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Students may have already produced a single technological outcome for a particular end user as part of another assessment. This could be used as a starting point for this assessment.

It may not be necessary for students to manufacture large numbers of individual items.

The intention of the standard is to assess whether the students can implement a manufacturing process that is beyond, for example, one tray of biscuits to a larger run that ensures consistency of the product (for example, if they made 1000 biscuits the specified process would result in all of the biscuits being uniform enough to meet the specifications).

In some instances it will be possible to make a smaller number of the product to test the specified manufacturing process and then modify as necessary. For example, a system could be set up to manufacture cape cod chairs and manufacturing five chairs could provide sufficient information to refine the manufacturing process to ensure future consistency in the product. It is likely that the more stable the material and the simpler it is to control the stages of production the less numbers of product will need to be produced to establish an effective manufacturing system.

Explanatory Note 5 (EN5) states :Advanced procedures are those that require advanced skills and the student to select and perform techniques that need scheduling to achieve the special features.

Explanatory Note 7 states: 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, for example, nuno felting. 

Inserting the two layers of the skirt into a waistband could be considered a special feature that would require scheduling (that is, the student would need to determine what order this should be done in order to achieve the special feature).

Creating french seams and a rolled hem would not require scheduling (EN5), or the application of advanced skills as indicated by the examples given in Explanatory Note 7.

However, if the student inserted an invisible zip into the chiffon lined skirt, then they would have implemented another advanced procedure.

This standard is very broad in terms of possible contexts, but students must select structures for which detailed information can be obtained without too much difficulty. This information will need to include not only drawings and/or first-hand observations, but also why crucial design and engineering decisions were made.

The AS is about understanding structures as systems – how they are designed to maintain their integrity given the various forces that impact on them. Students are not restricted to current techniques used in New Zealand (that is just part of the context setting in the assessment resource), or to New Zealand structures.

The context used in the TKI assessment resource is the timber framed New Zealand house. This has the great advantage that local examples can almost certainly be found and examined first hand, and that many of the system requirements are detailed in the building code. Even so, as the AR suggests, students will need “access to visiting speakers such as architects, builders, and council building inspectors”. This is because it is not enough for them to second-guess why things are done the way they are – they need to understand the principles involved.

The building code exists only to codify the principles by which a house can be soundly constructed using commonly available materials. As long as a house is built using these principles, there is no need to engage an engineer. For more elaborate structures (such as bridges, multi-storey buildings, or stadiums) there is no such code; engineers must use complex mathematics and physics, sophisticated modelling techniques, and highly detailed technical data to determine that a proposed design will not collapse as a result of either internal or external stresses/loads.

So there is unlikely to be any off-the-shelf information of the kind that you are looking for. You could try contacting the engineering firm responsible for a local structure that uses ETFE and see if they have information that they are willing to share. You may also be able to arrange a site visit and a Q & A session with one or more of the engineers responsible.

Note that for merit the AS requires the students to “evaluate the structural integrity of a structural system” and for excellence, to “discuss and justify possible ways of increasing the structural integrity of a structural system”. Both are quite big asks, so it is important to discourage students from selecting structures that are too complex or for which they will not be able to access all of the information they need.

Managing the inclusion of structural or style features means that complexity in the procedures for the textile product has been added as a result of where and how the feature will be included.  

For example if pin tucks are to be added as a style feature the student could be:

• ensuring they know how to do pin tucking, the choices available in machine equipment and stitches to do this
• determining where the pin tucks will be applied to ensure they are aesthetically pleasing and flattering, how many pin tucks, the width of each pin tuck etc.
• deciding the best stage of construction at which to apply the pin tucks. For example, in some instances the pin tucks may be applied to the fabric prior to cutting out the pattern pieces. In other instances the pin tucks will be accurately positioned to shape a garment.

AS 91344 Implement advanced procedures using resistant materials to make a specified product requires the student to construct a specified product that includes at least two special features (one aesthetic and one structural). In addition, its construction requires the consistent application of accepted conventions and use of advanced craft skills. The agreed specifications for the product to be made must allow these requirements to be met. 

The specifications could describe a product that the student had developed a conceptual design for, and had been assessed for AS 91356 Develop a conceptual design for an outcome. You would need to check that these specifications allowed the student access to AS 91344, and adjust accordingly if this is not the case.

 Examples of course outlines for Year 11 and 12 can be found at: Planning programmes and units of work: Course outlines

Collars and cuffs are considered two separate special features. Your first option is correct.

The intent of AS 91069 standard is that students will present aspects of their design ideas/work. This could come from the design ideas or final solution or from the research that they have done – that is, from anywhere in the design pathway.

The exemplars are still the student’s own work and they are a part of their design portfolio/process and not another designers work. The students that did these samples put together the presentation from images and component pieces.

AS 91355 requires students to: "Use selected planning tools to set achievable goals, establishing resources required and determining critical review points." (Explanatory Note 2)

The layout diagram described is generally used as a functional modelling tool to present designs and in some instances used to illicit feedback from key stakeholders. If it was to be considered a planning tool, it would need to be seen to be aiding goal setting and/or the establishment of resources required, and/or the determining of critical review points.

The interpretation of these words is also related to the phrases that follow them in the standard criteria.

Appraising the design of a technological outcome using design judgement criteria: For this criteria at achieved, an appraisal is considered an opinion related to the design judgement criteria.

Evaluating the quality of the design of a technological outcome using design judgement criteria: For this criteria at merit, evaluating is considered to be the application of the design judgement criteria to produce a critique that is more "objective", "testable", and possibly enumerated.

The judgement being made by an assessor is that the quality of the critique has improved as the critique has moved beyond informed opinion. The critique has more depth as a better understanding of "design judgement criteria" and/or a better application of the design judgement criteria inform it.

Additional information is available in the NZQA assessment schedules and assessment reports.