Product Design - Post GCSE
Product Design - Post GCSE
This is an unusual start for your induction to post 16 study, but hopefully the following information and task will help to give you an understanding of the course.
Please read the information on this page and download the PDF further down the page: A Task for you to complete.
The A level course fits really nicely with the GCSE, all of the theory that you have learnt will be used at A level, so take time to go through and consolidate your learning as we will be looking in more detail in to these areas. In September you will all have your own textbook that accompanies the course and a handbook with all the exam specifications and NEA criteria included.
The course requires you to engage in both practical and theoretical study. The specification requires you to cover design and technology skills and knowledge, separated into;
Technical principles
Designing and making principles
The qualification is assessed in 3 ways, 2 exams at the end of year 13 and a non-exam assessment. We will now look at each of these assessments……
Paper 1
What’s assessed: Technical principles
How it’s assessed: Written exam, 2.5 hours
120 marks
30% of A level
Question type: A mixture of short answer and extended response.
Paper 2
What’s assessed: Designing and making principles
How it’s assessed: Written exam, 1.5 hours
80 marks
20% of A level
Question type: A mixture of short answer and extended response.
Section A:
Product analysis: 30 marks
Up to 6 short answer questions based on visual stimulus of product(s)
Section B:
Commercial manufacture: 50 marks
Mixture of short answer and extended response questions
Non-Exam Assessment (NEA)
What's assessed:
Practical application of technical principles, designing and making principles
How it's assessed
Substantial design and make project with theme chosen by you (very similar iterative process as used at GCSE)
100 marks
50% of A-level
Evidence: Design portfolio and photographic evidence of final prototype.
A Task for you to complete: Inclusive Design
Download, and work through the PDF file by clicking here; try and have a go at the Product Analysis question and remember to use ACESS FM to help you
Additional Activities
The ‘click view’ videos on the school web site, under Design Technology, are great to watch. These include ‘How its made’, ‘How it works’ , Better by design, ‘Engineering connections’ and ‘Design for Life’. You might also like to see some of the design history ones, there were great Bauhaus at 100 and Dieter Rams documentaries released last year. If you can’t access these videos, iplayer and other apps show ‘Inside the factory’ (series 2 bikes and shoes, series 4 pencils, series 5 pots and pans, and mattresses)
Computer Aided Drawing skills, practice using Fusion 360. This will enable you to visualise designs and will help you iterate your design through changes to design, colour, texture, etc, and you will be able to produce working/orthographic drawings. These drawings can be produced at various stages appropriate to your manufacturing requirements. The animation element of the CAD will also allow for simulations, these can be converted to print to 3dprinter, laser cutter or CNC router. This will inevitably gain you more marks.
So to start with, log into the following tutorial- (on autodesk academy, same log in as your fusion account) https://academy.autodesk.com/node/129417/take?q-nr=1
Practise your 2D and 3D sketching skills, lots of You Tube videos to help you, sketch a day is a good place to start.
A Level Specification can be found on this link:
https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/design-and-technology/specifications/AQA-7552-SP-2017.PDF
Visit or virtually visit The Design Museum:
https://designmuseum.org/digital-design-calendar/designdispatches
Take a look at some of the magazines, you can sign up to weekly emails or find them on Instagram. Dezeen, Design Weekly, Wallpaper are a good starting poin