“Look mummy, I’ve made a …” Smiles and pride…Response? Who can fail to be moved by the child seeing themselves as a creative being?
The incomplete nature of the product may be due to a lack of experiences and ideas, hand control, choice or availability of materials, but is, to the child, a work of immense pleasure. The making gives pleasure.
You don’t have to be an expert to achieve that level.
You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. Albert Camus
While the first incarnation of the National Curriculum brought Design Technology centre stage in thinking, moving Primary “making” to another level, largely by articulating stages in development in a subject that could be something of a Cinderella subject, subsequent revisions brought into play the idea of resource tasks. These could be seen as basic underpinning elements that would require direct teaching. A simple example might be showing children how to safely cut a piece of 1cm spar, using a saw and bench hook, ensuring wood held secure with one hand and a good cutting style with the saw. In the early experiences, a focus on cutting to a line might require simple practice. This activity would then be linked to measuring, cutting specific lengths of wood.
Consider the following; design and make a paper aeroplane that will fly at least five metres. This is a very simple example which could be given to a child of 6 years. Where would the child start? Paper is the specified medium, so perhaps collecting a selection of papers would help. Exploring the papers to discover and describe (orally or in writing) the features of each would provide familiarity with the material. The need to create an aeroplane shape would require research, orally, by asking an “expert”, using library sources, or looking this up on the internet. Copying a previously made example provides the task to be practiced. To achieve the flight of five metres might require trial and error methodology, with adaptations and adjustments explored. Watching and collaborating with others, discussing refinements and persevering are all essential skills for life and work.
As children passed through the school, tasks were created that provided progressive challenges, incorporating the broader range of skills that had been learned, for example, make hats, working buggies, windmills/turbines, systems (crazy golf hole), musical instrument, puppets, storage items. The challenge would be to design and make a … to… On occasion, this would be explicitly topic linked, levers, castle gate, moving puppets.
Sometimes, it would link science and making.
Set up a fair test to find the best colour to wear when walking along the road.
Design and make a device that will project a ping pong ball 4 metres into a container.
Using newspaper, build a framework strong enough to… hold a 100g mass 50cm above a table… hold a cup of water… hold a cream egg… span a 50cm gap between tables and hold 100/200/500g
Consider how to find out of a full balloon weighs more than an empty one.
How much stretch does an elastic band have?
Using squared paper, always the same size, fold a series of rafts with different area bases and different height sides. Which design holds the greater mass?
Problem solving, project management, collaboration and cooperation, persistence, evaluation are all side products. Working in this way can also support PSHE, as learners begin to see strengths in each other.
An example from my teaching career springs to mind. The topic for a period of time was sports. During one week, I decided to use the long, wide corridor near my classroom to set a challenge. On day one, the group of eight seven-year olds whom I thought had the greatest independence were challenged to create (design and make) a crazy golf hole, using materials available within the classroom. They had the morning as their working time. In the first fifteen minutes, they collected a range of items which might be useful. This was followed with a group discussion around a large piece of sugar paper, with ideas drawn and discussed. The build process started from the agreed plan, but soon adjustments were made, deigned to be improvements. After an hour, they had their golf hole. A period of measuring and drawing secured the design for posterity and allowed later consideration of scale, as drawings were tidied onto squared paper. Photographs were taken for reference. The main task was the use of the hole to see how many shots and how long it took for different class members to complete. This tally and timing data was later collated into charts. The group explained before starting what needed to happen to each class member, so everything was “fair”. Before lunchtime, the group sat together to reflect on what had been achieved, both in terms of measurable outcomes, but also in terms of their personal development. The maturity levels of all were enhanced, as they saw the purposes of the different aspects of learning and set the tone for subsequent groups to follow. Follow up included instruction writing, developed into reports, scale drawings for the more able, but sketch maps with measurements for all. The quality of discussion was very high, as children had had a shared experience.
Problem solving defines the purpose for learning. The clarity with which the learner can define for themselves the point of learning provides the driving force for achievement. How much learning is lost because the learner can’t see the point?
The principle of the resource task, to some extent, underpins every curriculum area. In English, we have drafting and redrafting to refine and embed successive knowledge and skill. In maths, there is algorithm rehearsal for refinement. It is knowing clearly the capability of each child, within the anticipated subject development that enables informed, refined interaction and specific guidance or additional challenge to each.