Case study for a boy

During each break at school, you play marbles and you are becoming very skilful.

Every day you won beautiful large shooting marbles, which you showed, proudly to your dad at home. You did not take these prized possessions back to school, because you were afraid you would lose them. Unfortunately you forgot to put them in a safe place. Then one afternoon your mom spoke to you for the third consecutive day, because you had forgotten to take your marbles out of the pockets of your school trousers and they had landed in the washing machine. Your mom was very distressed because she had to call the plumber to see to the washing machine again. She warned you to get a container for your marbles, otherwise she would quietly make them disappear. You decided that this container would not be just an ordinary empty plastic bag, a glass, peanut butter jar or an empty coffee tin.

Case study for a girl

It is already difficult to get up early for school in the winter, but if your hair elastics are always missing, especially when you are already late, it becomes necessary to make a plan. You regularly miss the school bus and then your mom has to take you to school in the old farm truck. You decide to design and make yourself a container that you can put on your dressing table next to your hairbrush, in which you can put your hair elastics the moment you remove them from your hair. You have a lovely big dam on the farm where you can find lots of clay. You want to make a container from clay.

1. Research

a) What is the need?

b) Write down a clear and short design proposal for your product.

I am going to design and make a (what )

to use at the so that I can put my (what)

in it.

[LO 1.4]

c) Specifications for the design and manufacturing of the product.

2. Design

Background

The five principles for a successful design is that the product must have a PURPOSE, an interesting APPEARANCE, will be made from a suitable MATERIAL and that it will be sturdily MANUFACTURED so that it will have a positive INFLUENCE on the user and the environment.

Requirements:

You are going to make six loose tiles that you can join. You must decorate the outside of the container in a creative and original way by pressing small objects such as screws, needles and paper clips into the soft clay, or by etching patterns into it with a kebab stick. Thus you are going to decorate only four planes in the same way.

1. Requirements

The lid of your container must fit firmly on the container. There must also be a handle by which you can lift the lid.

Top views

Example:

Figure 1

Bottom view

Example:

Figure 2

2. Manufacturing

a) What kinds of tools do you require to roll out the clay to a thickness of 5 mm? (Choose from: wooden board, clay knife, rolling pin, and cake flour)

- a to roll out the clay smoothly.

- a to flatten the clay.

- a to scrape the dough from the rolling pin and wooden

board.

- so that the clay does not stick to the rolling pin or board.

b) Measure out a square tile on a piece of cardboard with sides of 10 cm and cut it out. This will be your TEMPLATE. Place the template on the rolled out clay and cut six tiles from the clay. Also use the modelling knife to make yourself a handle and the bottom of your lid.

Now decorate the vertical planes of your container (4 tiles).

Cut 5 mm from both left and right sides of the two vertical tiles. Roughen the edges with a kebab-stick. You may also use water.

Working very carefully, join the different parts of the container in the following way:

Interesting!

As early as the Stone age (12000 BC), when people made utensils and weapons from stone and bone, they started to manufacture utensils from clay, mainly to store food and water. Clay is a very old substance that was used to manufacture utensils and jewellery People used it because clay was readily available.

During the Bronze age (3000 BC) people started to melt metals so that they could make utensils and weapons. In those days people made many articles that were used daily, such as containers, mugs, pots, etc, from clay. They also made bricks and tiles from clay and built houses with the clay bricks. Archaeologists, who excavate antique civilisations, frequently find many objects and relics of clay, which prove that this is true.

Nowadays clay and sand are fired in a furnace after ceramic objects such as crockery (plates, cups, and saucers) have been made from it. Ceramic objects are not only used in the preparation of food, but also in the building trade.

Clay is an example of a natural substance, i.e. a raw material that is provided by nature and has a mineral origin. Natural substances can also have a vegetative origin, e.g. cotton, and an animal origin, e.g. wool or silk.

When clay is baked in the sun to dry, it is known as earthenware. Long ago, people who lived in hot countries, allowed the pots to bake in the sun. In colder countries earthenware was baked in a wood fire.

Take Note

Consult a reference source in case a visit to a brickfield or pottery factory is impossible. Write each new activity of the process in a separate space and make sure that the activities have been arranged in a logical sequence.

Did you know?

Pottery is a traditional activity of the indigenous peoples of Africa.

Learning Outcomes(LOs)

LO 1

TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND SKILLS

The learner will be able to apply technological processes and skills ethically and responsibly using appropriate information and communication technologies

Assessment Standards(ASs)

We know this when the learner:

1.4 writes or communicates a design brief for the development of a product related to a given problem, need or opportunity that clarifies the technological purposes of the solution;

1.5 suggests and records at least two alternative solutions to the problem, need or opportunity that link clearly to the design brief and to given specifications and constraints (e.g. people, purpose, safety, environmental impact, appearance);

1.8 chooses and uses suitable tools to make products by measuring, marking out, cutting or separating, shaping or forming, joining or combining, and finishing the chosen materials;

1.10 evaluates the product according to the design brief and given specifications and constraints (e.g. people, purpose, environmental impact, safety, appearance), and suggests improvements and modifications if necessary;

1.12 draws appropriate sketches (e.g. labelled two-dimensional drawings of ideas, enhanced drawings of final solutions and drawings showing measurements) to communicate different information appropriately and effectively.

LO 3

TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The learner will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationships between science, technology, society and the environment.

We know this when the learner:

3.1 describes similarities in problems and solutions in own and other societies – past, present and future;