History Makers: Design Challenge

Open-Ended Problems

Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W (Grade 2): Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organisation, and analysis of content.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL (Grade 4): Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organisation, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W. (Grade 7): Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.  

Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6):

• Pupils should know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world.

• Pupils should study changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. (Could explore ancient British outfits/armor)

• Pupils should study a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history [i.e. early Islamic civilization, Mayan civilization]. (Could explore outfits/armor from these cultures)

• Pupils should be taught about a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066 (i.e. Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world)

• Pupils should be taught to address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.

• Pupils should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9):

Aims: The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.

• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.

• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

Key Stage 1 (Years 1-3 ):

When designing and making, pupils should be taught to:

Design 

• design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria.

Make  

• select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing]  select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics.

Technical Knowledge

• build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable.

Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6):

When designing and making, pupils should be taught to:

Design  

• use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups. 

• generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design.

Make 

• select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing], accurately.

Evaluate

• evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work.

Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9):

When designing and making, pupils should be taught to:

Design  

• use research and exploration, such as the study of different cultures, to identify and understand user needs.

Evaluate

• test, evaluate and refine their ideas and products against a specification, taking into account the views of intended users and other interested groups.

• understand developments in design and technology, its impact on individuals, society and the environment, and the responsibilities of designers, engineers and technologists.

Key Stage 1-2 (Years 1-6 ):

Spoken language

Pupils should be taught to:

• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge.

• give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings.

• participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates.

Writing-composition (Years 3-4)

Pupils should be taught to:

• draft and write by:  

  • composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures (English Appendix 2)  

  • organising paragraphs around a theme 

  • in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot  

  • in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]

Reading comprehension (Years 5-6)

Pupils should be taught to:

• retrieve, record and present information from non-fiction

• explain and discuss their understanding of what they have read, including through formal presentations and debates, maintaining a focus on the topic and using notes where necessary