Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
Craft, Design and Technology (CDT) during the 1980s was a relatively new concept in the prep school curriculum. It was introduced as an academic subject in the British educational system. It is now commonly referred to as Design and Technology (D&T) or in Scotland Crafts and Technology (C&T).
The subject has come to occupy an important position in the school and curriculum. One overview of CDT, explains the concept, "
The subject matter of design and technology is our made world; our clothes, our food, our means
of travel, our shelters, our communication systems. But, more than that, design and technology is about
creating change in the made world; about understanding the processes of change and becoming
capable in the exercise of change-making. When Honda produces a new car; Westwood a new outfit;
Boeing a new airliner, Saloman a new ski, Bovis a new house, or Ericsson a new mobile phone, they
exemplify not only the diversity of our material culture but also the creativity underpinning the
change-making process. Science provides explanations of how the world works, mathematics gives us numbers and procedures through which to explore it, and languages enable us to communicate within it. But uniquely, design and technology empowers us to change the made world. Design and technology is about change in the made world. It enables us to understand the process of change and to engage in it. It is about the future; about what might be or should be." CDT not only helps develop useful skills, but it also helps the children to understand the relationship between the various subjdcts they are studying--a relationship that is not always apparent to young people.
In CDT we were set a project. The design brief was to make a catapult out of wood, or to make out initials out of acrylic. We had about half of this term to complete the project. First of all we had to draw six plans and then choose one of the six designs to build and develop. I chose to make a catapult. We had to measure the pieces of wood in miimeters and to be very precise. At the end of the time allowed for the project, we all went up to the Birchall Hall to test the catapaults, to see whose would project a table-tennis ball the furthest. We found that Catherine Young's was the best.
Simon Pratt, Junior Wyvern (Queen's College Junior School), 1989-90.
I am reminded of the old RAF 'Navigator' joke in which the newly wualified navigator says, "Six months ago I difn't even know how to spell navigator and now I are one!".
Well, twelve months ago, we did know how to spell technology but, as to wehat it should mean as a Prep School subject, we ad little idea and no-one, it seemed, could tell us.
Gave we got it right? Well, judging by the appreciative feedback from arents and children I feel the answer is certainly "Yes," but I'm very conscious that we are still feeling our way and thus the second year of the course poses nearly as many unknowns as the first. For example, I propose to teach aerodynamics next term. but the question of how deeply to go into it will be, to some extent, a matter of seeing both how much the children can understand and how much can be put to practical use in the model windmills and aeroplanes we hope to make. Later in the final year, I believe we should try to introduce some practical electronics, linked to automatic control of some hime-made mechanisms, such as a crane, but clearly the problem of how deeply to go into again looms large. Also we have to consider expendse, for example we can justify the use of a computer, or even a pound or two per child, in making an electronic counting ands switching device that is unlikely to have utilitty value later in the way that a tabe lamp or bowl from carpentry has. Actually, I hope parents will accept that the value of the things we make lies in the learming experience and satidfaction gained in the pricess. ....
TPC, Great Walstead Magazine 1987.
