To follow up and help students improve after an initial design activity, this lesson helps students to evaluate how designs can be improved This resource has been used with year 7 and 8 students (England) to follow up on an initial design of a nightlight and help them become ambitious with their designs and stretch out into considering more about functionality, sustainability, performance and usability (ergonomics)

an introduction or review of metals and their properties. Resource includes a step through powerpoint together which introduces a series of student based tasks. A full customised worksheet is provided encourage students to make meaningful notes as the lesson progresses. This lesson takes between 30 and 40 minutes to complete fully and has been successfully used with year 10 and 11 students in England

A student based, step by step tutorial that can be used for remote learning, cover work or independent working in the classroom. Tutorial takes one hour to complete and takes students through creating a simple microcontroller system with a switch and a servo motor then programming it in scratch. includes differenciated help with embedded videos and solutions that weaker students can use to reverse engineer with Systems can then be upgraded to replace the switch with other inputs depending upon design need Tinkercad is free and available entirely online as cloud based CAD software. This tutorial has been used successfully many times with year 8 and year 9 students.

This 14 lesson course introduces the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) to students and develops both a technical and social, moral and ethical thinking about if technology is always good Content is embedded with practical: an internet controlled MP3 player. To avoid any issues with the IT department, this is done by setting the microcontroller up that controls the MP3 player in AP mode to act as a local hotspot. Students can then remotely connect to the player with phones, tablets or laptops. MP3 files are played using an onboard SD card. This sounds very expensive, but it isnt and even with todays (April 2022) prices, can be made for under £2 a unit. PCB artwork or professionally manufactured PCB’s are available from the author at cost together with the Arduino microcontroller code

A step by step walk through using circuit wizard screenshots of how to layout a breadboard prototype of a 555 astable circuit.\n\nOnly G&T seem to be able to work out breadboards fully for themselves. For the magority this gives them a detailed set of instructions showing them how to construct the circuit

a simple discussion based ppt to get students thinking about why they have chosen the power supply that they have and think about if it is really the best choice for their project. Tries to get them thinking about core spec points such as sustainability.

This is a subset of materials available for a 14 hour year 9 course, where students use a servo motor controlled initially by a 555 timer, to mechanise an animatron (PIC based control is designed as a follow on). Course is designed to teach concepts of 555 timing leading onto pulse width modulation as a higher level concept. Circut wizard files are provided for circuits and PCB's (file extension needs changing from .txt to .cwz)

focus is on introducing key concepts for GCSE Electronic Products in a fun way. Circuit is two LDR based transistor circuits controlling two independent motors. Students work in teams to build (primarily to keep costs down but to also make planning more interesting). . The chassis is very basic because of my workshop setup, but development in this area could also form a strong part. More resources are available on request (this is a subset)

A useful starter that can easily be tweaked to reflect what students should already know. They are shown an electronic symbol and an anagram and they must crack the anagram (or recognise the symbol - which is easier) to get points. A useful website to generate anagrams is: http://www.anagramsite.com/cgi-bin/getanagram.cgi

A year 9 project designed to last for 30 hours. Introduces breadboarding, and PCB design as well as package design. Contains SOW, A3 project booklet and some supporting teaching reources (not all) Circuit wizard files to accompany this project are available on request

A year 9 project designed to last for 30 hours. Introduces breadboarding, and PCB design as well as package design. Contains SOW, A3 project booklet and some supporting teaching reources (not all)\n\nCircuit wizard files to accompany this project are available on request

For older KS3 classes and above. A series of definitions for given keywords for a class to assess and find the right one. Definitions are deliberately wordy to help with literacy and make them think more deeply about if the definition makes sense

a quiz to encourage deeper thinking about components, insulators and conductors, polarization, symbols and real images

A markbook for Edexcel GCSE design technology subjects. Ued to keep track of controlled assessment and to automatically work out 'WAG' (working at grades). Divided into sheets by assessment criteria to make the sheet easy to print and read for students on A4

a simple introduction to thyristors and RS logic gate latching. Also included are two circuit wizard 2.0 files (change extension to .cwz) to show a thyristor latch and an NOR gate based RS latch as part of a final year project

a simple formatted quiz that can easily be expanded. Ideal as a starter or as part of general revision. Differentiated so that all will score something and boost confidence whilst higher ability can still shine through

primarily aimed at year 9 students to develop their PCB design skills before year 10. A simple LED based project consisting of two PCB's. One PCB is given to the student, the other they must design (a simple 555 astable circuit). They must use what they have designed in their final system. The attached file is a circuit wizard v2 file (change extension to .cwz) containing all instructions and activities. Other supporting materials to follow

a very simple introduction to circuit wizard using elementary circuits to make LED circuits, introducing the concepts of simulation and CAD. Leading onto automated PCB creation and linking then to onward manufacture. Written for Circuit Wizard version 2,.0. No additional files required. In a one lesson, should take a year 7 student 45 to 50 minutes to complete with time for a plenary on the embedded questions at the end

In the quest for higher thinking questions within lessons, odd one out was suggested. Students must state the odd one out, but also give a reason why for the answer.

FIrstly just one ppt showing some things that students may wish to consider fif they have chosen an alarm project for year 11 controlled assessment if following AQA or EDEXCEL. This is useful for individual students who need a bit of help in getting going rather than for a full class (why not email it to them as PDF?). Others will follow for different topics