Technological systems TK 7-3
Achievement standard 2.7 AS91360
Technological systems are a set of interconnected components that serve to transform, store, transport, or control materials, energy, and/or information. These systems exist as the result of human design and function without further human design input.
Achievement objective: TK 7-3
Students will:
- understand the concepts of redundancy and reliability and their implications for the design, development, and maintenance of technological systems.
Indicators
Students can:
- explain the concept of redundancy in relation to technological systems
- discuss examples of particular technological systems to illustrate how factors related to redundancy impacted on system design, development, and/or maintenance decisions
- explain the concept of reliability in relation to technological systems
- discuss examples of particular technological systems to illustrate how factors related to reliability impacted on system design, development, and/or maintenance decisions.
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Progression
At level 6, students should understand the implications of subsystems for the design, development, and maintenance of technological systems.
At level 7, students progress to dealing with the concepts of redundancy and reliability in technological systems and the implications of these on the design, development, and maintenance of technological systems.
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Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understanding of technological systems at level 7, teachers could:
- support students to understand the concepts of redundancy and reliability in relation to technological systems
- redundancy relates to the inclusion of more time, information and/or resources than would strictly be needed for the successful functioning of the technological system
- reliability relates to the probability that a system will perform a required function under stated conditions for a stated period of time
- support students to identify and analyse a range of examples of technological systems to gain insight into how redundancy and reliability factors have impacted on system design, development, and maintenance decisions
- provide examples that include system design, development, and maintenance practices of technologists.
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Contexts for teaching and learning
- In some situations it may be possible for students to explore the concepts of redundancy and reliability within the systems they are designing and developing themselves. However, in many cases, it will be necessary to look at an existing technological systems in order to develop the depth of understanding expected about redundancy and reliability.
- Even if students are studying systems they have designed and made themselves (for example, an electronic project) it is still likely to be beneficial to explore existing systems to broaden the student's understanding of reliability and redundancy.
- Case studies, Internet research, guest speakers, and site visits are all useful ways to study systems. There are case studies on Technology Online that have a focus on technological systems (see links below).
- Teachers should select technological systems to study that are relevant to the overall programme and will be engaging and interesting for students.
Literacy considerations
- Ensure students understand the difference between a technological system and any other type of system such as a biological system, a social system, or a system (process) of production.
- Teachers need to ensure students understand the specialist language related to technological systems such as "technological system", "redundancy" and "reliability".
- Students also must understand the language necessary to communicate their understanding about technological systems at this level. They will need to clearly understand describe, explain, and discuss.
Resources to support student achievement
Case studies
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Assessment for qualifications
The following achievement standard(s) could assess learning outcomes from this achievement objective:
- AS91360 Generic technology 2.7: Demonstrate understanding of redundancy and reliability in technological systems
Key messages from the standard
- The starting point for this standard is identifying a technological system as opposed to any other type of system such as a biological system or the tax system! Teachers need to ensure students have this fundamental understanding right before they start.
- The focus at level 7 is on the two key concepts of redundancy and reliability. Explanatory note 3 and 4 give definitions of these terms.
- Explanatory note 3 says: "Redundancy in technological systems refers to the inclusion of additional components and/or subsystems to duplicate a function/s. Duplication provides ‘back-up’ or allows for increased ‘fail-safe’ tolerance". There are several specialist words in this definition that will need to be explained to students with examples.
- When introducing the concept of redundancy, you could look at a range of examples where redundancy is a critical factor in the design of the system. It will probably help students to look at a range of examples that are not constrained to only redundancy within products students are making themselves in class, for example, redundancy in a space station or a suspension bridge.
- Explanatory note 4 states: "Reliability in technological systems refers to a system’s ability to perform consistently and maintain its expected functions when operated within stated conditions for a stated period of time. This also includes consideration of social, cultural and/or environmental factors which impact on a system’s reliability".
- Teachers should note the broad definition of reliability in Explanatory note 4, which includes consideration of social, cultural, and/or environmental factors that impact on a systems reliability. For example, a car contains a number of technological systems. Did the designer consider how the car may be used in different situations and what affect this would have on the reliability of some of the systems? Or what about the environmental conditions that car might be used in. How will the environmental conditions affect system reliability?
- At excellence, students should be also considering ongoing maintenance of the technological system.
It is important that students only submit material they understand. They should write in their own words about their own experiences, explaining their own understanding. Students should reference material that is not their own using appropriate referencing at the point of use. The use of information from other sources can assist the candidate to demonstrate understanding only where the candidate uses the information by one or more of the following:
- interpreting or rewriting the information in their own words
- relating the information to a specific context or example
- commenting meaningfully on the information.
Resources to support student achievement
Last updated June 1, 2021
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