Will Farr Design Blog Rationale - Mr. Smith

 We in the Design & Technology department have kick-started the William Farr School design blog - wherein we will comment on goings on within the House of D&T (as it's called by no-one!) and also share our views on a subject we certainly have a lot of time for!

It's already been a big year, with a very wet Construction Week, Year 11 PIC Day - not to mention a trip to New York.  There's even more to come from what promises to be a tremndous year in the Arkwright building.  The A-Level and GCSE students are making steadfast progress with thir final year projects and will be getting ready to exhibit in June.

Whether it's products, graphics, interiors, fashion or architecture.  We'll be chipping in, along with the students, entries that will reflect our love of all things Design & Technology related.

In addition to D&T news, there'll also be features on various 'design classics' - products that have influenced the world and the creative process of the students and the teachers.

PIC Day 2011 - Year 11

Year 11 undertook some curriculum-enhancing PIC-based electronics last term - Luke Harrison and Ashley Rawson take up the story:

Thursday before half term we were paid a visit by Les Porter of Ideas In2 Action.  We had the day off timetable in order to take part in a day of PIC-based electronics to aid our GCSE.  We had no idea what we would be making beforehand however it was a fun experience throughout the day. 

Over the course of the day we were tasked with making a circuit board using a PIC (Peripheral Interface Controller.)  We learnt a lot over the course of the day which will stand us in good stead when we are making our own circuits.  Once we had finished the usual activities of drilling and soldering, we had to programme the chips so that all our LEDs worked in the order we wanted them to.  Electronics can be a frustrating process but then the real fun is in problem solving isn't it!?!  Luckily Mr. Smith had his laptop on hand to programme our circuits and enable them to work properly.

Overall, we had a fun day and everybody learnt alot.  Hopefully Les will be back in and the future, other GCSE Electronics students can enjoy this experience.

Thanks to Luke and Ashley for that - first William Farr Design blog in the can!