Product Design A-Level at Treviglas Community College
You will be completing a large coursework project worth 50% of the course.
This is an open brief so you can make something you would like to make in the workshop working through the whole design process. You will need to make sure you meet a need or solve a problem and it is beneficial to work with a real client, who can give you feedback as you progress with your project.
You will have 2 exams, one at the end of year 12 and one at the end of year 13. These will test your materials knowledge and understanding.
It’s a 3D world! Think about the objects that you love. Your mobile phone with its creative curves was designed on a computer screen. The car you yearn for started life as a reduced size clay model. As a 3D designer you are at the crossroads of a number of skills. Of course you need creativity, in order to imagine the shape and function of the object. But you’ll also need to know about manufacturing processes, materials and marketing.
Your A Level studies cover four main topics, and you’ll study two of these each year.
In ‘Materials, components and application’ - you’ll look at materials, production processes and the impact of cost and design. In ‘Learning through designing and making’ you’ll produce some coursework using your own design with a range of materials and media. You have an open brief so it is up to you what you make.
In the second year you’ll get to grips with ‘Design and manufacture’ - helping you to appreciate the relationship between design and technology, or form and function. ‘Design and making in practice’ is the practical, coursework part again. You’ll make an object and record the processes that you went through.
It is a benefit to have done Resistant Materials at GCSE and gained a grade B but if you are interested in the course and would like a career in the creative industries and want to design and make please talk to Miss Coleridge or Miss Stead.
50% Coursework 50% Exam
In the first year you’ll have two assessments. A two hour written paper accounts for 25% of your total marks. The coursework and your design portfolio account for another 25% of your marks. Year two is the same. A two hour written paper accounts for 25% of your marks and the coursework and your design portfolio account for the final 25% of your A Level marks.
Throughout the year, you get lots of support and regular marking to show how you can improve, with plenty time to support you to achieve your potential.
Bringing ideas to life
3D Design is an enormously satisfying career. You have an idea and – with the use of tools like clay or computers – it comes to life. Imagine how satisfying it must be for the person who designed the iPhone or Razr to hold the finished product in their hand.
3D design could take you into a number of exciting career paths. Of course there’s product or automotive design. But what about computer generated cartoons? Or maybe CAD for industry appeals to you more? Or a Graphics based career? This course could take you into architecture, teaching, manufacturing, advertising or engineering.
D&T Product Design will help you develop a number of skills:
- How to assemble data and assess it
- How to investigate facts and use deduction
- How to develop your creativity and communicate your ideas
- How to put over your point of view fluently
- How to work as a team to achieve results
- How to take responsibility for your own learning.
How to apply
If you want to apply for this course, you will need to contact Treviglas Community College directly.