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Yes the standard 91611 is still valid. See NZQA resources exemplars and commentary (PDF, 1.8MB). The standard can be round on NZQA here.It is currently available for assessment and is due to be reviewed at the end of 2020.

The standards mentioned are all currently available on the NZQA site for assessment by education organisations who have consent to assess.

If this applies, please be aware the National Certificate in Electronics Technology for Level 2 (of which most of the standards listed above comprise) is expiring at the end of the year. The last date for assessment is 31st December 2020.

See NZQA electronics technology for further details. There is no information available at this point, as to whether the unit standards will be available after this time.

The project and aims for the learning you have described, is a rich, student-centred, local, and authentic project. This is because the students/school community are doing the setting up, testing, and evaluating when they create the digital outcome that compares the digital and human senses.

By doing this, the students are designing and developing digital outcomes for a specified purpose – to test, compare, and produce results. Arduino are excellent tools for delivering the intent of the revised technology learning area. This project fits well within the context of designing and developing digital outcomes (DDDO) area of technology learning. If students were to extend their learning and make changes to the existing, given code, that would then also include the computational thinking for digital technologies (CTDT) area. It is also okay that it doesn't.

Schools should ensure that students are learning across all five contexts/technological areas in years 1 to 10. Look for natural connections to issues that require solutions in your local environment. Look for where those issues require the students to draw knowledge from the contexts (materials, processing, DVC, or digital), in order to solve that issue or problem. In other words, when designing curriculum, start with the issue and then guide the students to see which of the five contexts are needed to solve it.

The rich nature of your project lends itself particularly well to integrating the not optional technology strands, alongside the digital areas. The nature of technology strand looks at the relationships between people and technology. Have a look at the indicators of progression for characteristics of technology to see if your students, at their year and curriculum level, are achieving their learning outcomes. There are eight components across the three strands. Maybe consider discussing with your colleagues to see who is delivering learning in which context so that you can together ensure students are learning across all three strands and the five areas/contexts.

There is no requirement for students to create their own text and graphics for US 18734.

The three patterns listed meet the requirements of the special features as outlined in explanatory note 7 that is:

"Special features are those that rely on the application of advanced skills. These include but are not limited to: style features, such as set in sleeve, fly front, tailored collars and cuffs, welt pockets and/or decorative features such as pin tucking, embroidery, and shirring and/or structural features such as 3D felting and combining different fibres in felting and different materials e.g. nuno felting."

(NZQA.govt.nz AS 91345) 

The style features noted in each of the patterns are:

• Sapporo Jacket: Angled seaming and pockets hidden in the front seams.
• Stacker jacket: Choice of flapped in-seam pockets or oversized patch pockets, plus a tailored collar and set in sleeve.
• Kobe dress/top: Set in sleeve, pleats overlapping and a keyhole neckline. 

Lining the jackets is not necessary to meet the requirements of AS 91345 Implement complex procedures using textile materials to make a specified product with special features, but it is one of the features that may be considered for complex procedures at level 3 using AS 91621 Implement complex procedures using textile materials to make a specified product.

The assessment schedule for the TKI NCEA technology assessment resource, Process a lemon meringue pie, provides examples of acceptable evidence for each grade.

To find this resource, The Microsoft Word file is on the NCEA TKI site, Level 2 Technology assessment resources page. It is towards the bottom of the page under Processing Technologies 2.60 (AS91351), in the middle row of the table, and entitled "2.60 Food".

The teacher guidelines are also very useful in explaining requirements. 

Within this assessment task it states:

"For this assessment the students are given the ingredients, the processing operations, the tests, and a HACCP plan. They must determine the sequence of processing and testing to produce a successful meringue pie and follow the HACCP plan when processing and testing."

All three of the products listed could meet the requirements of the processing operations listed in explanatory note 9 of the standard, Standard 91351 on NZQA.govt.nz.

The students will also need to be familiar with testing in food processing so that they are able to self select tests that are appropriate to their product.

The Technology Online teaching snapshot, Testing in food processing, provides guidance on helping students understand and apply authentic testing while food processing in a school classroom setting.

Explanatory note 7 states :
"Advanced procedures are those that require the student to perform a self-determined sequence of processing operations and tests to make a successful product. The specifications of the product, the materials to be processed, and the processing operations and tests to be undertaken will be provided to the student. The sequencing will not be provided."

Students will also need to be familiar with processing operations for their product and to be able to self select a sequence to follow to produce a successful product.

Below are a selection of video clips showing an inquiry learning based approach including the technology learning area.

Flight inquiry:

• Technology flight inquiry: EOTC in our community
• Technology, mathematics, and science in years 3–4: Flight inquiry
• Technology and literacy in years 3–4: Flight inquiry

ANZAC and sustainability inquiries:

• Technology as a part of a cross-curriculum inquiry
• Technology isn’t just about making things

The second project here may be of interest as the title suggests – learning in technology does not always have to be about technological practice and making products.

Below are two written resources describe an inquiry that met an authentic need for the school:

• Primary playground redesign – a rich local curriculum opportunity
• Games for rainy days, years 1–3

How it all fits together

The 1995 curriculum was focused on skills and knowledge.

The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and the revision to the technology learning area in 2017, repositioned skills as one pathway to understanding about, and being a technologist (using a design process) to create outcomes that meet needs of users/stakeholders in an authentic/real-world, local context.

The design process is the way students understand how technologists (students) solve issues/problems and is the purpose of the technological practice strand. The skills and knowledge a technologist needs whilst they are using a design process, are described broadly in the technological knowledge strand. The questions students have about the people and place the technologist is designing their outcome for, is the purpose of the nature of technology strand. To be successful designers of outcomes, students have to experience learning in all three strands. Students understand all this as they experience being technologists themselves. This is how the technology learning area differs from the other seven learning areas.

Teaching as inquiry is different to inquiry learning. Inquiry learning guides students to solve issues/problems across all learning areas.

Teaching as inquiry is intended to guide teacher decision making as they support students technology learning.
Teaching as inquiry model of practice/pedagogy (New Zealand Curriculum, page 35) involves the teacher applying a three step process so they know what the impact of their teaching is on learning: 

1. Focusing – What is important (and therefore worth spending time on), given where my students are at?
2. Teaching inquiry – What strategies (evidence-based) are most likely to help my students learn this?
3. Learning inquiry – What happened as a result of the teaching, and what are the implications for future teaching?

The NCEA standards at Level 1, are written to determine a student’s learning performance at level 6 (of 8) of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC).

The achievement objectives provide the details of learning at each NZC Level and are the content for each of the three technology strands.

Each of the three strands has components of technology, and each component has eight achievement objectives, one for each NZC level. For example, the nature of technology strand, has two components; characteristics of technology and characteristics of technological outcomes. At level 6, there is an achievement objective for each (see the technology indicators).

For senior secondary, the resources on the senior secondary TKI site support educators in the task of designing their learning programmes to align the achievement objectives, with specialist courses like digital technologies. The senior secondary TKI site, has some excellent resources, in the teaching and learning guides. Using the section menu on right hand side of the technology teaching and learning guide shows how digital technologies at senior secondary relates to the technology learning area strands and the other technology areas.

The revision to the technology learning area, saw the strengthening of digital technologies, and the addition of progress outcomes, which contain the significant steps for learning that students should take in order to progress their specialist digital, and broader technology understanding.

See:

• computational thinking for digital technologies: Progress outcomes and exemplars
• designing and developing digital outcomes: Progress outcomes and exemplars.

The progress outcomes contain significant learning steps in both specialist digital concepts, and those contained within the mandatory technology strands. For a student to meet the requirements of the progress outcomes and the strands, an educator should plan learning activities using both progress outcomes and achievement objectives to ensure a rich, authentic, student centred, learning experience.

The complex procedures outlined in Explanatory note 3 of AS 91621 are:

• joining materials with different properties, for example, jacket shell and lining, sailcloth on to tape
• changing the characteristics of the materials, for example, interfacing, interlining, boning
• managing special fabrics, for example, fine knits, sheers, satins, ripstop nylon, canvas
• managing the inclusion of structural or style features, for example, tucks, pockets, openings, closures, weather proof storage
• cutting on the bias.

These relate to managing the fabric and the inclusion of structural and style features not applying a design to the fabric.

The complex applied design would need to be separate to the complex procedures for AS 91621.