CSI in D&T

Want to capture this as this I thought is exciting.

Just like the rest of my earlier post regarding D&T, I get excited when struck upon with idea of using acronyms and analogy to illustrate or make things easy to remember.

My 5N1 D&T class have finished arrived at the D&T 'station' of UTE, the stage where the student designer have decided on a selected problem to tackle and now has to investigate the problem thoroughly. Initially when I introduce to them UTE (User, Things, Environment) research in problem, some were still a bit blur.

So today, I change this part of research title to call it the UTE Investigation and I used an analogy of CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). I told them that they are to think like 'Investigators' and to search out clues in diverse areas of people, things and the environment in the vicinity of the 'problem';

I told them to liken the 'problem' as a murdered body, that they need to study carefully the things they see around it, they could be possible weapons; to study the whole room, the environment to look for possible entrance and exit etc; conduct interview with people, possibly to be able to match things together from the information collected; take a lot photographs of the problem scene so as to form a proper picture of the 'problem'.

If they do so meticulously getting all details of the problem, going onto the next stage/ station (Design Specification) it will be easier as the listing of clues will come out easily. With this analogy, they then have the aha... lightbulb coming on!

I am so excited too!! as they have not just taken on projects that is just another shelf for storage but have taken on challenge to solve authentic problem, real problem that they face but not many solutions or almost no solution in the market yet. Hopefully this will excite some to have the inventive spirit.

This batch of D&T pupil designers are quite motivated and self-directed. I hope that with this excitement that I have in guiding them, they will also be excited to finish on time if not early.

Back to the crime scene for now.....