Welcome to Technology
What will we be doing in Year 7?
In Year 7, you will rotate between three different subjects. These are: Design & Technology, Engineering and Food & Nutrition. Each subject allows you to design, develop and, most importantly, make. We want you to be happy, safe and enthusiastic when coming to our lessons.
What activities should I expect to take part in over the course of Year 7?
You will have approximately one term in each subject in both Year 7 and Year 8. There will be twenty students in your Technology class, a mix of students from different tutor groups. Each of the Technology subjects has its own specialist teaching rooms and teaching staff. All students will have the same opportunities throughout the first two years at RMS. You will learn all about CAD (Computer Aided Design) and you will be given the chance to work on most of our big machines and equipment.
How will my lessons look? Each subject in Technology is similar but different. You will be designing and you will be making but what you finish with will be very different in each subject.
Design & Technology
In Design & Technology you will be introduced to CAD (Computer Aided Design) and your practical work will centre around our new suite of 3D Printers. You will also spend a lot of time designing and coming up with creative answers.
What will we do in Y7 in Design & Technology
You will spend several weeks learning the basics of 3D design using our special CAD (Computer Aided Design) programme called Fusion 360. Once you have the basics in place you will move on to producing your own design-work. You will make lots of prototypes (models) before you move onto the 3D printers which will make your design accurate to less than 0.1mm. You will then finish (file, drill, sand, etc.) and assemble the parts. Over the first two years, you will be working in wood, metal and plastics. Last year, the students chose to make fidget spinners.
Engineering
Engineering is a bit like Design & Technology but the focus is on measuring, accuracy and testing - and making. In Y7, you will work only in metal - aluminium. You will be using over 50 different tools, measuring equipment and machines to make your products. You will then test them to make sure they do their job properly. How would you test a chip shop fork?
What will we do in Y7 in Engineering
In Engineering you will be in the ‘heavy’ workshops, making accurate products out of aluminium. The heavy workshops are full of big and heavy equipment and machines.
Within 15 minutes of you starting your very first Engineering lesson you will be doing practical, making chip shop forks. The fork takes three weeks and after testing it we will then move onto making something much bigger - a folded aluminium table lamp. Above, you can see a picture of an elephant lamp that was made by a student last year. The LED lamp is hidden inside the body.
Engineering covers lots of different mini-subjects, including: Electronics, CAD/CAM, Mechanisms, Pnuematics, Working with Heat, Modern Materials, etc. The list of technologies that we teach is very long.
