Design and Technology

1. Student diversity

1.1. 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.

2. Cross-curriculum priorities

2.1. There are three cross-curriculum priorities in the Australian Curriculum: • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures • Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia • Sustainability. The cross-curriculum priorities are embedded in the curriculum and will have a strong but varying presence depending on their relevance to each of the learning areas.

3. Key Concepts

3.1. A number of key concepts underpin the Digital Technologies curriculum. These establish a way of thinking about information systems and provide a framework for knowledge and practice. The key concepts are:

3.1.1. • Abstraction, which underpins all content, particularly the content descriptions relating to the concepts of data representation and specification, algorithms and implementation

3.1.2. • Data collection (properties, sources and collection of data), data representation (symbolism and separation) and data interpretation (patterns and contexts)

3.1.3. • Specification (descriptions and techniques), algorithms (following and describing) and implementation (translating and programming)

3.1.4. • Digital systems (hardware, software and networks and the internet) • Interactions (people and digital systems, data and processes) and impact (impacts and empowerment).

4. Key Ideas

4.1. Systems thinking and the overarching idea: Creating preferred futures

4.2. Project management

5. General Capabilities

5.1. There are seven general capabilities: • Literacy (LIT) • Numeracy (NUM) • Information and communication technology (ICT) capability • Critical and creative thinking (CCT) • Personal and social capability (PSC) • Ethical understanding (EU) • Intercultural understanding (ICU).

6. Content Elaborations

6.1. Content elaborations are provided for Foundation to Year 10 as support material to illustrate and exemplify what is to be taught and to assist teachers in developing a shared understanding of the content descriptions. They are not intended to be comprehensive content points that all students need to be taught nor do they encompass every aspect of a content description. Content elaborations can be found on the draft Australian Curriculum for technologies.

7. Subjects

7.1. Design and Technologies

7.2. Digital technologies

8. Curriculum Aims

8.1. • are creative, innovative and enterprising when using traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies, and understand how technologies have developed over time

8.2. • effectively and responsibly select and manipulate appropriate technologies, resources, materials, data, systems, tools and equipment when designing and creating products, services, environments and digital solutions

8.3. • critique and evaluate technologies processes to identify and create solutions to a range of problems or opportunities

8.4. investigate, design, plan, manage, create, produce and evaluate technologies solutions

8.5. engage confidently with technologies and make informed, ethical and sustainable decisions about technologies for preferred futures including personal health and wellbeing, recreation, everyday life, the world of work and enterprise, and the environment.

9. Strands

9.1. Knowledge and Understanding

9.2. Processes and production skills

10. Band Levels

10.1. Foundation to 2

10.2. 3 and 4

10.3. 5 and 6

10.4. 7 and 8

10.5. 9 and 10

11. Achievement Standards

11.1. By the end of Year 2, students describe the purpose of familiar products, services and environments; they identify who designs and produces them, and how they meet the needs. of users and affect others. They identify the properties of some materials, systems and technologies for a range of technologies contexts.

11.2. By the end of Year 4 students explain how products, services and environments have been designed to best meet people’s current and future needs in the local community and describe how designers and technologists contribute to meeting needs. They describe the properties and characteristics of technologies, materials and systems for a range of technologies contexts.

11.3. By the end of Year 6 students identify how designed products, services and environments may involve competing considerations and trade-offs when sustainability and ethics are considered. They explain how the properties and characteristics of technologies, materials, and systems impact designed solutions and influence design decisions for a range of technologies contexts. They describe how design and technologies contribute to daily life.

11.4. By the end of Year 8 students explain how designed technologies, products, services and environments evolve by identifying the factors that influence design to meet people’s needs and contribute to sustainability. They identify the properties and characteristics of technologies, materials and systems and explain how they impact on designed solutions for a range of technologies contexts. They explain the contribution of design and technology innovations and enterprise to society locally and globally.

11.5. By the end of Year 10 students explain the complex interdependencies involved in the global environment in the development of technologies, products, services and environments for preferred futures. They investigate how knowledge of properties and characteristics of technologies, materials and systems can be used to make judgments about their appropriateness for use for designed solutions to problems of individuals and the global preferred futures for a range of technologies contexts.

12. Content Descriptors

12.1. By the end of Year 2 students will have had the opportunity to design, produce and evaluate designed solutions in at least the following technologies contexts: Materials and technologies specialisations; Food and fibre production (including Food technologies); and Engineering principles and systems. Students should have opportunities to experience designing, producing and evaluating services and environments as well as products.

12.2. By the end of Year 4 students will have had the opportunity to design, produce and evaluate designed solutions in at least the following technologies contexts: Materials and technologies specialisations; Food and fibre production (including Food technologies); and Engineering principles and systems. Students should have opportunities to experience designing, producing and evaluating services and environments as well as products.

12.3. By the end of Year 6 students will have had the opportunity to design, produce and evaluate designed solutions in at least four technologies contexts: Materials and technologies specialisations; Food and fibre production; Engineering principles and systems and Food technologies. Students should have opportunities to experience designing, producing and evaluating services and environments as well as products.

12.4. By the end of Year 8 students will have had the opportunity to design, produce and evaluate designed solutions in at least four technologies contexts: Materials and technologies specialisations, Food and fibre production, Engineering principles and systems, and Food technologies. Students should have opportunities to experience designing, producing and evaluating services and environments as well as products.

12.5. By the end of Year 10 students will have had the opportunity to design, produce and evaluate at least four designed solutions focused on a range of materials and technologies specialisations. Students should have opportunities to experience designing, producing and evaluating designed solutions for services and environments as well as products.