Welcome back to our P7D blog for February’s update!
We are enjoying the lighter, brighter weather although it is very cold. This afternoon, we enjoyed some team games outside for P.E. and practised our ball skills, playing basketball.
We have had a busy February. We began another Engineering project, inspired by James Dyson, this time looking at various engineering disciplines, such as design, mechanical & civil types. We then analysed Dyson technology within certain products – the hair wrap & the Animal vacuum. We even took apart one of its parts to look at it more closely & put it back together, using effective team-working skills – this allowed us to see just how much goes into the creation of each and every piece developed. We then moved on to sketch our own products, adhering to our specific design brief and think about the materials, dimensions and costs involved in its production. Today, we calculated our profit margin, by researching manufacturing costs and came up with a suitable selling price, based on our competitors’ existing products. Many of us felt that our higher price points were justified, as our products have so much to offer! We are at the early stages of design and build – we will continue this tomorrow. We understand that the design/build process is iterative and constantly evolving. We also designated a ‘lead’ engineer to delegate responsibilities to ensure effective working in the time given.
Through this project, we are developing many of our meta-skills and are now more able to articulate these. For instance, we have been collaborating incredibly well, yet focusing and making sense of things on our own when this is required. We are becoming far more skilled at making judgements and taking initiative. Our communication with one another is also improving through these kinds of tasks and also our Expedition work, which has seen us create models, Canva presentations, a rap and videos. We are looking forward to sharing this learning with you at the end of March!
We thoroughly enjoyed our first visit as a class to St. Ninian’s yesterday. We all behaved exceptionally well and loved doing different activities in Design & Tech, Business etc… It was great to experience a ‘day-in-the-life’ experience of high school, as it’s only a few more months until we’ll be there full-time!
That’s all for now. We hope you enjoyed reading about what we’ve been up to. Speak to you soon!
Primary 7D & Mrs Fraser 🙂
