ICT Unit 1 - To create a representation of a real or fantasy situation
Linked to design and technology unit 1B ‘Playgrounds’
Integrated Task
Discuss with the children the different ways in which the computer is used to represent real or fantasy situations. Tell the children that they are going to create their own representations of a playground.
As part of their design and technology work, children might have visited a local playground and investigated the equipment. Remind them about why we need playgrounds. What makes good play equipment and why do we need special equipment to play with?
Using a bank of images, encourage the children to name the equipment and the materials used in its various components. Ask them to combine the images to recreate the playground they have visited or to create an imaginary one. Encourage them to make decisions and choices about the images of the equipment as they move them around.
Ask the children to explain how their representations differ from real life, eg they are 2D and inanimate, and to explain their choices of equipment. The children could evaluate their work as a whole-class activity using a data projector.
Some children will be able to use a text tool or a word processor to produce a caption for their representation.
Learning Outcomes
- describe their scenario
- explain why they made their decisions or choices
- explain how their representations differ from real life
ICT Unit 3A - To combine graphics and text to communicate information about a Product
Linked to design and technology unit 3A ‘Packaging’
Integrated Task
Discuss with the children the task of designing and making a package for a specific purpose, eg a packet for a healthy snack bar or cereal, a box for a magic spel l. Ask them to collect and discuss graphics on packaging, eg colours chosen, size of font, impact of styl e.
Explain to the children that they are going to use a computer to design the pictures and text for their package. Ask them to work in pairs to produce their package, and to discuss their design needs before they begin.
The children might construct the package from a blank net loaded onto the screen. They then design the package, using suitable images and text effects. Remind them about the need for accuracy in construction if the product is to be effective. They should print out their package onto thin card to make up the finished product. If the nets do not incorporate ‘tabs’, children will need to incorporate these themselves so that the package can be assembled using glue.
Alternatively, the children could make their own package from a net. In this case, they would design each face of the package, print it out and stick it onto the package.
Encourage the children to evaluate each other’s work against the original design criteria. How successful have they been?
Learning Outcome
To combine graphics and text to produce designs for a package made for a specific purpose
ICT Unit 4A To use ICT to organise, reorganize and analyse ideas and information to edit text and use a variety of presentation techniques
Linked to English Year 4 and Design and Technology Year 4
Integrated Task
Ask the children to work in pairs to recall the steps they took when making their product in design and technology. Explain that they will be producing a set of clear instructions so that someone else could carry out the same task. Remind them of the conventions they have come across in their reading. Consider the target audience, eg younger children in another class, parents reading the school magazin e, and remind children of the need to ensure that their presentational style reflects this.
Discuss the key features of instructional texts, eg an informative title, a list of the materials needed, clear instructions, appropriate diagrams. Remind the children of the need to use imperative verbs at the beginning of sentences, eg put, take, cut, and to use time markers, eg next, after, meanwhile.
Ask the children to expand and refine their instructions, and to use appropriate effects to engage the reader’s attention, eg illustrations (such as digital camera images taken while making the products).
Ask the children to work together to make numbered notes of the steps in the activity, and to save their work. They should review work in progress and modify it, based on discussion with their partner.
Show examples of work in progress to the whole class, using a data projector, and ask children to evaluate each other’s work. Have any steps been missed out? Are the instructions clear and easy to read? How could they be improved?
Learning Outcomes
- organise and reorganise text on screen
- use appropriate techniques to ensure that their instructions are clear, well presented and free from errors
ICT Unit 5a - To use an object-based graphics package to produce and explore a graphical mode
Linked to design and technology Year 6
Integrated Task
Show the children copies of theatre or cinema seating plans and ask them to examine the arrangements of the seats, pointing out the need for aisles to divide up the rows, etc.
Explain that they are going to design a seating plan for a production in the school hall. Initially, they should design a plan for 48 seats.
Show the children how to create an object to represent a seat, and how to copy and paste this repeatedly to create an array.
Divide the children into pairs to work on their seating plans. Ask them to find out how many different arrays they could make for a total of 48 seats through finding factor pairs. Discuss which arrangement would be the most suitable for the task. Ask them to print out their plans.
This activity could be repeated and the model developed for other numbers of seats. The work could be further developed as a design activity, with children being asked to consider leaving access for fire exits; how near to the stage the front row should be; the effect of using different types of seats on the numbers that could be accommodated; the best location for the stage; etc.
Learning Outcome
To use a graphical model to solve problems in a design task
ICT Unit 5D - To change data in a spreadsheet to answer ‘what if ...?’ questions and check predictions
Linked to design and technology Unit 5D Biscuits
Integrated Task
The children may have designed biscuits and adapted the basic biscuit recipe to create their own recipe. They will have estimated the number of biscuits they could produce.
Tell the class that they are going to use a spreadsheet to calculate the different quantities of ingredients required for varying numbers of biscuits. Explain that the spreadsheet is going to calculate the quantities needed for every child in the class to make a specific number of biscuits, eg fiv e. The children have found, for example, that a recipe makes 10 biscuits. There are 30 children in the class. Each child is going to make five biscuits. How many biscuits are going to be made in total?
Show the children how to enter the data for their recipe ingredients into the spreadsheet. The recipe makes 10 biscuits. Discuss how many biscuits will be made in total.
For each ingredient, enter a formula to divide the quantity by 10, to calculate what is needed for one biscuit. Enter another formula to multiply by the number of children, and multiply again by the number of biscuits each child is going to make. Ask the children to estimate the results.
Children could then vary the number of biscuits made by each individual. They could also vary the number of children in the class. The spreadsheet could be extended to include a column showing the ingredient costs.
Learning Outcome
- create and use a spreadsheet to calculate the quantities needed to make varying numbers of biscuits
ICT Unit 6C - To develop a system that controls events in response to conditions
Linked to design and technology 6C ‘Fairground’
Integrated Task
Explain to the children that they are going to produce a sign for a fairground ride. The sign will have flashing lights, a switch to start the ride and a switch to stop it. A buzzer will sound when the ride stops.
Ask the children to work in groups to design their sign, deciding where the lights and alarm switches will be situated. Now ask them to transfer this design on to a computer. The sign should be bright and attractive, with a variety of font effects, and should include graphics. Ask the children to print out their work and glue it to card. They should then make holes for the bulbs and switch.
Next, ask each group to write a sequence of instructions to make the lights flash; for the ride to start up when the switch is pressed; for it to stop when the second switch is pressed; and for a buzzer to sound. Encourage the children to discuss the effects of their work, and to make modifications as they go along.
Alternatively, children could extend the models they have made in design and technology lessons. They could design and make various fairground rides in groups and then connect these to a control box. Each ride should have at least one input and two outputs, eg a bumper car with two sensors fitted onto the rear and front bumpers (when the car touches something, it should stop and change direction); a ferris wheel with an alarm system operated by a switch, and lights which come on when it goes dark – the motor should change speed and direction.
Encourage the children to discuss any problems encountered during the process. They should describe the changes they made in refining and amending their programming.
Learning Outcomes
- use input and output devices, and produce a simple set of instructions linking causes and effects
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