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Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies
Core Competencies
Big Ideas
Grandes idées
Design can be responsive to identified needs.
Complex tasks require the acquisition of additional skills.
Complex tasks may require multiple tools and technologies.
Learning Standards
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Curricular Competencies
Students are expected to be able to do the following:
Understanding context
Defining
- Choose a design opportunity
- Identify key features or potential users and their requirements
- Identify criteria for success and any constraintsconstraintslimiting 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 informationsources of informationincluding 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 productor a prototype, as appropriate, making changes to tools, materials, and procedures as neededproductfor example, a physical product, a process, a system, a service, or a designed environment
- Record iterationsof prototypingiterationsrepetitions of a process with the aim of approaching a desired result
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, and materials for productiontechnologiesthings that extend human capabilities
- 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 sharetheir productsharemay include showing to others, use by others, giving away, or marketing and selling
- 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
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
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
Content
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 know the following:
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 programmingin relation to text-based programmingvisual programmingfor example, Scratch, Alice, Greenfoot, BlueJand programming modular componentstext-based programmingfor example, HTMLprogramming modular componentsfor example, Arduino, LEGO Mindstorms
Computers and Communications Devices
- design and function of digital infrastructures, from personal communication systems to wide area networksand the Internet of Thingswide area networksfor example, global, satellite
- social, cultural, and economic impact of mobile devices
- systems for information transfer and communication, including videos, blogs, podcasts, and social media
- keyboarding techniqueskeyboarding techniquesfor example, physical hand and foot placement, posture, development of touch typing skills, use of “home row” ASDFJKL techniques
Digital Literacy
- elements of digital citizenshipelements of digital citizenshipfor example, digital self-image, creative credit and copyright, relationships and communication, cyberbullying, legal and ethical issues
- ethical and legal implications of current and future technologiescurrent and future technologiesfor 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 criteriafor evaluating search resultscriteriaaccuracy, timeliness, appropriateness, credibility, and bias
- strategies to engage with personal learning networkspersonal learning networkspersonalized 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 techniquesdrafting techniquesisometric, orthographic, oblique, scale, 2D and 3D drawings
- elements of technical plans and drawings
- advantages of usingvector filesusingfor 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
- virtual creation using CAD
Entrepreneurship and Marketing
- characteristicsof entrepreneurial activitycharacteristicsgoal, element of risk, personal commitment, planning and preparation, commitment of resources
- 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
- formsof advertising and marketing that can influence a potential customer or buyerformsprint, social media, web, digital
- differences between consumer wantsand needswantswhat one would like to have; what one can do without
- 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 practiceseating practiceswith 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 systemsfood systemsgrowing, 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-digitalmedia 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 ideasdigital and non-digitalfor 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)
- story principlesand genre conventionsstory principleselecting and organizing the elements of structure, intent, characters, settings, and points of view within the conventions of a genregenre conventionstraditional or culturally accepted ways of doing things based on audience expectations
- media technologies and techniquesto shape space, time, movement, and lighting within images, sounds, and text for specific purposestechniquesfor example, preparing rough lumber, choosing appropriate tool sizes, cutting, drilling, painting, using simple hardware and fasteners
- processes for manipulating and testing digital media data
- issues in ethical media practices, including cultural appropriation, moral copyright, reproduction, and privacy
- elementsof media arts used to communicate meaningelementscomposition, time, space, sound, movement, lighting
- 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 processesusing hand toolstechniques and processesbrazing, turning, machining, drilling, cutting, sanding, grinding, polishingand power equipmenthand toolsfor 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 sawpower equipmentfor 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
- kineticand potentialkineticenergy of motionenergypotentialstored energy of position
- effect of mass and inertia on speed and distance
- role of aerodynamics
- effects of forceson devicesforcesfor example, tension, torsion, compression, shear, friction
Robotics
- uses of robotics in local contexts
- types of sensorstypes of sensorsbump, 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 assemblingcircuitsassemblingfor example, soldering (with fume extraction), breadboarding
- identification and applications of componentscomponentsfor example, diodes, LEDs, resistors, capacitors, transistors
- various platformsfor robotics programmingplatformsfor example, VEX, VEX IQ, LEGO Mindstorms/NXT
Textiles
- sources of textile materialstextile materialsfor 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 techniquestechniquesfor example, preparing rough lumber, choosing appropriate tool sizes, cutting, drilling, painting, using simple hardware and fasteners
- traditionaland non-traditionaltraditionalfor example, mitre joint, rabbet joint, dado joint, dowellingjoinery using hand toolsnon-traditionalfor example, metal connectors, screws and fasteners, biscuitsand power equipmenthand toolsfor 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 sawpower equipmentfor example, band saw, scroll saw, drill press
- options for reuseof wood and wood productsreuserecycling and reclamation
Note: Some of the learning standards in the PHE curriculum address topics that some students and their parents or guardians may feel more comfortable addressing at home. Refer to ministry policy regarding opting for alternative delivery.