Welcome to Resourceful Mind! Through my extensive experience in teaching design, engineering, graphics, food and textiles, I've developed resources that make topics easy to understand. My materials include clear visuals, simple explanations, and engaging tasks to reinforce learning and support learners.
Welcome to Resourceful Mind! Through my extensive experience in teaching design, engineering, graphics, food and textiles, I've developed resources that make topics easy to understand. My materials include clear visuals, simple explanations, and engaging tasks to reinforce learning and support learners.
A simple set of design and technology activities that could be used as emergency cover.
15 activities in total suitable for year 7 - year 10
I created these quickly as a teacher called in sick in the morning and needed some activities that students could work through independently without much instruction.
They are not perfect and done in a rush but they did they job!
A selection of posters for your DT classroom.
Tools
Plastics
Metals
Wood
Jobs in DT
Famous designers/ engineers
DT vocabulary and Welsh words
All editable
By the end of this lesson, students will understand the concept of sustainability, recognise the impact of human actions on the environment, be familiar with fossil fuels, and apply the principles of the 6R’s in designing a sustainable product.
Introduction (10 minutes)
Start with a discussion on how human activities harm the planet (e.g., pollution, deforestation, overconsumption).
Show images and video depicting environmental damage caused by human actions.
Defining Sustainability (15 minutes)
Define sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Discuss the importance of sustainable practices in preserving natural resources and maintaining ecological balance.
Understanding Fossil Fuels (10 minutes)
Explain what fossil fuels are (coal, oil, natural gas) and how they are formed over millions of years.
Discuss the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels, such as air pollution and climate change.
The 6R’s of Sustainability (15 minutes)
Introduce the 6R’s: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repair.
Discuss examples of each R and how they contribute to sustainable living (e.g., using reusable bags, repairing instead of replacing items).
Activity: Designing a Sustainable Product (30 minutes)
Task each group or student with designing a product (e.g., water bottle, backpack) with sustainability in mind.
Encourage them to consider materials, energy use, recyclability, and end-of-life disposal.
Have groups present their designs and explain how they incorporated sustainable principles.
Conclusion and Reflection (10 minutes)
Wrap up the lesson by revisiting key points on sustainability, human impact, fossil fuels, and the 6R’s.
Ask students to reflect on how they can apply sustainable practices in their daily lives.
An assembly presentation you could use before a Student council Election
Discuss the election process, why your voice is important and the roles of a student council
Introduction to smart materials when you just don’t have enough time or resources to give everyone a smart material to experiment with.
Good revision lesson too.
Includes:
Video link introduction
Key Vocubulary
Smart Material animations
Mini Review
Scaffolding Tasks
Example GCSE Questions
Exit Card.
Revision lesson to cover the surface finishes and treatments that are available to enhance functional and aesthetic qualities in materials.
Mini reviews
Video resources
Past paper questions and knowledge check tasks
Handouts
Follow on lesson from simple carbohydrates
to explain complex carbohydrates (Polysaccharides) and their role in your diet
Cellulose Fibre
Starch
Glycogen
Also outlines diabetes and hypoglycaemic and foods rich in fibre
Mini reviews
Scaffolding Tasks
Exit Card
last minute cover lesson activity to design a healthy and nutritious flapjack
Includes success criteria
Simle instructions
Information o help them fulfill the success criteria
A lesson on calculating the total macro and micro nutrients provided by food ingredients and in a recipe.
This lesson provides
A starter on previous learning (simple and complex carbohydrates)
Learning objectives for lesson (All Most Some/ Expect Develop Stretch)
A think pair share (types of macro and micro nutrients)
Mini review activity (What are micro macro neither?)
Scaffolding (Calculating the nutrients in a recipe for an ingredient)
Task (Calculating the nutrients in a recipe for an ingredient)
Stretch Task (Calculating the total nutrients in a recipe)
Exit Card (Types of macro and micro nutrients)
Resources for all the nutrition of ingredients provided by spaghetti bolognese
A 4 hour learning activity/project that encourages independent learning to meet set outcomes.
This activity was developed as a short project based learning activity to compliment the work that the pupils do in school.
There are 5 milestones for the pupils to complete using the resources provided to answer a driving question.
Driving Question
When making a product for someone how do you know which materials are the most suitable, which size of material to order and what the cost will be? How can you ensure you are not left out of pocket after charging the customer?
In the resource you will find an overview sheet and 5 suitable resource sheets to help pupils complete the desired outcomes.
Description of Project
Whether you are a builder, carpenter, roofer, painter you will always need to buy the materials you need to make a product. Sometimes you are making a product to sell or providing a service and you will not want to be out of pocket.
Whenever you plan to make a product at home or in work you will need to know how much material you will need to make the product. If you order too little or the wrong size you will not be able to make the product. If you order too much you will be left with waste and will end up costing you more.
Before you start to make, you should plan out the exact size and quantity of a material you need and which stock form you need to order to get the shapes you need. You should then budget your product to make sure you can afford to make it or too calculate the cost of the product to enable you to make a profit
Wooden Table
You have been approached by a customer to make this simple coffee table and has given you a budget of £100. Before you make it you will need to work out which material would be the most suitable, how much material you need, what stock form you need to order.
Then you will have to calculate how much it will cost to make to make sure it is profitable for you to make it within the budget. Man does not work for free!
A smoothie design lesson I made for year 7.
Especially useful in helping pupils use specifications to evaluate their designs.
Includes;
Stater
Video Links
Support sheets
Example
Exit Card
Please leave feedback
15 pages of design tasks or emergency cover work.
Design a bookend
Design a pop vinyl figure
Design a picture frame
Design a car
Design a milkshake brand
Design an automata
Design a mobile phone holder
An investigation lesson on vitamins including a starter, link to a great vitamin video, table for pupils to complete as a group and 6 fact sheets for pupils to investigate and get the information they need. Extension task of class discussion about vitamins and an exit card.
Quick resource I created for a cover lesson for my year 8 food class. We are currently learning about staple food ingredients. Could be useful for someone.
4 Christmas activities for ks3 DT.
Not the greatest stretching activities but I had to provide some quick cover work for a teacher for a non specialist. Might be useful to someone else too