One of my pupils was very interested in the way different mechanisms work, and came up with this machine when I encouraged him to explore his knowledge of mechanisms as part of a modelling activity.
One of the woodwork projects undertaken in S1 is a simple toy car. The project includes opportunities to develop a range of practical skills, including measuring and marking out, cutting and shaping, chiselling, drilling and preparing plastic.
This picture shows a small number of finished cars from one of my S1 classes. I have encouraged pupils to be as creative as they can be when personalising their models, resulting in a huge variety!
This set is from one of the first of my classes to completly finish the car project.
This interesting design was modelled on a unicorn, apparently!
One pupil even decided to build a garage to put their car in.
As a fun climax to the project, I have chosen to test the cars out in a "race" down a slope. This was very effective at encouraging the stragglers to finish their cars, and also got them to think a lit bit about function (many were to be found tweaking their wheels to make sure they rotated as freely as possible!).
These two cars ended up being the two fastest. They have yet to complete in the final race!
These four models were the finalists for another class race! The polka-dot one went on to beat even the grippy spoiler and the go-faster stripe!
This key fob project built skills in preparing and finishing plastics. The striking design was achieved by laminating layers of acrylic together and cutting the resultant block into strips, which could then be shaped by each pupil. The project was very successful and resulted in a variety of different designs, some of which are included here.
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S1 Projects - Balwearie High School
The S1 course at Balwearie High School includes elements from all three technology course areas - Graphics, Engineering Science and Design & Manufacture.
This album showcases a collection of models and other work produced by pupils in my S1 my classes.
