Creativity- Design Club
For our CAS project me and a few of my friends who had taken Design Technology joined together to create Design Club- a club aimed to give students the experience of an actual Designer’s life in various different forms like fashion, industrial, architectural, and many more. We planned to do this by introducing a design field in brief, and instructing students to come up with market gaps or problems they think exist and to which they would bring solutions. We also had various competitions, quizzes, and guest lectures to make the club even more interesting. Our plan was to have 3 modules in our club, one on basics about designing, second about CAD, and third about Graphic design. These three are the topics that are required in most of the design fields and will give the students a basic understanding about the careers in them. Due to the pandemic, this club was taken online, so the kids did not get to actually make their designed products hence they just sketched a prototype of them. Almost 22-25 students joined the club which included students from FS only in grades 9, 10, and 11.
The learning outcomes that were focused in this project were all:
LO1- Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
The strengths that I had were that I was pretty clear on the various concepts of Design Technology as I had taken DT HL, and because I was a student myself, I knew what all things students find fun and easy to understand and learn in the DT subject. The founders of the club were also very close friends of mine so things were easy to collaborate and work with.
LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
The things that I developed in or improved in were definitely teaching and communicating. As the sessions were conducted by us 5 alternatively, it was very hard at first to manage the entire class and teach them as we had done nothing like such before, but with the sessions we got a hang of it, and also we built a great rapport with the students so that things work smoothly. Also communicating for so long and in front of a class of almost 25 students was a challenge but it improved my public speaking and confidence. I also faced challenges when we had to keep on checking with the students on their progress of the designing of products, or guide them throughout, while also having to study for our classes and submissions. Things were hard to balance and complete deadlines with our studies and other stuff, but as we were 5 people, we organised and divided work accordingly so that no one faces any difficulties. Overall the challenges were to balance the club’s work and our studies, to communicate, public speaking, and various responsibilities; but overall a lot of skills were developed like I became more confident, responsible, balanced, a better communicator, and many more.
LO3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
Of Course starting and managing a club required me and my friends to plan the meets, the curriculum, the tasks, and many more. We first got together and decided what all we wanted this club to aim for, what age group we’ll be focussing on, what will we teach them, how will we conduct, while conducting setting up meets, making forms, instructing, guiding, almost everything was done with a lot of planning. It took a lot of meetings amongst us, with our Design Technology teachers, and with the club members themselves throughout the entire span of our club. We used to manage all this stuff by dividing work and roles amongst ourselves, and setting deadlines to make things easier and more efficient. There were times that we could not do stuff related to the club due to our own studies and submissions, but we did manage it overall by helping each other out.
LO4- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Commitment and perseverance was shown by each one of us who started this club. We all had a system or a sheet where we noted down our tasks and who had to do what, to make things clear and easier to follow. Even though we had a long day of school everyday, we took out time to meet for the planning of the club, and to take classes for the students as well. We also took out time from our weekends to check student’s work and progress, and guide them along the tasks given. There were times that we missed a few things, and were delayed in some work, but we made it even by helping each other out. If it wasn’t for our commitment and perseverance, this club wouldn’t have been a success.
LO5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
We 5 students of design technology started this Design Club for our collaborative interests in design. We had a lot of fun planning the club from the start and throughout, and we made our friendships better through this club as well. It definitely wouldn’t have been possible if we weren’t 5, because there were a lot of tasks we had, and plus a lot of side work of our school as well, so being 5 people, we could easily divide tasks and responsibilities and work accordingly. Working collaboratively also made things better, like me and my other friend were good in drawing, so we took the graphic module, whereas the other two people were good in coding and graphics, so they took care of the CAD module, and so on. We divided tasks based on our strengths and that made things so much better and efficient. We also had a lot of tasks in the club where the students were divided and worked together as groups, this made tasks fun and smooth. The skills that we learnt working collaboratively were to understand, compromise, cooperate, communicate, be responsible, and help each other.
LO6- Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Throughout this club we taught students about sustainable and green design, and its importance in today’s world where several natural resources are depleting and the environment is damaging. We also had a session on which materials are sustainable and which aren’t, to give them the knowledge which they could apply in their designs. We encouraged them to incorporate sustainable practices and designs, and design products that would lead to minimum waste and harm to the environment.
LO7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Designing is the most crucial aspect which leads to all environmental problems in this world. The concept of consumerism is what has led to all the pollution and harm to the resources. Consumerism is the concept where products are designed to work till only a few years, so that people buy more and more products. This had caused a lot of waste of resources, and pollution because of the production of those products. It is very important for designers to have the aim to design products that last as long as they can, and lead to minimum waste and pollution as possible. The materials like plastics and sources of energy like coal, oil, etc should not be used in any cases, and environmentally friendly sources of energy like hydro-energy, solar energy, and materials like wood, cornstarch, etc should be used which are biodegradable and cause least pollution in production. We taught all these concepts and asked the students to include them in their designs as well, as these are the possible future designers who would decide our future. It is very important for the future generations to know about sustainability and its practices in designing, for the overall sustainability of our planet.
The learner profile attributes that I showcased in this project were knowledgeable, communicator, caring, risk-taker, and balanced. I was knowledgeable as I had already studied higher level Design Technology and knew all the topics which the grades 9,10 and 11 did not, so passing my knowledge to them in a fun and creative way was me being knowledgeable. Then I was also a communicator, as I teached many of the classes, instructed students, guided them, and also in group discussions communication deficiently took place. Then I was also caring by teaching the students about sustainability and sustainable design, caring about the environment and the impact we create is so important hence we included that in the curriculum. I was also a risk-taker, as communicating in front of the whole class, handling this whole club and everything was something I had never done before, and having the courage to do it showed my risk-taking skills. I was also balanced as mentioned before, balancing my school work, assignments and other schedules with the club’s work, meets, etc took a lot of balancing and planning. I had to allot time to everything equally to be able to complete my duties and not lack on my school work side by side.
To conclude, this whole project was very insightful and an amazing experience for me. I already had designing as an option for my career, and this club really got me more into it. Also I learnt a lot of things handling and teaching in this club, as mentioned above, and the students had a great time attending all the sessions as well. It would have been better definitely if the pandemic was not going on and we could have done this physically so that the students could have actually had the opportunity to make their products, but unfortunately we couldn’t. This project was definitely a success and both the students and us 5 students had a great time learning and designing. The knowledge and skills I gained from this project would be really helpful in my life ahead, and we plan to keep in touch with the students ahead if they have any troubles in DT subject in school.
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