Year 11 Makerspace

Course Overview

Term 1
Unit 1: Students/akonga will begin this course with a unit on Health and Safety. Students/akonga are required to successfully complete a study of Health and Safety in the workplace (school). Students are expected to learn and know the rudiments of safe work practice and demonstrate safe work practice in the context of the WBHS school workshop. This unit will look at safe work practices, PPE (personal protective equipment), using machines and tools safely, and creating a safe working environment which will encompass the idea of Manaakitanga. Akonga will be encouraged in watching out for others and caring enough to support others in their own safe work practice by creating a culture of safe work practice.

Unit 2: Students/akonga will be involved in designing and making modern Māori Taonga jewelry design as a gift for another person. In this unit akonga/students will research traditional Māori symbolism and understand what taonga is. Akonga will research historical information around Māori taonga vs modern NZ Māori jewelry designers. The idea of a taonga is that it is gifted to someone and can offer protection and love to the individual. This project will be made using a combination of wood and resin and will be inspired by traditional Māori greenstone pounamu symbols.

Term 2
Unit 3: Ergonomic Laptop Stand - In this unit, akonga will choose a teacher at Westlake Boys to use as a stakeholder. They will look at the teacher’s current desk/ergonomic workstation and conduct some research into laptop stands as well as use the teachers own preferences/height/desk/scale/laptop research. Akonga will sketch some ideas and make a prototype to test Akonga will use create a design using CAD and understand how to use the laser cutter. Akonga can use Perspex or wood for this design, they will learn how to engrave and cut with the laser cutter and learn file types and CAD set up for the laser cutter. It will include the teachers name and Westlake logo incorporated into the design and gifted to the stake holder upon completion.

Term 3
Students will be given a design brief and asked to design and manufacture a time piece for use in a context of their own choosing. This item will be used to tell the time and will be entirely the students own design made from a range of materials available to them in a school workshop setting. Students may bring in additional materials from home to use and augment their design. Students will be asked to make their design as sustainable as possible with recycled and sustainable materials being the focus here.

Term 4
Completion of the manufacture of a time piece and evaluation of the finished product.