GCE D&T Legacy Examiners Report 2009 - kcse past papers | 2013 ...

DT5 and DT6 - Project
Principal Moderator:
Mr. David Jones
Many moderators have again been impressed by a number of excellent design projects
during their visits to centres. The high standards achieved for DT5 and DT6 continue in the
best projects with favourable comparison to previous years. Very Good quality and depth of
studies were seen in many centres and this was exemplified at the A Level exhibition, which
continues to demonstrate an increasingly high standard of work. One concern, at the end of
this specification, is that we are beginning to see a number of student projects that are
simply no challenging enough to access the higher range of grades available at advanced
level.
Again a reminder to all centres that any preferred design studies derived under
question 9 must be submitted for approval before the end of September of the
academic year that the candidate intends entering.
Analysis of design intentions and products is becoming more focussed and examiners are
now seeing a more realistic approach to understand the factors that will probably be directly
relevant to the understanding gained by the analysis and further investigation. This will
continue to be the case for the new specification DT 3 Design study and is central to
establishing a pool of knowledge that may be used to inform design intentions. Creative
thinking early on in the project must be emphasised by teachers and is facilitated by the use
of sketchbooks. Where there has been an investigation of the problem using a bubble chart
it would be useful if candidates are able to identify the results of their analysis, indicating the
value of the exercise to their designing, in too many cases a sterile bubble chart is
presented. It would be good to see diverse thinking, possibly with group work and extended
debate, which would make the exercise more meaningful and probably having impact on
future design activities.
A broad precise specification has been stressed in previous examiner reports and INSET
and this is now more evident in the extended searching specifications that we often see. The
specification is beginning to be used as a design tool and should be further used by
evaluating existing products. The specification should be used to test the viability of initial
ideas with the requirements of the task, however, it is not yet having sufficient impact in the
formative stages of designing. The use of a specification should be evidenced when
annotating and evaluating early design ideas. Candidates should also research the
characteristics and working properties of possible materials, which could be used to
construct their final product.
It would be useful if candidates were to reflect on the findings of their research and analysis,
before embarking on designing solutions. They should evaluate the research and analysis
material, specifying their new learned knowledge and their appraisal of the critical features of
their design task.
Many candidates continue to develop designs in a superficial manner, we are not seeing
enough candidates going into sufficient depth enabling them to accept or reject ideas from a
rational basis. Unpacking ideas and developing hypotheses by sketching and annotation
should also be central to sketchbook activities. Research, in many cases, is still not carrying
through into this area of the design study and many candidates are undertaking designing
activities in a linear way. It should be made clear that it is good design practice to undertake
continued research at relevant points in the project as and when it is appropriate
demonstrating the iterative nature of design.
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