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General capabilities:
1) Critical and creative thinking Through completing this PBL project, students will develop critical and creative thinking skills, as each activity created provides students with the opportunity to observe, predict, question and draw conclusions through engaging in first hand investigations such as attending an excursion to a wheelchair accessible playground whereby students will be able to investigate and visualise for themselves how simple machines work. This is also achieved through students participating in a group experiment on levers which is designed to stimulate thinking and problem solving about levers and how they work and by being able to explore how 3D printers work through engaging in the planning, testing and designing process of a name tag. There are also opportunities for students throughout the project to seek feedback based on their designs from other peers and to evaluate the designs of others, which would allow them to apply new ideas.
2) ICT capability This project promotes the ICT capability as it involves students utilising a 3D printer to create a prototype of their design solution. Through using the 3D printer, students are challenged to represent their ideas in a different way, that is not 2D but involves 3D modelling via a CAD program software known as XYZware. Utilisation of such technology inspires imaginative thinking, problem solving and creativity, as the possibilities are endless. This tangible and accessible creation tool, when put in the hands of students, enables them to produce high quality products and to demonstrate their ideas and understandings through concrete models/representations. Therefore, this technology positions students as active participants in the design process. The activities prepared, in particular activity 3, will assist students to develop appropriate and effective skills needed to facilitate a 3D printer, so that they are able to design solutions to problems.
3) Literacy This PBL project supports students to become literate by providing opportunities for students to communicate effectively using written and visual forms of expressions. Students are able to learn and explore specific scientific concepts to do with force and motion in an engaging manner and to communicate their ideas and findings in a number of forms including written such as a creating a letter addressed to the Strathfield council which explains their design solution, note-taking, and also through visual forms such as creating 3D models using a Cad software program, creating sketches and taking photos and videos on a camera. As students create and communicate their ideas via these forms, they are also producing annotations of their learning using appropriate science language such as kinetic energy, potential energy and friction. This language is modelled to students through completing activities which demonstrate the following concepts. This project further enables students to question and evaluate ideas, provide explanations, formulate predictions and draw conclusions based on what they have seen and heard.
Learning across the curriculum: Sustainability Through undertaking this PBL, students will develop an awareness of sustainable practices. Students will learn about renewable resources and explore how they could include renewable resources in the creation of their design solution. Students are encouraged to think creatively about the resources and materials they choose to determine more suitable ways of living.