics; measure and record throughout the process of generating ideas; develop, refine and test concepts; and cost and sequence when making products and managing projects. In using software, materials, tools and equipment, students work with the concepts of number, geometry, scale, proportion, measurement and volume. They use three-dimensional models, create accurate technical drawings, work with digital models and use computational thinking in decision-making processes when designing and creating best-fit solutions.
1.1.3.3. Information and communication technology (ICT) capability In Digital Technologies, students develop an understanding of the characteristics of data, digital systems, audiences, procedures and computational thinking. They apply this when they investigate, communicate and create digital solutions. Students learn to formulate problems, logically organise and analyse data and represent them in abstract forms. They automate solutions through algorithmic logic. Students decide the best combinations of data, procedures and human and physical resources to generate efficient and effective digital solutions. They create digital solutions that consider economic, environmental and social factors. In Design and Technologies, key ICT concepts and skills are strengthened, complemented and extended. Students become familiar with and gain skills using a range of software applications and digital hardware that enable them to realise their design ideas. Students use ICT when they investigate and analyse information and evaluate design ideas and communicate and collaborate online. They develop design ideas; generate plans and diagrams to communicate their designs and produce solutions using digital technologies, for example creating simulations, drawings and models and manufacturing solutions (from basic drawing programs to computer-aided design/manufacture and rapid prototyping).
1.1.3.4. Critical and creative thinking Across the Australian Curriculum, students develop capability in critical and creative thinking as they learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, clarify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities, consider alternatives and solve problems. Critical and creative thinking are integral to activities that require students to think broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond school. Students develop capability in critical and creative thinking as they imagine, generate, develop and critically evaluate ideas. They develop reasoning and the capacity for abstraction through challenging problems that do not have straightforward solutions. Students analyse problems, refine concepts and reflect on the decision-making process by engaging in systems, design and computational thinking. They identify, explore and clarify technologies information and use that knowledge in a range of situations. Students think critically and creatively about possible, probable and preferred futures. They consider how data, information, systems, materials, tools and equipment (past and present) impact on our lives, and how these elements might be better designed and managed. Experimenting, drawing, modelling, designing and working with digital tools, equipment and software helps students to build their visual and spatial thinking and to create solutions, products, services and environments.
1.1.3.5. Personal and social capability Across the Australian Curriculum, students develop personal and social capability as they learn to understand themselves and others, and manage their relationships, lives, work and learning more effectively. The capability involves students in a range of practices including recognising and regulating emotions, developing empathy for others and understanding relationships, establishing and building positive relationships, making responsible decisions, working effectively in teams, handling challenging situations constructively and developing leadership skills. Students develop personal and social capability as they engage in project management and development in a collaborative workspace. They direct their own learning, plan and carry out investigations, and become independent learners who can apply design thinking, technologies understanding and skills when making decisions. Students develop social and employability skills through working cooperatively in teams, sharing resources and processes, making group decisions, resolving conflict and showing leadership. Designing and innovation involve a degree of risk-taking and as students work with the uncertainty of sharing new ideas they develop resilience. The Technologies learning area enhances students’ personal and social capability by developing their social awareness. Students develop understanding of diversity by researching and identifying user needs. They consider past and present impacts of decisions on people, communities and environments and develop social responsibility through understanding of, empathy with and respect for others.
1.1.3.6. Ethical understanding Across the Australian Curriculum, students develop ethical understanding as they identify and investigate concepts, values, character traits and principles, and understand how reasoning can help ethical judgment. Ethical understanding involves students in building a strong personal and socially oriented, ethical outlook that helps them to manage context, conflict and uncertainty, and to develop an awareness of the influence that their values and behaviour have on others. Students develop the capacity to understand and apply ethical and socially responsible principles when collaborating with others and creating, sharing and using technologies –materials, data, processes, tools and equipment. Using an ethical lens, they investigate past, current and future local, national, regional and global technological priorities. When engaged in systems thinking students evaluate their findings against the criteria of legality, environmental sustainability, economic viability, health, social and emotional responsibility and social awareness. They explore complex issues associated with technologies and consider possibilities. They are encouraged to develop informed values and attitudes. Students learn about safe and ethical procedures for investigating and working with people, animals, data and materials. They consider the rights of others and their responsibilities in using sustainable practices that protect the planet and its life forms. They learn to appreciate and value the part they play in the social and natural systems in which they operate. Students consider their own roles and responsibilities as discerning citizens, and learn to detect bias and inaccuracies. Understanding the protection of data, intellectual property and individual privacy in the school environment helps students to be ethical digital citizens.
1.1.3.7. Intercultural understanding Across the Australian Curriculum, students develop intercultural understanding as they learn to value their own cultures, languages and beliefs, and those of others. They come to understand how personal, group and national identities are shaped, and the variable and changing nature of culture. The capability involves students in learning about and engaging with diverse cultures in ways that recognise commonalities and differences, create connections with others and cultivate mutual respect. Students consider how technologies are used in diverse communities at local, national, regional and global levels, including their impact and potential to transform people’s lives. They explore ways in which past and present practices enable people to use technologies to interact with one another across cultural boundaries. Students investigate how cultural identities and traditions influence the function and form of solutions, products, services and environments designed to meet the needs of daily life now and in the future. In their interactions with others in online communities, students consider the dynamic and complex nature of cultures, including values, beliefs, practices and assumptions. They recognise and respond to the challenges of cultural diversity by applying appropriate social protocols. Students learn about the interactions between technologies and society and take responsibility for securing positive outcomes for members of all cultural groups including those faced with prejudice and misunderstanding.
1.1.4. Cross Curriculum
1.1.4.1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies the priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures provides creative, engaging and diverse learning contexts for students to value and appreciate the contribution by the world’s oldest continuous living cultures to past, present and emerging technologies. Students identify and explore the rich and diverse knowledge and understandings of technologies employed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in past, present and future applications. They understand that the technologies of the world’s first and most continuous culture often developed through intimate knowledge of Country/Place and Culture. Students identify, explore, understand and analyse the interconnectedness between technologies and Identity, People, Culture and Country/Place. They explore how this intrinsic link guides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in sustaining environments, histories, cultures and identities. Students apply this knowledge and understanding within Design and Technologies and Digital Technologies to create appropriate and sustainable products, services and environments to meet personal, local, national, regional and global demands. In the Technologies learning area, students explore how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ capacity for innovation is evident through the incorporation and application of a range of traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies and practices to purposefully build and/or maintain cultural, community and economic capacity. Students apply this knowledge and understanding throughout the processes of observation, critical and creative thinking, action, experimentation and evaluation.
1.1.4.2. Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies the priority of Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia provides diverse and authentic contexts to develop knowledge and understanding of technologies processes and production and related cultural, social and ethical issues. It enables students to recognise that interaction between human activity and the diverse environments of the Asia region continues to create the need for creative solutions and collaboration with others, including Australians, and has significance for the rest of the world. The Australian Curriculum: Technologies gives students opportunities to explore traditional, contemporary and emerging technological achievements in the countries of the Asia region. They investigate the contributions that Australia has made and is making to create products and services that meet a range of needs in the Asia region. Students apply this knowledge and understanding to create appropriate and sustainable products that reflect intercultural, creative and critical thinking. In the Technologies learning area, students learn to appreciate the diversity of the Asia region. They examine contributions that the peoples of the Asia region have made and continue to make to global technological advances. They consider the contributions that Australia has made and is making to the Asia region. Students explore Australia’s rich and ongoing engagement with the peoples and countries of Asia to create appropriate products and services to meet personal, community, national, regional and global needs.
1.1.4.3. Sustainability In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies the priority of sustainability provides authentic contexts for creating preferred futures. When students identify and critique a problem, need or opportunity; generate ideas and concepts; and create solutions, they give prime consideration to sustainability by anticipating and balancing economic, environmental and social impacts. The Australian Curriculum: Technologies prepares students to take action to create more sustainable patterns of living. The curriculum focuses on the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to design for effective sustainability action taking into account issues such as resource depletion and climate change. The curriculum reflects on human need and equity of access to limited resources. It recognises that actions are both individual and collective endeavours shared across local, regional and global communities and provides a basis for students to explore their own and competing viewpoints, values and interests. Understanding systems enables students to work with complexity, uncertainty and risk; make connections between disparate ideas and concepts; self-critique; and propose creative solutions that enhance sustainability. In this learning area, students focus on the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to choose technologies and systems with regard to costs and benefits. They evaluate the extent to which the process and designed solutions embrace sustainability. Students reflect on past and current practices, and assess new and emerging technologies from a sustainability perspective.
1.1.5. Links to other learning areas
1.1.5.1. Links to other learning areas Learning in Technologies involves the use of knowledge, understanding and skills learned in other learning areas, particularly in English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, The Arts, Health and Physical Education and Economics and Business. English In schools across Australia there is strong support for linking learning in Technologies with learning literacy skills. Learning in Technologies places a high priority on accurate and unambiguous communication. The Australian Curriculum: Technologies is supported by and in turn reinforces the learning of literacy skills. Students need to describe objects and events; interpret descriptions; read and give instructions; generate and explore ideas with others; write design briefs and specifications, marketing texts, evaluation and variation reports; and participate in group discussions. Mathematics The Technologies curriculum provides contexts within which Mathematics understanding, fluency, logical reasoning, analytical thought and problem-solving skills can be applied and developed. Computational thinking particularly draws on mathematical understanding and skills. In Technologies, students process data using tables, lists, picture graphs, column graphs and line graphs. In Mathematics, students' data analysis skills will develop to include scatter plots, linear graphs and the gradient of graphs. This will enhance their ability to analyse patterns and trends in data as part of technologies investigations. In Mathematics, students learn statistical methods that may be applied to quantitative analysis of data in Technologies. Students develop their use of metric units in both the Mathematics and Technologies curriculums. The ability to convert between common metric units of length and mass and their use of decimal notation in Mathematics will enable them to represent and compare data in meaningful ways in Technologies. Students use spatial understandings developed in Mathematics to apply knowledge of geometry, shapes and angles in Technologies. When considering systems at a vast range of scales in Technologies, students use their mathematical knowledge of timescales and intervals. Technologies provide tools for automating mathematical processes which reinforce concepts in Mathematics. Students’ mathematical ability to solve problems involving linear equations can be used in Technologies when investigating quantitative relationships and designing algorithms. Science The Technologies curriculum complements the Science curriculum. Both Technologies and Science emphasise creating preferred futures and the use of systems thinking. Science develops the overarching ideas of patterns, order and organisation, stability and change, scale and measurement, matter and energy, and systems as key aspects of a scientific view of the world. Students draw on these ideas when creating solutions and considering the role of technologies in society. Design and Technologies draws on concepts from biological, chemical and physical sciences to solve problems and design solutions to meet human needs and opportunities. Links with the Science curriculum allow for applications of scientific concepts through critiquing and applying prior knowledge to designing real-world solutions that are meaningful to students. For example, students apply scientific concepts when designing in an engineering context. Students apply knowledge of forces and characteristics and properties of materials. They conduct appropriate scientific investigations of materials, processes and prototypes. The Digital Technologies curriculum provides many techniques and technologies for automating the collection, storage and analysis of scientific data. The development of digital technologies such as data loggers, spreadsheets, databases, simulations and imaging technologies have been central to advances in science. They are used to collect and organise a wide range of data and to derive information by filtering, analysing and visualising large volumes of numerical, categorical and structured data. Digital Technologies gives students the skills to represent data in ways that enable computational analysis. Scientists use digital technologies to develop software for simulating, modelling and analysing biological, chemical and physical systems. Digital technologies give students the skills to implement simulations and gain a deeper understanding of concepts and models in Science by interacting with simulations. History History provides another avenue to understand how technologies develop and how their developments are a source of historical facts and artefacts. The creation and development of technologies has had an impact on and influenced society and future innovations. In the Knowledge and understanding strands students will develop increasingly sophisticated knowledge and understanding, drawn from contemporary and historical sources. It is important that students learn that technologies have developed through the gradual accumulation of knowledge over many centuries; that all sorts of people – including people like themselves – use and contribute to the development of technologies. Historical studies of technologies in a range of societies including the peoples and countries of Asia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures extending to modern times will help students understand the contributions of people from around the world. Geography Technologies knowledge, understanding and skills can be applied using a range of contexts from the Geography curriculum. From the early years students sort information, find patterns and interact with digital systems as they develop spatial understandings, particularly as they create, interpret and use maps. They use directional language, understand scale and distance, and record data related to weather. They create products and systems that measure and further develop their understanding of the influences of climate and weather conditions. They use digital tools to collect and sort information and data and there is a significant emphasis on digital and spatial technologies. Students strengthen their Technologies understanding and skills as they study the environmental characteristics of places, processes and human significance. During their investigations they collect and convert data into useful forms using spreadsheets, graphs and distribution maps. Students consolidate their understandings of sustainability as they investigate the significance to humans of the biophysical environment and design and manage projects that enhance their understanding of the fine balance between the environment and human endeavour. See also Australian Curriculum connections − Food and fibre production in the Australian Curriculum. Through Design and Technologies, concepts and learning that are addressed in Geography are contextualised through the design and production of products, services and environments through specific targeted projects that relate to sustainability, the environment and society. Students critique, design and produce solutions for managed and constructed environments. Learning is further enhanced through authentic activities that focus on enterprising and innovative solutions to perceived needs. The Arts The Technologies curriculum complements The Arts curriculum, particularly in the application of the elements and principles of design in Visual Arts and in the use of digital technologies in Media Arts. Through the Technologies curriculum, aspects of aesthetics are incorporated into the design processes in Technologies learning activities. This occurs when students design products and environments including those with a focus on graphics technologies. Knowledge of materials, tools and equipment and the ways they can be used to create designed solutions provides links between Technologies and two and three-dimensional design in Visual Arts. Skills developed in Visual Arts such as representing and exploring creative ideas through sketching and drawing complement processes used in Design and Technologies to generate ideas to create solutions. See also: Australian Curriculum connections − Design in the Australian Curriculum. Students use multimedia in a range of learning areas in the Australian Curriculum to communicate evidence of their learning. Explicit content descriptions describing knowledge, understanding and skills in multimedia are found in Digital Technologies and Media Arts. Also in Design and Technologies students may produce designed solutions with a multimedia focus through the technologies context, Materials and technologies specialisations, for example graphics technologies. See also: Australian Curriculum connections − Multimedia in the Australian Curriculum. Health and Physical Education The Australian Curriculum: Technologies takes account of what students learn in Health and Physical Education (HPE). In the movement and physical activity strand of HPE, students develop and practise small motor coordination skills which help them develop and apply manipulative skills in Technologies In the personal, social and community health strand in HPE, students learn about food and nutrition, which is then applied in Technologies to the selection and preparation of food when designing healthy food solutions. See also: Australian Curriculum connections − Food and nutrition in the Australian Curriculum. Some states and territories offer Home Economics as a subject, or home economics related subjects. Elements of learning in home economics subjects will draw from content in both Health and Physical Education and Technologies in the Australian Curriculum. See also: Australian Curriculum connections − Home economics in the Australian Curriculum. Economics and Business In Economics and Business students develop enterprising behaviours and capabilities that can be applied in Technologies when students are creating solutions for a range of audiences. In Technologies students will apply knowledge from Economics and Business including resource allocation and making choices, consumer and financial literacy, and work and work futures. The Economics and Business skills strand focuses on the skills of questioning and research; interpretation and analysis; economic reasoning, decision-making and application; and communication and reflection. These skills can be applied in Technologies when students create solutions and consider the suitability of enterprise and marketing for these solutions. Students also reflect on how enterprise can contribute to the evolution and development of solutions.
1.1.6. Scope and Sequence
1.1.7. Subjects
1.1.7.1. Digital Technologies
1.1.7.1.1. Curriculum F-10 Content descriptions- Band level -Content - elaboration - Achievement standards (WAYYYY TO MNAY TO WRITE - FOLLOW THE LINK)
1.1.7.2. Design and Technologies
1.1.7.2.1. Curriculum F-10 Content descriptions- Band level -Content - elaboration - Achievement standards (WAYYYY TO MNAY TO WRITE - FOLLOW THE LINK)