What an exciting term so far. Students in Technologies are now well into their studies. So, it is fitting reminder to ensure students have returned their Technology Safety Understanding forms and have their formal leather dress shoes to work in our kitchens and workshops. We look forward to showcasing the work students have been completing in our upcoming newsletters.

In this newsletter, and preparation for the upcoming reporting period, we investigate and explain the Technologies curriculum. Under the Australian Curriculum, the Technologies allows students to learn about and work with traditional, contemporary, and emerging technologies (computer systems, circuits, mechanisms, tools, equipment and machinery) that shape the world in which we live. Students apply knowledge, practical skills and processes to use technologies and other resources to create innovative solutions, that respond to people’s needs. This is a very different approach to the traditional wood, metal, food, or electrotechnology workshop. The contemporary curriculum responds to the skills required for 21^stcentury life and employment. More information about these skills is available on the World Economic Forum website.

The Technologies learning area is split into two distinct strands:

• Design and Technologies in which students use design thinking and technologies to generate and produce designed solutions for authentic needs and opportunities.
• Digital Technologies, in which students use computational thinking and information systems to define, design and implement digital solutions.

Design & Technologies

Design & Technologies is further divided into specialist areas:

• Engineering principles and systems
• Food and fibre production
• Food specialisations
• Materials and technologies specialisations

In Year 7 and 8, students rotate through three areas with Food and Fibre production spread across both the Food specification and materials areas. The fourth unit is studied is Economics and Business which contains elements of the applied design process. Please refer to our previous newsletter article to see the order of the rotations.

From Year 9, students study individual Personal Endeavour Courses (PECs) that are based on a specialist area. These include Fast Fibres and Fabrics, Industrial Technologies, Freehand & Computer Drawing, Circuits and Mechanisms, and User Solutions.

Digital Technologies

In Digital Technologies subjects, students use digital systems, digital information and computational thinking to create solutions that enable the storage and communication of human knowledge. They develop an understanding of the relationship between the information systems (documents, spreadsheets, databases and websites) and physical computers in real world situations. Students discuss and respond to assignments dealing with social, cultural, legal, environmental and ethical issues. We use computational thinking methods and strategies to understand and solve information problems.

So, in plain language, our Year 7 students learn about the Digital Systems we use at Foxwell SSC including how to monitor their emails, create and format documents, and save their files to the Microsoft cloud. Students also learn about digital networks and how computers share information.

From Year 9, students study individual Personal Endeavour Courses (PECs) that are based on specialist areas of digital technologies. These include, website design, management information, app and game development, and coding and robotics.

In our next newsletter, we’ll provide additional information about each subject and the pathways Technologies leads to.

 For more information or a discussion about your student’s engagement in their Technologies course, please contact Andrew Nicholls during school hours.