Douglas Blane reports on a likeable pair whose easy way belies an astute understanding of how to teach technology

Dick Warren and Len McDermid, the likeable technology enthusiasts responsible for a new manual on teaching technology in primary schools, have been asked many times why they call themselves Rude Mechanicals when presenting their hugely popular technology workshops. It seems such an inappropriate name.

Dick explains: “It’s the name given to the workmen who put on a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When you watch them you see actors playing characters trying to be actors playing characters. The little models we get the pupils and teachers to make in our workshops are a bit like that: if the children make a crane, it’s a version of the real thing but at the same time it is a little working crane. Also, the engineering and the systems we present are pretty basic, so that’s where the rude comes in; unrefined and unsophisticated. That’s us.”

But that is not them at all, although it is the image they project. With their beards, casual clothes and a fund of ready anecdotes, Dick and Len might seem as untutored as Shakespeare’s artisans but their views on teaching are quite sophisticated.

Making things, they are convinced, is absolutely central to technology and its teaching. “At a time when neural pathways are being formed, we handicap our children if we focus on when, why and how discussion when they should have their hands on the tools and materials, experience the feel of glue and sawdust on their fingers and the smell of pine resin up their noses.”

Anyone who has participated in a Rude Mechanicals workshop, and seen the skill Dick and Len bring to their craft, might be forgiven for thinking they possess a technical background. But the relaxed way they control a melee of excitement, glue and bits of wood and gradually transform it into dozens of working models and children’s smiles is a giveaway. Dick and Len are teachers. They may have escaped from the confines of the classrooms they worked in for many years, but they are still teachers.

Their new technology workbook - purchased already by Edinburgh, Dundee, Scottish Borders, Midlothian and Moray councils for all their primary schools - distils decades of experience into 100 pages of text and illustrations. The largest section contains a set of design and practical projects, “built by children of the target age many times”, which range from cranes, lorries and motors to periscopes, zoetropes and mangonels. Instructions, drawings and parts lists for each of these are accompanied by links to the 5-14 environmental studies guidelines and questions and suggestions for further activities.

The illustrations are among the most instructive features. Three-dimensional images convey what the component parts look like, how to make them and how to put them together. No previous technical ability or understanding of engineering drawings is required.

A third of the book prepares the reader for work on the projects by explaining the fundamentals - materials, tools and techniques - in an entertaining and instructive blend of words and pictures that is eminently accessible.

Little gems of advice are scattered throughout: “By all means have a glue gun in the school but keep it in reserve. Children will try to glue a stamp on an envelope using one, if it’s close to hand.”

Individually the tips, drawings, text and projects are all extremely valuable. Collectively they provide teachers with what they need to support Dick and Len’s philosophy on teaching primary technology. “If children are given design tasks that produce solutions that are beyond the comprehension of the class teacher then someone is making a very serious misjudgment. We have to provide class teachers with proper support and we mustn’t put children in the position that their magnum opus, with all that’s invested in it, results in a failure.

“Success is compulsory.”