During the last two weeks in Year 7 Design and Technology, students have (finally, thanks to the end of the lockdown!) begun their exciting hands-on production. The boys were guided to cut, file, sand and put together a wooden toy car. In both 7B and 7C, we hosted a ‘sanding competition’, which really motivated the boys to produce amazingly-sanded wooden cars, with super smooth surfaces and edges that even amazed our technician staff. The two students (Jayden Lim from 7B and Michael Conforti from 7C) won the competition and each earned a pack of mini Lego. Below are some reflections and thoughts from students of 7B and 7C.
Min Woo Kim – 7B
In Design and Tech, we have been making wooden cars. On the first couple of lessons in the Wood cutting place, we drew design of a car and cut it out with a saw. Sawing the wood took a while and wasn’t really that fun. After the sawing, we had to file the sides that we cut to make it more even. Filing was the hardest part of the wooden car so far, due to the amount of time it takes and how you have to constantly move the filer back and forward across the wood to try and make it a bit flatter and more even. The step that we just completed today was sanding the wood. By now the wooden block started resemble a car. Sanding the wood took the longest out of all the steps we have done so far. During sanding, we used pieces of sandpaper that were all of different roughness to smooth all the sides and edges make sure that they wouldn’t cut anyone’s hand. That’s all that we’ve done so far.
Zacheriah Huynh – 7B
Building a wooden car was one of the most satisfying and enjoyable experiences of year 7. We got the opportunity to model it, cut it, file and sand it! It was a long process, but the outcome is worth it. For the modelling, we used OnShape to design and preview the outcome of our device. We used different saws to cut, and files and sandpaper to make sure our car didn’t end up with any splinters! Everyone was always eager for Design and Tech and was satisfied with their outcome of their car. Everyone enjoyed the creation of their cars!
Isaac Ng – 7C
For the preparation we used OnShape to figure out how we wanted our car to look like. The best part I liked was sanding the car because the end result was very satisfying. This is because of the smoothness of the car. The things I found difficult was cutting the block to get the car even on the sides. I also found filing the car difficult because sometimes I filed the car too much than I wanted.
Michael Conforti – 7C
I spent around 2 weeks on my car. The saw part was a lot of fun to do. The most challenging part was the sanding. It took a lot of time to get it smooth, which is challenging in itself. Another reason why sanding took a long time is because we had to use some many different types of sanders from the roughest type to the smoothest type. Making the car was really fun to do. It was fun to be creative and see your hard work become something cool
