2014 School Magazine

Technology Studies YEAR 8 QUEST 2014

YEAR 9 INNOVATIVE DESIGN NIAMH HUNTER (9L) In Term I in Innovative Design we learnt how to draw and render to make shapes look 3D. At the end of the term we went on an excursion to Roma Street Parklands to observe the artwork and sculptures there, and examine the site for our project brief. In Term II we started to sketch a design for a seating arrangement in the park, which we would build in Term IV using cardboard and plastic. In Term III, we learnt how to use Google Sketchup and make many different things, including a seat that was submitted to Moodle for our assessment. Innovative Design has taught me many aspects of design, including an appreciation of architecture. ■

AIMEE BOLTON (8E) AND JASMINE RODRIGUEZ (8E)

This year’s Quest was a blast! We got to meet new people through a series of activities such as Maths challenges to help warm up our brain and we got to play ‘get to know you’ games. The next day we took part in the main activity where we organised ourselves into different roles — project manager, logo designer, packaging team and presentation designers. The main challenge was to design a coffee product based on fair-trade. We had to use problem-solving skills to correctly size the packaging and our creative skills to design and present the package at the end of the day. All teams presented their final product and the team whose product was the best (judged by the teachers) won a chocolate. This activity was especially fun because we got to be independent and act like professionals! ■

YEAR 9 MULTIMEDIA AND INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES (MIT) AMINTA MARTIN (9L), JULIET McARTHUR- DOWTY (9G) AND ALICIA SINGH (9W) In MIT this year we covered a wide variety of topics including computer systems, graphic design and typography, game programming and robotics. All of these topics create a solid foundation of technological understanding, which will be required in years to come. The second topic, typography was based around graphic design. This project developed our Photoshop and Illustrator skills further, as we had to create a design for a t-shirt based on words beginning with the letter we were allocated. The third topic we studied was game programming. This was a helpful and unique skill to develop as it allowed us to apply our understanding to create a game of our own. We learnt some of our first coding skills. In Term IV we had a lot of fun learning how to build and programme robots! ■

YEAR 8 MULTIMEDIA AND INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES (MIT) SARAH THOMAS (8E) At the beginning of our instruction for MIT, we studied the basics of editing in Photoshop, adding shadows and text and inserting and editing images. We later programmed small robots to perform a number of actions, including walking, talking and turning. Many of my classmates found this section particularly entertaining and enjoyable. In Term IV, we formatted and designed our own website, displaying the edits we created in the past term. Our class was also taught essential skills in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, extending our general understanding of technology and programmes. I, like most other students, have already chosen MIT as one of my subjects for next year! I now feel comfortable using Photoshop and a number of other programmes, and have enjoyed learning more about the technology we use everyday, and implementing this knowledge practically. ■

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