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The Other End Of The Scale Is The Professional Presentation Scale Model That ...

The other end of the scale is the professional presentation scale model that we are familiar with.
CAD:These can also range from doodles in ProDesktop (or something similar), which enables the designer to get an idea of scale, right through to professionally produced rendered CAD designs.
Most of these final coloured, rendered, anatomically correct models (and drawings) are used to communicate with clients, who will have no interest in rough sketches. It is these rough sketches and doodles that are at the heart of the design process and should be of prime importance to teachers as they are better indicators of the child's design thinking. Denton asserts that most schools prefer exquisitely finished and attractively presented work, complete with borders, in contrast with the rudimentary initial sketches of the design process. This preference is communicated to the pupils, who then spend time reworking their initial drawings, wasting time and efficiency in the process, and slowing down the exploration of fresh ideas. Much of this folder work is finished to such a standard that it is indicative of it being produced after the artefact has actually been made.
In this paper, he proposes that it may be a more useful strategy to break away from the current strategy: starting at AT1: Investigating & Making generating ideas, and instead start by evaluating something in order to make proposals on how it may be made better. I find that this proposal makes perfect sense, after all most designs are a redesign of an earlier design. The first cars were redesigned carriages, and subsequent cars were simply evolutionary changes, besides, one can empathise with pupils that have limited life experiences, trying to design an artefact starting with a virgin sheet of paper.
Another proposal that, I think, has merit is changing the ratio of designing to making in favour of making, since it is the making that takes the most time. A disproportionate amount of time is spent ‘doing research' or more accurately, collating images. Entire lessons devoted to cutting pictures out of Argos catalogues have little merit and a minor influence on the final design. Denton suggests that ‘efficiency and effectiveness' may also be developed ‘by the use of informal groupwork in the early stages coupled with the use of short deadlines can also promote motivation and possibly the generation of ideas (Denton, 1992).
Kimbell et al explores the results derived from the APU (Assessment of Performance Unit) study of 1991, that described the capability in Design and Technology in terms of action, reflection and appraisal. He explains, in graphical terms, how boys and girls differ in the results of their coursework. According to the APU, girls consistently outperform boys right across the range of abilities, ie, high achieving girls perform better than high achieving boys and low achieving girls perform better than low achieving boys.


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