The curriculum is designed to be offered in modules or courses of various lengths. Schools are required to provide students with the equivalent of a full-year “course” in  Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies. This “course” can be made up of one or more modules. Schools may choose from among the modules listed below or develop new modules that use the Curricular Competencies of  Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 8 with locally developed content. Locally developed modules can be offered in addition to, or instead of, the modules in the provincial curriculum.
Students are expected to know the following:

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

Big Ideas

Big Ideas

Design can be responsive to identified needs.
Complex tasks require the acquisition of additional skills.
Complex tasks may require multiple tools and technologies.

Content

Learning Standards

Content

Computational Thinking
  • software programs as specific and sequential instructions with algorithms that can be reliably repeated by others
  • debugging algorithms and programs by breaking problems down into a series of sub-problems
  • binary number system (1s and 0s) to represent data
  • programming languages, including visual programming
    for example, Scratch, Alice, Greenfoot, BlueJ
    in relation to text-based programming
    for example, HTML
    and programming modular components
    for example, Arduino, LEGO Mindstorms
Computers and Communications Devices
  • design and function of digital infrastructures, from personal communication systems to wide area networks
    for example, global, satellite
    and the Internet of Things
  • social, cultural, and economic impact of mobile devices
  • systems for information transfer and communication, including videos, blogs, podcasts, and social media
  • keyboarding techniques
    for example, physical hand and foot placement, posture, development of touch typing skills, use of “home row” ASDFJKL techniques
Digital Literacy
  • elements of digital citizenship
    for example, digital self-image, creative credit and copyright, relationships and communication, cyberbullying, legal and ethical issues
  • ethical and legal implications of current and future technologies
    for example, hacking (white hat and black hat), P2P Sharing, Torrents, VPNs, tracking, data collection, anonymity; automation, artificial intelligence, mobile devices, data collection, robotics, digital currencies (e.g., Bitcoin)
  • strategies for curating personal digital content, including management, personalization, organization, and maintenance of digital content; e-mail management; and workflow
  • search techniques, how search results are selected and ranked, and criteria
    accuracy, timeliness, appropriateness, credibility, and bias
    for evaluating search results
  • strategies to engage with personal learning networks
    personalized digital instructional tools to support learning (web forums, tutorials, videos, digital resources, global communities, group communication and etiquette, online learning)
Drafting
  • manual and computer-aided drafting techniques
    isometric, orthographic, oblique, scale, 2D and 3D drawings
  • elements of technical plans and drawings
  • advantages of using
    for example, converting raster to vector in order to use plotters and vinyl cuttersvirtual creation: for example, layout and planning of a project, creating plans for a model
    vector files
  • virtual creation using CAD
Entrepreneurship and Marketing
  • characteristics
    goal, element of risk, personal commitment, planning and preparation, commitment of resources
    of entrepreneurial activity
  • characteristics of social entrepreneurship in First Nations communities
  • recognition of a market need and identification of target market
  • development of a product or service, including its features and benefits
  • forms
    print, social media, web, digital
    of advertising and marketing that can influence a potential customer or buyer
  • differences between consumer wants
    what one would like to have; what one can do without
    and needs
  • role of money management in financing an idea or developing a product 
Food Studies
  • cross-contamination, including prevention and management
  • food preparation practices, including elements of a recipe, techniques, and equipment
  • effects of removing or substituting ingredients, including nutritional profile, food quality, taste
  • social factors that affect food choices, including eating practices
  • variety of eating practices
    with whom, what, when, how, why, where food is consumed in a variety of situations (e.g., informal, formal, special, and/or ceremonial occasions)
  • local food systems
    growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food and food-related items
  • First Peoples food use and how that use has changed over time
Media Arts
  • digital and non-digital
    for example, video production, layout and design, graphics and images, photography (digital and traditional), emerging media processes (performance art, collaborative work, sound art, network art, kinetic art, biotechnical art, robotic art, space art)
    media technologies, their distinguishing characteristics, and their uses, including layout and design, graphics and images, and video production techniques for using images, sounds, and text to represent characterizations and points of view of people, including themselves, as well as settings and ideas
  • story principles
    electing and organizing the elements of structure, intent, characters, settings, and points of view within the conventions of a genre
    and genre conventions
    traditional or culturally accepted ways of doing things based on audience expectations
  • media technologies and techniques
    for example, preparing rough lumber, choosing appropriate tool sizes, cutting, drilling, painting, using simple hardware and fasteners
    to shape space, time, movement, and lighting within images, sounds, and text for specific purposes
  • processes for manipulating and testing digital media data
  • issues in ethical media practices, including cultural appropriation, moral copyright, reproduction, and privacy
  • elements
    composition, time, space, sound, movement, lighting
    of media arts used to communicate meaning
  • influences of digital media, including on communication and self-expression
Metalwork
  • characteristics and uses of ferrous and non-ferrous metals
  • metal fastening techniques, including basic welding and fabrication practices
  • metalworking techniques and processes
    brazing, turning, machining, drilling, cutting, sanding, grinding, polishing
    using hand tools
    for example, cordless and corded drills, rotary tool, hammer, screwdriver, backsaw, ripsaw, coping saw, nail set, square, clamp and vise, chisel, marking gauge, carpenter square, jig saw
    and power equipment
    for example, band saw, scroll saw, drill press
  • elements of plans and drawings
  • reclamation and repurposing of metals
Power Technology
  • uses of power technology
  • renewable and non-renewable sources of energy
  • conversion and transmission of energy
  • kinetic
    energy of motion
    and potential
    stored energy of position
    energy
  • effect of mass and inertia on speed and distance
  • role of aerodynamics
  • effects of forces
    for example, tension, torsion, compression, shear, friction
    on devices
Robotics
  • uses of robotics in local contexts
  • types of sensors
    bump, motion, sound, light, infrared
  • user and autonomous control systems
  • uses and applications of end effectors
  • movement- and sensor-based responses
  • program flow
  • interpretation and use of schematics for assembling
    for example, soldering (with fume extraction), breadboarding
    circuits
  • identification and applications of components
    for example, diodes, LEDs, resistors, capacitors, transistors
  • various platforms
    for example, VEX, VEX IQ, LEGO Mindstorms/NXT
    for robotics programming
Textiles
  • sources of textile materials
    for example, leather, cedar, wool, cotton, felt, embroidery thread, yarn, grasses and reeds, pine needles, sinew, plastic, used items and fabrics (e.g., food wrappers, old clothing)
  • hand and machine construction techniques for producing and/or repairing textile items
  • basic components of patterns and instructions
  • colour as an element of design
  • personal factors that influence textile choices, including culture and self-expression, and the impact of those choices on individual and cultural identity
Woodwork
  • historical and current contexts of woodworking
  • identification, characteristics, and properties of a variety of woods, both manufactured and natural
  • elements of plans and drawings
  • woodworking techniques
    for example, preparing rough lumber, choosing appropriate tool sizes, cutting, drilling, painting, using simple hardware and fasteners
  • traditional
    for example, mitre joint, rabbet joint, dado joint, dowelling
    and non-traditional
    for example, metal connectors, screws and fasteners, biscuits
    joinery using hand tools
    for example, cordless and corded drills, rotary tool, hammer, screwdriver, backsaw, ripsaw, coping saw, nail set, square, clamp and vise, chisel, marking gauge, carpenter square, jig saw
    and power equipment
    for example, band saw, scroll saw, drill press
  • options for reuse
    recycling and reclamation
    of wood and wood products

Curricular Competency

Learning Standards

Curricular Competency

Applied Design

Understanding context

  • Empathize

    share the feelings and understand the needs of others to inform design

    with potential users

    may include self, peers, younger children, family or community members, customers, plants, or animals

    to find issues and uncover needs and potential design opportunities

Defining

  • Choose a design opportunity
  • Identify key features or potential users and their requirements
  • Identify criteria for success and any constraints

    limiting factors such as task or user requirements, materials, expense, environmental impact, issues of appropriation, and knowledge that is considered sacred

Ideating

  • Generate potential ideas and add to others’ ideas
  • Screen ideas against criteria and constraints
  • Evaluate personal, social, and environmental impacts and ethical considerations
  • Choose an idea to pursue

Prototyping

  • Identify and use sources of information

    including seeking knowledge from other people as experts (e.g., First Peoples Elders) secondary sources, and collective pools of knowledge in communities and collaborative atmospheres

  • Develop a plan that identifies key stages and resources
  • Explore and test a variety of materials for effective use
  • Construct a first version of the product

    for example, a physical product, a process, a system, a service, or a designed environment

    or a prototype, as appropriate, making changes to tools, materials, and procedures as needed
  • Record iterations

    repetitions of a process with the aim of approaching a desired result

    of prototyping

Testing

  • Test the first version of the product or the prototype
  • Gather peer and/or user and/or expert feedback and inspiration
  • Make changes, troubleshoot, and test again

Making

  • Identify and use appropriate tools, technologies

    things that extend human capabilities

    , and materials for production
  • Make a plan for production that includes key stages, and carry it out, making changes as needed
  • Use materials in ways that minimize waste

Sharing

  • Decide on how and with whom to share

    may include showing to others, use by others, giving away, or marketing and selling

    their product
  • Demonstrate their product and describe their process, using appropriate terminology and providing reasons for their selected solution and modifications
  • Evaluate their product against their criteria and explain how it contributes to the individual, family, community, and/or environment 
  • Reflect on their design thinking and processes, and evaluate their ability to work effectively both as individuals and collaboratively in a group, including their ability to share and maintain an efficient co-operative work space
  • Identify new design issues

Applied Skills

Demonstrate an awareness of precautionary and emergency safety procedures in both physical and digital environments

Identify and evaluate the skills and skill levels needed, individually or as a group, in relation to a specific task, and develop them as needed

Applied Technologies

Select, and as needed learn about, appropriate tools and technologies to extend their capability to complete a task

Identify the personal, social, and environmental impacts, including unintended negative consequences, of the choices they make about technology use

Identify how the land, natural resources, and culture influence the development and use of tools and technologies