Level 3 Technology 91613 (3.6) Common Assessment Guide — page 1 of 5

Level 3 Technology 91613 (3.6)
Common Assessment Guide

Title Demonstrate understanding of material development

Credits 4

Teacher introduction

Technology assessment guides have been produced to help teachers develop their own specific assessment guides. Examples of specific assessment guides, developed from the common assessment guide for each standard, have been produced as part of the external assessment resources for level 3 Technology.

The specific assessment guides also show a variety of ways (ie, case study, research, practice) to produce external assessment material. The material in the candidate exemplars for each standard reflects the content and context of the specific assessment guides.

Teachers can adapt a common assessment guide and / or a specific assessment guide to suit the specific context of their course of teaching.

Link to the curriculum

This achievement standard is derived from the level eight achievement objective for Technological Products: Students will understand the concepts and processes employed in materials development and evaluation and the implications of these for design, development, maintenance, and disposal of technological products.

Intent of the standard

This standard is about students demonstrating their understanding of the development of a material designed to enhance the performance of a product. This includes showing understanding of the relationships between the material and the product design, development, implementation, maintenance, and disposal.

This connects to other standards at this level dealing with the life cycle of a product or material. As with levels 1 and 2 this will be in a report format. Teachers will need to check the assessment specifications for 2013 on the NZQA website.

For this standard and assessment the understanding focuses on the development of a material and how the material enhances a technological product’s performance: describing the development of the material and its contribution to the enhancement of a product’s performance, and describing the implications of the material on product design, development, implementation, maintenance, and disposal.

While the focus is on development of a material, it may not necessarily be a new or smart material. It could be a material that had significant impact when developed previously or used in a new product. The material must be described (at Achieved level) and explained (at Merit and Excellence levels) in relation to the performance properties of the product – both physical and functional.

Key concepts

·  The formation, transformation, and manipulation of materials and how these processes impact on the development of materials.

·  The impact of a developed material on a technological product over its life cycle.

The impact of the material is the change in the product’s performance. This change in product performance is the result of the complex interactions and relationships that arise from the developed performance properties and / or new usages of the material.

To develop understanding students need to explore examples of the development of materials that have implications for performance, maintenance, disposal, design, and development. These examples could include past and contemporary examples. This standard does not require students to compare and contrast products or materials.

Candidate introduction

You will produce a report that demonstrates understanding of material development.

Candidate guidance for producing the report

This assessment guide must be read along with the achievement standard and the assessment specifications.

The prompts provided below are guides to producing a report that demonstrates understanding of material development. The prompts guide candidates to produce evidence for all grades of the standard – Achievement, Merit, and Excellence. It is not necessary to respond to all prompts to succeed at any level. The later prompts guide candidates to in-depth discussion.

Each report will be assessed overall as to the level of understanding the report demonstrates of material development.

Your report should:

·  describe the development of a material designed to enhance a product’s performance

·  describe the implications of the material on product design and development, implementation, maintenance, and disposal

·  explain how the material enhanced the performance of a product

·  explain how the material impacts on product design and development, implementation, maintenance, and disposal

·  explain the concepts and processes employed in the development of a material.

The specific context for this assessment is the production of a textile or food product. As part of your technology practice you will be developing a textile or food product. As you approach the development of the product you will be assessing potential materials. This will involve research to identify and explore the specific processes for development of specific materials and exploring the impacts of materials on product performance during a product life cycle. The material can be recently developed or well established. The products considered can be newly emerging or historically established.

Essential documents

The achievement standard governing this common assessment guide can be found at
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/specifications/2013/level3/91613-spc-2013.pdf

The assessment specifications for the Technology achievement standard can be found at
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/achievements/2013/as91613.pdf

Definitions

The following definitions might be useful when you are writing your report:

Enhancing performance may include: fire proofing, increasing speed, enhancing health, impact protection, increasing durability, easy care, load bearing abilities, ease of disposal, and conductivity.

Material development can occur through processes such as manipulation and / or transformation of existing materials, or the formulation of new materials. New materials that sense and respond to conditions in their environment are referred to as ‘smart’ materials.

Products may include existing or feasible future products.

Further information

Explanatory note 3 covers a range of performance enhancements such as fire proofing, increasing speed, increasing durability, and impact protection but is not an exclusive list. Some examples of these in products are:

·  High Performance Protective Textiles such as DEFLEXION™ material brings you a range of silicone impact protection technologies, allowing the easy creation of high-performance protective apparel and personal protective equipment.

·  D3O formally ‘D3o’ is commonly used for impact protection – categorised as a smart fabric and intelligent textile often used in snow skiing protective garments.

·  High-technology swimwear fabrics are scientifically advanced materials used for swimwear in competitive water sports such as swimming and triathlon. Materials of this type are normally spandex and nylon composite fabrics with features to reduce drag against the water. One example is the LZR Racer Suit manufactured by Speedo using a high-technology swimwear fabric composed of woven elastane-nylon and polyurethane.

·  Endothermic materials such as gypsum, concrete, and other cementitious products used in fireproofing buildings. Versions of these are used in aerodynamics, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and re-entry vehicles, such as the space shuttles. Other examples include gypsum, cementitious, and fibrous plasters.

·  Engineered woods such as MDF or fibrous plant based materials. For example flat pack furniture is typically made out of man-made wood due to its low manufacturing costs, low weight, and ease of transport.

·  Dairy-based films as an alternative to petroleum-based packaging.

·  Moulded pulp uses recycled newsprint to form package components. In New Zealand researchers are moulding packaging from straw.

·  Potatopak (NZ) Limited manufactures innovative 100% biodegradable food serving and packaging products from potato starch.

·  Materials for hypersonic vehicles. Speed and protection combined in materials for space travel http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Rockets/NZ- Research/Materials-for-hypersonic-vehicles

·  Stab and flame-resistant fabrics (Vectran)in vests and body armour.

·  Omega-3 enriched foods and freeze dried grape extract used to boost the antioxidant level of various foods to enhance health.

Case study materials

·  A Formula 3 racing car built using vegetable materials and powered by a chocolate by-product features potato-based components provided by New Zealand scientists: www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/racing_car/

·  ShapeShifting: The art of hand-making surfboards: http://www.techlink.org.nz/Case-studies/Technological- practice/Materials/Print-PDFs/techlink-tp- shapeshifters.pdf

·  Secure couture: http://www.techlink.org.nz/Case-studies/Technological-practice/Soft- Materials/Print-PDFs/techlink-tp-secure- couture.pdf

·  New food development: http://www.biotechlearn.org.nz/focus_stories/future_foods/making_new_food s Developing

·  Natural easy care fabrics: http://www.biotechlearn.org.nz/focus_stories/wool_innovations/developing_natural_easy_care_fabrics

·  Skateboards made out of harakeke: http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Science-Stories/Celebrating-Science/2008- Awards/Skateboards-made-out-of-harakeke

Other resources

Further information can be found at http://www.techlink.org.nz.

Exemplars

Please read the exemplars. You can model your work on these exemplars but you may not copy the material from the exemplars. Your report must be the product of your own efforts.

Schedule
Assessment Schedule
AS Technology 91613 (3.6)
Demonstrate understanding of material development
Final grades will be decided using professional judgement based on a holistic examination of the evidence provided against the criteria.
Issues from the Specifications
Authentic candidate submissions will be recognisable because of specific contexts associated with the work. This does not imply that submissions will arise only from the candidate’s practice. However, where the candidate’s practice does not provide the immediate source of a specific context, one would expect to see that several sources of information relating to materials had been applied within a specific context. In both cases, the marker will be able to detect the candidate’s voice. In situations where information does not have some aspect of student voice, it is difficult to establish whether the candidate has actually demonstrated understanding or simply identified information.
Candidates who have simply identified information by reproducing information from sources without making use of that information have not demonstrated understanding.
Where a candidate has provided a brief answer, the answer should not be penalised because of length.
Candidate work in excess of 14 pages should not be marked.
Where work is illegible, it cannot be marked.
Digital submissions that cannot be read cannot be marked.
Achievement / Achievement with Merit / Achievement with Excellence
Demonstrate understanding of material development involves: / Demonstrate in-depth understanding of material development involves: / Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of material development involves:
·  describing the development of a material designed to enhance a product’s performance
·  describing the implications of the material on the design, development, implementation, maintenance, and disposal of products. / ·  explaining how the material enhanced the performance of a product
·  explaining how the material impacts on the design, development, implementation, maintenance, and disposal of products. / ·  explaining the concepts and processes employed in the development of a material.