Have you ever thought about where all your stuff comes from? Today we watched “Story of Stuff” by Annie Leonard. This film has lots of interesting facts but when you watch it make sure you take it with a pinch of salt as her argument is often one sided!

Today Katie from 1st year, has been writing down her thoughts to some of these questions. The questions are very open ended so that we could have some discussion about what we think. What do you think? Please comment!

Starter Where do you think your MP3 player or mobile phone comes from and where does it go? I think it comes from a factory and ends up either in a dump or being recycled, it could even go on ebay.

 Extraction.  Where do you think people who live in Scotland should get our natural resources from? I think we should use the three r’s. We could also get it from our own country.

Production How do you think we could manufacture products better? I think that we could not use BFR’s! We could also stop using these chemicals.

 Distribution How much do you think it costs to make an MP3 player from scratch? I think it would be around £50

Consumption What can you do to consume less?

Disposal What do you think you should do with your MP3 player when you are finished with it?

Another Way What is the most important thing you have learned from this video?

Today we were talking about “form over function” which one was more important? They way something looked or the way something worked? My own opinion was the function was more important because you can’t sell something to someone that only looks good then doesn’t work.

By Daniel Reidy 

(I Am Brilliant) 

By Adam

Last week we looked at measuring accurately. How accurate could you measure 1 or 2 millimeters maybe? In class we used a special instrument called a Micrometer - we were able to measure to 0.01 millimeters!! Yes - 0.01 millimeters. That is about the same thickness as a strand of human hair!

We all measured how thick our mobile phones were and at the end we found out who in the class had the thinnest mobile phone.

 Here is your task,

Complete two of the following sentences about what you thought about the class:

The most important thing I learned about this lesson was…..

What I found most interesting was….

What I enjoyed most about the lesson was….

One thing that still puzzles me is….

After the lesson I felt…….

The lesson might have been more helpful if…..

If you feel  that this small Web Helper helped you. Please leave a comment for us. 

By Peter

Thankyou to everyone who posted, commented, or who has had a look at our blog. All the posts have been really excellent to read and you have made a great start. We have a lot to live up to to keep it going

I hope that the new first years will enjoy the chance of sharing what they get up to in the Tech classroom with the rest of the world….

(Hover over each picture to read a description of the process)

1st year were given the design brief to create a wooden shelf. To begin, we had to make the legs for our shelf go at an angle. The tool we used was a smoothing plane. Next, we had to mark our main part of wood. (245mm, by a 5mm gap and 100mm.) We used the tenon or a copping saw to cut the wood in half. (Not two equal halves!) We then had to put our backs into sanding the wood down. We could use the sander machine or do it ourself. After sanding it to the smoothiest point, we used the smoothing plane again to make the piece of wood (which will be nailed into the main body of the wood) and again cut it at a slight angle.

By Peter

We started to mark out the base of the wooden rack.Then we clamped our base into the vice. After that we used a plane, a plane is a tool used for taking small layers of wood off quicly and smoothly. It has two handles one at the back and one at the front, if you are right-handed you would put our right hand at the back and your left hand at the back. If you are left-handed you would put your left hand at the back and your right hand at the front. As you slide the plane along you notice that small curly peices of wood appears, these are not sharp or warm. In St.Luke’s we all make sure that all of the pupils are safe and cannot be harmed when in the workshop.

By Amy

I really like tech because it’s great fun and it is very interesting. Tech is my favourite subject because we get to make things in the workshop. We have so far made clocks and keyrings and they turned out really well. I like my classmates and I enjoy Tech very much !

Jo Marie

Check out more of our pictures of the day!

2nd years recently took part in a busy morning full of design challenges in the Design and Tech deptartment. The whole of 2nd year was split into three where they rotated about different activities:

1. Designing and making their own land yacht. Thanks to the staff and students from Strathclyde Uni who ran this event. This was a true ‘test and test again’ challenge where groups built their yacht, tested it infront of the huge fan and then adjusted their design to improve it.
2. Groups had to design and make a free standing bridge from ‘broadsheet’ newspapers. The bridge had to span 600mm and support 250g. The bridge had to be at least 100mm wide at one point. The team who won managed to make their design out of only 2 sheets!
3. Groups had to design a system to lower an egg out of a first floor window (without smashing it of course). They had some string (not enough though), balloons, paper and scellotape. They were some very creative designs and also some smashed eggs!

Well done and thankyou to everyone involved. It was a busy, exciting and memorable morning :-)