Design & Technology – Product Design

Course Summaries Design & Technology - Product Design: OCR H406

Product Design offers pupils the ability to undertake wide design briefs to develop solutions that are intended as commercially feasible products. Prototyping and Manufacture are used to create a close representation of the final outcome but pupils are encouraged to speculate on industrial manufacturing and wider design issues in their project work.

This course provides a logical progression for pupils who have followed a GCSE course in Design Technology and is of direct relevance to pupils with a longer term interest in the fields of product design, engineering, architecture or business; the course may also be of value to those who wish to add breadth to their studies and gain an insight into design, commerce and manufacture from a variety of stakeholder perspectives. There is no requirement to have studied GCSE but some extra preparatory work will be set to compensate for a lack of foundation in design enquiry.

Learning about Design and Technology at A level strengthens pupils’ critical thinking and problem solving skills within a creative environment, enabling them to develop and make prototypes/ products that solve real-world problems, considering their own and others’ needs, wants, aspirations and values. This A level qualification requires pupils to identify market needs and opportunities for new products, initiate and develop design solutions, and make and test prototypes/products. Pupils’ will acquire subject knowledge in design and technology, including how a product can be developed through the stages of prototyping, realisation and commercial manufacture.

Central to the content of this qualification is the requirement for pupils to understand and apply processes of iterative designing in their design and technology practice. They will need to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills through interrelated iterative processes that ‘explore’ needs, ‘create’ solutions and ‘evaluate’ how well the needs have been met.

Assessment:

Three components are linked to assessment:

1. Principles of Product Design (26.7% of total A level) This paper is set out through four sets of questions that predominantly cover technical principles within Product Design & Manufacture. Pupils will be required to:

• analyse existing products and design practice; articulating why products are viable for the intended context of use • demonstrate applied mathematical skills to a range of design contexts • demonstrate their technical knowledge of materials, product functionality, manufacturing processes and techniques • demonstrate their understanding of wider social, moral and environmental issues that impact on the design and manufacturing industries.

2. Problem Solving in Product Design (23.3% of total A level) This component has a series of longer answer questions that require pupils to demonstrate their problem solving and critical evaluation skills. Pupils will be required to: