Earlier in this project your group chose a real school problem and sketched a solution on your Design Brief. Today is the day your sketch becomes something you can hold and test.
You become the builders: turn that plan into a working prototype using the shared junk-modelling kit. Engineers almost never get a first build exactly as drawn. What matters is following the brief, noticing when something needs to change, and writing that change down.
Open your Design Brief together. Name the user and one success criterion out loud. Point to the main shape on your sketch.
That sketch is the start of your prototype: a first working model you can test.
Your Design Brief is the plan you follow. If tape or card will not hold as drawn, keep the user need, change the join, and jot that plan change so you can finish your notes later.
Use only the shared junk-modelling kit. Follow your Design Brief and build a working prototype for your school problem.
- Build the main structure first.
- Add the joins, then any moving or holding parts.
- Test gently as you go: does it stand? Does it do the main job?
- Jot each plan change (what changed + why) on a sticky note or journal edge as you go.
- Stop when it is a working model you can test next time, not when every detail is perfect.
If a join fails or the sketch will not stand in real card, that is normal engineering: keep the user need, change the join, and jot it.
Each of you records on your own Investigation Journal page how the build went. Use your group's sticky-note jots and talk.
On your page, complete these three things only:
- Build notes — what you made and how far you got (words or a quick labelled sketch).
- Plan change or plan held — what you changed and why, or what proved the plan was working.
- User link — one sentence that links the prototype back to the user need.
Think about your build. Be ready with one short sentence for the class, using a frame like these:
Our ______ already ______ for the user. (for example: Our book stand already holds two books upright for the reader.)
We changed ______ because ______. (for example: We changed the tape join to string because the draught-stopper flap would not stay shut.)
Also name one thing you will want to test carefully next time against your success criteria.
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