Marking Criteria - Your key to success

During the Preliminary course, many potential marks were lost in assessment tasks due to two main points.

These were:

• Incorrectly interpreting the question based on the verb.
• Not following the marking criteria closely

The verb is the word by which your plan your response.
If it asks you to identify - that is what you do. You don't have to produce a huge amount of information - just what is relevant.

How many words per question - that depends on the verb. A higher order verb requires a more detailed and thoughtful response and so more words would be used than in a lower order verb.

Unsure of what is relevant? - check the marking criteria.

The marking criteria is what I use to mark your assessment task. You should be aiming at the top bands, but it pays to check what is described in the lower bands to see if your work is in that section. If you have evaluated (the marking criteria being the criteria to evaluate success) your response and you believe that it is still not up to a band 5 or 6 - keep working on it. Refer back to your verb definition and add to your response.

Remember - I can't give you marks for information that you present that wasn't asked for.

Be efficient - quality over quantity.

You will give yourself a better chance of better marks across all your subjects if you follow the above hints.

The HSC is a fairly transparent process where you can achieve great results by just doing what is asked in assessment tasks. The more efficiently and effectively you can produce quality work - the less time and stress is needed for each task. With more time and less stress - you might even enjoy your HSC experience.

Here is a link to a blog that has some great information of HSC success:

http://secretsofhscsuccessrevealed.blogspot.com/search/label/Essay%20Writing

I strongly suggest spending some time looking through this blog - it might not all be relevant to your - but I am confident every student could achieve their HSC potential from following some of their advice.

Remember the verb!

In answering the questions of the assessment task, base your answers on the verb in the question. Your case study will be marked using the verb book (Also available in the myclasses section of the school desktop) as a guide.

Remember your in text referencing and use the proper style (Harvard).

I will be looking for referencing from sources other than the Internet so try to find information elsewhere - especially from contacting the designer or company.  Don't be shy in asking questions - the worst that can happen is that they don't reply!

What is your emerging technology?

The time has come for you to decide what your case study will be focused on.

Here are some hints for choosing one:

• That you can get relevant information
• That you can contact the designer or company
• It is not boring
• It must have social, environmental and safety advantages
• Australian, or have an effect on Australia

Here are some useful websites:

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/australia_innovates/

http://www.whitehat.com.au/australia/Inventions/InventionsA.html

http://www.asistm.edu.au/asistm/

http://www.swinburne.edu.au/hosting/ijets/journal/V5N1/V5N1abstract_lindgaard.htm

http://www.ausindustry.gov.au/Pages/AusIndustry.aspx

You now need to post a comment on this blog detailing your choice or at least a few that you might choose one from.


You need to post the information this week!

House designs

These sites should be of interest to Codie

http://www.solardwellings.com.au/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

The interactive floor plan is very helpful and the information contained in the site is very interesting.


http://www.sunpowerdesign.com.au/index.html
Go to their gallery and read the case studies

Remote teaching - I could get used to this

I won't be at school till the 27th of this month, but don't stress - we have a class blog! Just be happy we don't have webcams in classroom.... yet!

Here is what happened

• On Friday lunchtime I went to my doctor with a sore tummy, they sent me to hospital where I had an ultrasound and CT scan.
• This showed I had appendicitis.
• Spent the night in hospital and had an appendectomy (removal of the appendix) by keyhole surgery the next morning.
• Saturday night in hospital, then to school to prepare lessons, then home.
• I'm very sore and disappointed to be missing time off school especially when I have already missed a couple of weeks this year.

Want to know more?? Check this out:

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=1164

You should have watched a DVD on the Art of Design last lesson. Hope you got something out of it.

Remember you have your assessment task so don't waste time in class  - just do it.

Here is an interesting webpage on making presentations more interesting. I think these hints are beneficial to the presentation of your folio for your major design projects.

http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/10-tips-for-designing-presentations-that-dont-suck-pt-1


Please update your blog each lesson with potential ideas and directions for your MDP. I will be checking them from home!

Hello HSC

Term 4 is here and now we are into the HSC course.

All assesment ranks and marks start fresh so if you were not happy with your results in the preliminary course, now is the time to plan out a strategy for improvement. And for those who were happy with their performance - be warned - others will soon catch up!

My hints are:

• Be at school
• Listen in class
• Ask questions
• Get onto assesment tasks quickly
• Talk to your teachers
• Talk to other students
• Be confident - you only get one shot at the HSC - so give it your best

Choose an emerging technology soon as the first assesment task is based on a design that has not achieved its market potential. Think around the lines of medical, enviromental and communication to choose an appropriate design that you will be able to research and get all the information you need. I strongly suggest emailing them with questions.


Had another idea for a project today...

Design brief:

To desgin and produce system for reducing the amount of noise pollution in the school workshop.

• Test noise levels of various operations using a decimenter.
• Design and produce noise suppressing panels to soak up noise pollution.
• These could be attached to walls and suspended from  the ceiling.
• Can be colourful and have safety messages on them.

Good project because it:

• is focussed on a real need
• cheap
• creative
• has a market
• has safety, enviromental and ergonomic considerations

Anyone keen on saving my hearing??