Major Project Tips & Advice

IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

Make sure you put these things somewhere in your portfolio:

1. the impact of your project on Society, and the Environment.

2. get some experts to evaluate your product. Don't just use parents.

3. a range of communication techniques eg sketches, drawings, technical drawings, photos, etc.

4. lots and lots of options, and why you chose the one you chose. Make it really clear.

5. lots of experiments to explain some of the options above.

6. at the front of the portfolio, write a paragraph about who the Target Market is, ie who you can sell this to as well.

7. then write how this project will help you after school eg as an example for a job interview? as a work of art? to sell and make money? to start a small business?

8. put some actions in your Action List. eg Research Cost by doing x then y then z. Then copy and paste this into each section with some evaluation. Then copy and paste it all together at the end of the portfolio.

9. Order your criteria and explain why it is in that order. Justify why x is more important than y. You need to persuade a stranger that you have placed them in that order for a reason.

10. Make sure your proposal/problem needing to be solved at the start of the portfolio is really what you solved at the end. If not, change the proposal!

11. clearly spell out with drawings, photos, samples, etc what your options were, and why you chose the one you did. (AM I REPEATING MYSELF HERE????? IT MUST BE IMPORTANT!!)

12. At the start, list all of the things you could research. Include phone numbers of suppliers, experts, etc.

13. At the start, make sure you say ALL the things your project MUST do.

14. list advantages and disadvantages for the different materials, machines, processes you could have used.

15. Right at the end, re-ask the proposal questions (copy and paste) from point 13 above and put in bold how it does each thing.

16. Where you put Colour, Cost, Size, etc at the start, include the words Aesthetics - Colour, and Aesthetics - Size, and Daniel and Tim could put Function - Portability (or similar), and Function - Efficacy. (The examiners are looking for the words Function and Aesthetics.)

17. If you have separate articles (items), evaluate it separately. Eg Daniel should evaluate the Function and Aesthetics and Society and Environment for each and every verandah. Tim would do it for all panels plus the combination of them.

18. Get an exercise book (label it as IDEAS) and fill it with annotated sketches. Vary the dates and pencils. Use some pens. Make the examiners think you did this for a whole year. Only include sketches if you are less than 80 A4 pages. You will be penalised for going over 80 pages!!! Do not go more than 80 pages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Demonstrate how you worked safely and show PPE in all photos etc.

More to come...