Year 11 Design and Technology

Imagine being faced with a design assessment task where you have to create a cardboard chair that is portable, flat-packed, durable, strong and reflects your own personality. The catch is you can’t use any adhesives or additional attachments and solely the material of cardboard! 

How do you think you would go? 

Well, that is exactly what our Year 11 Design & Technology students did for their first Assessment Task. Faced with this design brief, students had to document their design process in a portfolio including all evidence from initial design ideas to final evaluation of their prototype’s impact on the society and environment. Students came up with the most creative ways to demonstrate their aesthetics within the chair by using laser cutting, 3D CAD modelling (both fusion and sketchup), and conducting many cognitive organisers to develop their final idea. 

The results can be seen by some of these interesting chair designs! Most of them are able to hold a person’s body weight! It was an exciting process, watching the students experiment with 1ply and 2ply cardboard and considering different joining techniques when making their prototypes. If this is what they can create with just cardboard, we are keen to see what they can do with other materials!

Ms Valdivia

TAS Teacher