Characteristics of technological outcomes NT 7-2
Achievement standard 2.9 AS91362
Characteristics of technological outcomes focuses on technological products and systems, and how they are evaluated in terms of fitness for purpose. Technological outcomes can be described by their physical and functional nature, and both the physical nature and functional nature are important when evaluating the outcome’s fitness for purpose. A technological outcome can only be interpreted when the social and historical context of its development and use are known.
Achievement objective: NT 7-2
Students will:
- understand that technological outcomes are a resolution of form and function priorities and that malfunction affects how people view and accept outcomes.
Indicators
Students can:
- explain how malfunction can impact on the design and/or manufacture of similar and related technological outcomes
- justify how the design elements appear to have been prioritised in technological outcomes
- justify the fitness for purpose of technological outcomes in terms of their physical and functional nature and socio-technological environment/s they are used within.
Progression
At level 6, students explore the interaction between technological outcomes and people, society and environments. They discuss why technological outcomes, people, society and environments interact both successfully and unsuccessfully, and can identify/describe the social and historical context of the situation.
At level 7, students progress to understanding that technological outcomes are a resolution of form and function priorities, and different aspects will have been prioritised in the design of the outcome. Also, important at level 7 is the concept of malfunction, and how malfunction affects how people view and accept outcomes.
TOP
Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of characteristics of technological outcomes at level 7, teachers could:
- provide students with opportunities to discuss how malfunction can impact on the design or manufacturing of similar and related technological outcomes
- provide students with opportunities to identify that form refers to the physical nature of a technological outcome and function refers to the functional nature of the outcome
- design elements related to an outcome’s physical nature include such things as: colour, movement, pattern, proportion, harmony, taste
- design elements related to an outcome’s functional nature include such things as: strength, durability, stability, efficiency, nutritional value
- design elements are prioritised in different ways as determined by such things as: a designer’s intent for the outcome, understandings of materials, the socio-cultural location the outcome is to be situated, professional and personal beliefs
- support students to critically analyse the physical and functional nature of technological outcomes to identify how design elements appear to have been prioritised and to explain how such a prioritisation could be justified
- support students to analyse the prioritisation of design elements, in particular, technological outcomes, with respect to the intended purpose of the technological outcome, intended users and specific context, the wider socio-technological environment it was a part of, and the era of its development, and to make informed judgments as to the outcome’s fitness for purpose.
TOP
Contexts for teaching and learning
In a teaching and learning programme, student exploration of the concepts around characteristics of technological outcomes could support them to develop greater conceptual understandings that will inform their own project work. However, there is no requirement that students must or must not relate these understandings to their own project work. Teachers may decide to focus on existing outcomes to develop the understandings and then students apply this in their own project work. Alternatively, teachers may treat this as a stand-alone piece of learning that is not tied in with student’s project work.
At this level, students must have an understanding that any judgment about an outcome's fitness for purpose is dependent on the environment where the outcome is located. This includes both the physical and social environment. For example, students could explore what extremes of physical environment might mean for an outcome – will a given technological outcome work in hot, cold, wet, dry, wind, dirty, noisy conditions. Similarly, students can explore what different social environments mean when judging fitness for purpose. For example, how the same outcome would be viewed in NZ or in a different country; would different cultures/religious groups view the fitness for purpose of a given outcome in the same way? Social environment can also relate to the context of time and comparing historical to contemporary eras. Would a product that was successful in a different era still be fit for purpose now or vice versa?
At this level, students need to understand how technological outcomes are a resolution of form and function priorities; that is, unless there is an unlimited budget, something has probably been compromised. Students should look at a range of technological outcomes and explore the design elements related to both the physical nature and the functional nature, and justify how design elements have been prioritised in particular technological outcomes. The teacher guidance section (above) has lists of design elements related to physical and functional nature.
Students should be exploring malfunction and what it means for an outcome to malfunction, and what are the implications of a malfunction on how people view and accept outcomes. For example, if fireworks malfunction does the change the way people interact with fireworks next time?
Literacy considerations
Teachers need to ensure students understand the specialist language related to characteristics of technological outcomes such as "physical nature", "functional nature", "fitness for purpose" and "malfunction".
Students must also understand the language necessary to communicate their understanding about characteristics of technological outcomes at this level. They will need to clearly understand what is meant by explain, and discuss. Students will need to understand how to explain and discuss aspects of:
- design elements
- physical and functional attributes of a specific technological outcome
- the relationship between attributes of an outcome and related design elements
- fitness for purpose and the relationship between this, the attributes and the environment (social and physical).
Resources to support teaching and learning
Case study
Assessment for qualifications
The following achievement standard(s) could assess learning outcomes from this learning objective:
- AS91362 Generic technology 2.9: Demonstrate understanding of the nature of technological outcomes
Key messages from the standard
This standard is about understanding the nature of technological outcomes. Explanatory note 6 reinforces the crucial idea that this refers to the combined physical and functional nature. Students must explore and understand both these aspects.
Explanatory note 4 states that design elements related to physical nature may include but are not limited to: movement, pattern, rhythm, proportion, balance, harmony, contrast, style, texture, and colour.
Explanatory note 5 states that design elements related to functional nature may include but are not limited to: strength and durability, safety, stability, efficiency, reliability, user-friendliness, ergonomic fit, texture, viscosity, consistency, structure, nutritional value, and taste.
Whilst there is no quota as such, students should cover a number of these design elements rather than focus too narrowly on just a few.
For merit and above, students must consider the technological outcome in terms of the environment where it is located. Explanatory note 3 states that environment refers to both the physical and social environment.
Resources to support student achievement
Last updated March 8, 2022
TOP
