This activity, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), sets students the challenge of designing and building a water treatment system to produce a clean sample of water. They will need to think about what equipment they would need, what stages the...

This is one of a series of resources designed to use the theme of Ramadan to support the teaching of the National Curriculum to pupils. This resource focusses on making a charity box that counts down the days in Ramadan, including some external design aspects. This could be used as a one-off lesson activity to...

This activity introduces the concept of 3D CAD design and some of the basic tools used with CAD software. The software used for the CAD activity is the free and widely used ‘TinkerCAD’. However, this could easily be substituted for any other 3D CAD software already available in school.

The activity involves...

This project concentrates on the design and manufacture of lighting using simple electronics but with complex and functional part modelling. Students apply the tools in Autodesk Inventor to the challenging task of creating a virtual lamp design in parts, before manufacturing the product. Students will spend time...

This is one of a series of resources designed to use the theme of Ramadan to support the teaching of the National Curriculum to pupils. This resource focusses on designing a prayer mat for use during Ramadan. This could be used as a one-off lesson activity to develop designing and sketching skills. Alternatively,...

Produced by the Technology Enhancement programme (TEP), these materials help students to understand, design and prototype mechanisms (including levers, gears and linkages). The resource also supports students to work through some of the mathematical concepts involved in calculating gear ratio.

Students are...

The project provides a lesson structure for the design and manufacture of an MP3 amplifier. The resources uses a sketching and computer aided design (CAD), alongside laser cutting and 3D printing processes. Students will apply the tools in Autodesk Inventor and 123D Make to create the MP3 parts, before...

This activity involves generating creative design ideas for a building, drawing the final design idea using CAD software, and 3D printing a model of the building. The software used for the CAD activity, ‘Onshape’, is the free and widely used. However, this could easily be substituted for any other 3D CAD...

This is one of a set of resources developed to support the teaching of the primary national curriculum. They are designed to support the delivery of key topics within science and design and technology. This resource involves learners producing a crossword recapping key terms in the topics studied.

Crossword...

This mock exam tests student understanding of the ethics involved in being a designer. Questions look at sustainability, life cycle analysis and the impact of design on society.

Design for a better world is a design challenge for students aged 11-14 years. It offers students the opportunity to:

• Learn about the global goals for sustainable development.
• Access a range of global contexts including water and sanitation, food security and climate action in which to...

This project looks at the animation of a character created in Project Pinocchio. Students use the tools in Autodesk Maya to create a 10 – 15 second dance routine for the character. Students are introduced to some basic navigation around Autodesk Maya before learning how to pose their characters using a HumanIK...

In this activity, students take the role of a graphic designer. Their task is to create a mascot for a new primary school. Students use a web-based digital drawing tool package to draw their design. Students are encouraged to work both individually and in small groups...

In this activity students are asked to consider how they would improve five amusing experiments by evaluating aspects of the experimental design including control of variables, sample size, bias, control groups and quality of data. 

One of the trial units from the Nuffield Primary Solutions in Design and Technology. In this unit, children design a supermarket car park to a detailed design specification. This task could be linked with a geography local study, as it will highlight the varying needs of the people using a car park.

The...