Technology Unit Planner

Year (s)
4, 5, 6
Level 3.

Situation/Big Question
Mr Filipo has asked us here in Room One to design and create a range of medals to present to the students at Halfway
Bush Schools Youth Olympics games. What designs can Room One come up with?

Key Competencies: (Highlight one focus key competency)

Thinking; Using Language, symbols and text, Managing self; Relating to
others; Participating and Contributing
Level: 3

Duration
8 10 sessions
2 3 weeks.

Values (Highlight one focus value)

Excellence; Innovation; Inquiry and Curiosity; Equity; Community and Participation;
Ecological sustainability; Integrity; Respect

Achievement Objectives Technological Practice (select 3 from NZC)

Planning for Practice (PP)

* Undertake planning to identify the key stages and resources required to develop an outcome. Revisit planning to include reviews of progress and indeitify implications for
subsequent decision making.
Brief Development (BD)
* Describe the nature of an intended outcome, explaining how it addresses the need or opportunity. Describe the key attributes that enable development and evalutation of
an outcome.

Outcome development and evaluation (ODE)

* Investigate a context to develop ideas for potential outcomes. Trail and evaluate these against key attributes to selevt and develop an outcome to adress the need or
opportunity. Evaluate this outcome against the key attributes and how it adresses the need or opportunity.
Achievement Objectives Technological Knowledge (select 1-2 from NZC)
Technological modelling (TM)

Technological products (TP)

* Understand the relationship between the materials used and their performance properties in technological products.
Technological systems (TS)

Achievement Objectives Nature of Technology (select 1-2 from NZC)

Characteristics of technology (CT)
Understand how society and environments impact on and are influenced by technology in historical and contemporary contexts and that technological knowledge is
validated by successful function.
Characteristics of technological outcomes (CTO)
Teaching and Learning Experiences
(bullet point list of experiences)

*Present the situation / big question to the children. The big

question is: Mr Filipo has asked us here in Room One to
design and create a range of medals to present to the students
at Halfway Bush Schools Youth Olympics games. What
designs can Room One come up with?
Key Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fggvXlSlHYI
(How the london olympic medals were made.
-Air dry clay purchased from:
Crayola.com
-Wax paper
-Circle cookie cuter / lid off jar.
-Small knife (needs to be supervised at a station) to
add in rectangular loop at the top for stringing the
ribbion.

Explore the big question and decide as a class whether

our school can take on this
project. As a classroom we will discuss our big
question
together. The children will be asked if they think this
project can be achieved in the time frame given.

*As a classroom we will discuss what a stakeholder is

and the importance of our stakeholders in our project.
We will decide who we need to cater to? Who we
need to interview? We willl identify our key
stakeholders as a classroom. The main stakeholder
will give the children on-going feedback. The
children will craft some questions to ask their

Safety
(student and space)

- Students will be
introduced to this
project in the
classroom. Children
will use the space of
there desks to write
and discuss their
main stakeholders.

Assessment Focus
(Indicators of
Progression Learning
Outcomes)
Students will:
TP Tecnological
practice
Through creating
sketches and mockups,
children will be able to
describe the physical and
functional nature of
creating medals.

stakeholder. Children will also be given a Looking a

head sheet which they will add to every lesson. They
will be asked to note done what they have completed
and what needs to be completed next.

Variety of materials to carve their designs into medals.

-Plastic cards e.g childrens library cards
- Straws
-Lids
Wooden cuticle sticks.
-Metallic gold spray (can also be silver and bronze
depending on the childrens preferences).

*Interview the key stakeholders with previously

crafted questions.

Initial breif & specifications From the requirements

provided by the stakeholder, develop an initial brief.
Start exploring what the solution could look like.

Explore a range of medals, invesitgating their

functional & physical attributes. As a class create a
plus and minus chart showing what are successful and
limiting atributes of each medal.

-Ribbion for medals.

-News paper for spraying spray paint.

Thinking Strategy/Tool
Blooms Taxomny to support questioning skills.

Create own sketch/ mock up of medal desgins.

Explore previous medals from Olympic games,
evaluating their designs. This will give children
design ideas for their medals. When creating
sketches/mock ups the children will need to: Include
the colour of the medal, the pattern their medal will
have, the appropriate size for praciality, and colour of
the ribbion. Share design with stakeholder.

The stakeholders will give children a range of

feedback on their sketches. The children will be asked
to adapt their design from the stakeholders feedback
if needed.

E-Learning Tools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fggvXlSlHYI
Youtube clip on how the london olympic medals were
made. This video will be used as an unit igniter.
Ipads for the children to research previous olympical
medal designs.
Post the childrens progression on a classroom blog
that can be accessed from our schools online
newsletter.
Te Reo/Tikanga
Whanaungatanga Whnau, hap, iwi, and the
community will be invited to our mini youth olympics
event.

Create mock-up/ protypes using playdough. Explore

the techniques and materials you are going to use to

-Students will be
working within the
school environment,
interviewing their
key stakeholders.

TK Technological
Knowledge
Children will have the
opportunity to explore
familiar & new
materials. They will use
inexpensive materials to
share ideas / mock ups.

- Children will be
creating their own
sketch/mock ups at
their desks. They
will need a hard
surface to sketch
designs with their
pencils.

When creating
mockups children
will be aware of the
hazzards around
using a hot glue gun
and will have
discussed how to use

Explore how materials

can be formed,
manipulated and
transformed to enhance
the fitness for purpose.

NoT Nature of
Technology.
Intentional process of
design. Children will go
through an intentional
step by step process,
testing and
experimenting with
potential designs. This

Manaakitanga will be evident throughout the unit

as children respect each other, and give positive
feedback on their initial designs. In this unit we will be
creating a stong mana, supporting one another on our
technological journey.
Wnanga communication, problem solving,
innovation.
Community Links
Support from the school.
Associate teacher/ Principal/Bot, and other staff in the
school.
Whnau and the community of Halfway Bush School
will be invited to watch their children participate in
their own mini Youth Olympics.

create
your personalised medal design.
Students will write about the modelling processes and the
changes they have made to their designs as a result of
modelling. To prompt the children with their writing I will
give them the following sentence starters:
-The first part of the process was..
-Some of the problems were..
-The changes I made as a result of finding out about this
were

Final design create final design using air dry clay.

Test
outcome to see if it is practical for its intended use.

Use medals in our mini Youth Olympics day at

Halfway Bush School. Classrooms will be split up
into different countries. Each country will participate
in a range of athletic events. Each event has a certain
amount of points up for grabs. Each country will work
together to achieve either a bronze, silver, or gold
medal depending on how well the work as a team.
* Evaluate the final outcome of your medal. Did it
meet the standards for the intended use? Was it
pracitical for our Youth Olympics? Were the materials
durable? Did it meet the stakeholders requirements?

this tool
appropriately.

Students will need

supervision when
using a craft knife to
cut create a
rectanglular loop at
the top for the
ribbion.

will include decision

making and
manufacturing.

Evaluation of unit

Technology Rationale.
This unit plan has achievement objectives, selected from the New Zealand curriculum. These have been selected from the three technology
strands: Technological practice, Technological Knowledge and Nature of technology. This unit plan has a series of relevant objectives, which I am
able to identify the stages in which the final product is going to be produced by the children. This plan requires the competency relating to others
with children working closely with their stakeholders and the values of innovation, inquiry, and curiosity thinking critically, creatively, and
reflectively (Ministry of education, 2007, p.10) on their designs. This unit plan supports best teacher practice in technology as it caters for all
learners and abilities. This is a student driven project, where students can extend themselves through creativity. Students will be supported
through some teacher direction but are also able to make own decisions, creating their own learning pathway. This unit promotes effective

pedagogical practices, as I will be there to support and guide children when it is appropriate, but also allow children to self explore into the world
of technology.

In order to facilitate a successful technology unit, it needs to be authentic and meaningful for all students (Turnbull, 2002). I have chosen this
theme of Rio Olympics 2016 as it is a current event that will be embedded through all curriculum areas. This event is Halfway Bush Schools
major focus in term 3, looking at the economical aspects. This unit will be tied in with my Physical Education unit looking at different skills and
events that make up athletics, having our own school Olympic event where our medals will be presented. Fox-Turnbull and Turnbull define
authenticity as connecting students understanding to meaningful and real-world situations, ensuring their involvement in technological practices
uses authentic tools and processes (Snape & Turnbull, 2013, p.53). Having a technology unit that is a real-world situation such as creating our
own medals for our Olympic games, will expose children to real technological practice (Snape & Turnbull, 2013, p.53). Students will explore this
in lesson ones igniter exploring the technological process taken to create the London Olympics medals.

My diagnostic assessment shows the childrens current knowledge and thinking surrounding technology. The children previously believed
technology did not go beyond electrical devices. However when directing the children into thinking about technology beyond this, the children
were able to write appropriate types of modeling for attributes showing their pmanawa. The children needed further help with identifying why
prototyping is important. In this unit the students will be guided through the technological process. They will be guided to think about what is it
they are going to make, ways it can be made, what it can be made of and its functionality and its form (Moreland, Cowie, Otrel-Cass, & Jones,
2010, p.4). Working alongside students will be important, showing me where children's individual skills need developed. This will identify
opportunities for introducing new knowledge and skills to boost student progression.

This unit supports the technological process of Have Lock North. (Arnold, Foster, McLennan, Sutherland & Rimmer, 2006). Norths technological
process used within the New Zealand curriculum is presented in a spiral diagram. This spiral diagram is made up of the three main steps:
research, planning, and evaluating. These three main steps are underpinned by ten elements, which are evident in my unit. This is shown in my
learning experiences where children undertake the following: children are presented with the situation, they identify the key stakeholder, they go
through the processes of an initial brief and specifications, they explore a range of functional and physical attributes, create their own sketch and
mock ups of medal designs, create mock ups/ prototypes, create their final design, and test their product for it intended use and evaluate the
fitness for purpose.

This unit has links to both the technological knowledge strand and the nature of technology. Children are asked to explore a range of existing
medals to define the attributes that make them successful or limiting. The technology knowledge strand allows children to discover how
materials can be formed, manipulated/ and or transformed to enhance the fitness for purpose of a technological product (Technology Curriculum
Support, 2009, p.55). In this unit children have the opportunity to explore familiar and new materials. The children will test these materials and
decided whether or not they are practical for intended use. They will also look at current medals and decide what are their successful but also
limiting attributes.

The Nature of Technology strand is also embedded in this unit. One key aspect of this strand states that Intentional process of design, decision
making and manufacturing, rather than through process of the natural world of things occurring by chance (Technology Curriculum Support,
2009, p41). This statement tells us that the final outcome of a technological product will only be successful if produced through an intentional

process instead of chance. This unit supports this, as children will be guided through the technological process, having the support of
stakeholders and myself, leading up to the manufacturing of their own final products.

References:
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media
Moreland, J., Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K. and Jones, A. (2010). Developing designerly thinking in technology. Retrieved 23 January 2014 from
http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/InsiteDesignThinking.pdf
Snape, P. and Fox-Turnbull, W. (2013). Perspectives of authenticity: Implementation in technology education. International Journal of Technology
and Design Education 23(1): 51-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10798-011-9168-2 .

Technology Curriculum Support. (2007). Explanatory Paper: The Nature of Technology Strand. http://www.techlink.org.nz/curriculum-support
October 2007; Updated April 2009.

Technology Curriculum Support. (2007) Explanatory Paper: The Technological Knowledge Strand. http://www.techlink.org.nz/curriculum-supprt
October 2007; Updated April 2009

Turnbull, W. (2002). The Place of Authenticity in Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers