Category: Design & Technology

Virtual Work Experience – Pupil Experience

AGS CDT pupils were recently involved in Scape groups Learning in Lockdown – A Week of Virtual Work Experience during the week of the 18th May. One of our partners Balfour Beatty who were partly sponsoring the event offered AGS CDT pupils a place to get involved. We had recently worked with Balfour Beatty on an activity delivered by them on the Union Terrace Garden project.  This opportunity was taken up by one of our S4 pupils Sherwin Fernandes.  The following is a summery of his experience:

Scape group with the help of their sponsors launched a digital work experience for all 10th-year students in the UK.  I got involved with this task because I wanted to increase my knowledge of STEM, and learn what it is like to be given a project which encapsulates all the skills required to work in a professional environment.

The task allocated was to design a pavilion (a free-standing community building)  which promoted sustainable living to a local Dubai community.

With this large task a great deal of things had to be considered with the design:  

Location:  Weather – flooding and climate, sun path, prevailing winds – passive ventilation  and air-conditioning 

Energy: positioning of solar panels, lighting, natural light, temperature retainment.

General “end-user” needs: accessibility and usability, comfort and safety.

Design brief of sustainability: I did this through education: Kitchen, Garden and Greenspace, technology and adults and kids learning  

Each day several tasks were given which all amounted to a final design, it was a case of “building up” as you went along. 

Lecturers from Heriot-Watt University gave instructions and clues to aid us with the daily task through webinars over learnliveuk.com

Experts from all fields of STEM  were also able to support with any questions on a live chat facility. 

Highlights

I enjoyed designing my pavilion through a floor plan as it was based on problem-solving and logic had to be applied in all areas. The making of my pavilion through Minecraft was most rewarding as a I got to visualise my design digitally.

I learned a lot about how crucial and fundamental a design of a building is and how its environmental friendliness could be hindered by its poor blueprint. I would highly recommend this work experience if it were offered next year.

Grays Mobile Art School

Craig Barrowman, Mobile Art School Coordinator at Gray’s recently delivered a workshop to all our S3 Engineering Graphics pupils during the week of 3rd of February.

Pupils took part in the INTEGRATING ELECTRONICS workshop where pupils Design, make and test an object that will support 1 person, 60cm from the ground with limited range materials including electronic circuits. They used LittleBits modular electronic kits, where a design problem was introduced. The classes worked in teams, where they had to problem solve using these electronics along with model making to create design solutions that were tested and then demonstrated their solution to the rest of the class.

In our ever increasingly digitised world, it is becoming more important for designers to be multidisciplinary. This workshop introduced simple electronic systems with a focus on how they can be harnessed to improve the user experience.