DESIGN AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

Design Engineering & Technology (DET) Department    

There are six members of staff in this Department:

Mr A Jackson – Principal Teacher 

Mr Annan - PT1 Closing The Gap

Mr Heggie - PT1 STEM

Mrs Donachie – Class Teacher

Miss MacGregor - Class Teacher

The DET accommodation comprises three dual purpose workshops that are used to deliver; Design & Manufacture, Design & Enterprise, Practical Woodworking, Practical Metalworking and other Engineering related courses. The department facility is also enriched with a dedicated CNC facility within one of the workshop areas. The Department also has three well equipped Graphics/Design rooms, one of which is a dedicated Computer suite using industry standard AutoCad and Desktop Publishing software programmes.

The Department has recently purchased a second Laser Cutter which allows students the opportunity to utilise industrial standard equipment to manufacture elements/components within their project work and exploit any Enterprise opportunities.

Courses in S1-S2 offer core experiences in Design, Engineering & Technology, the current weekly allocation of time is;

• S1 pupils 3 periods
• S2 pupils 2 periods
• In S3 pupils can choose to follow courses in Design and Manufacture and/or Graphic Communication for 3 periods per week.

The S1-S3 core course delivers experiences and outcomes which provide our young people a range of different contexts for learning that draw on important aspects of everyday life and work. Pupils will experience working with a full range of materials, tools, machinery and computer software to maximise their potential.

In the Senior Phase our department offers the following subjects:

• Design and Manufacture at National 4, 5 and Higher
• Graphic Communication at National 4,5, Higher and Advanced Higher
• Practical Woodworking at National 4 and 5
• Practical Metalworking at National 4 and 5 

The department is currently planning to re-introduce Engineering Science into the curriculum in year 2016/17 to meet the demands of Modern Apprenticeship requirements in Engineering and Fife’s pilot flagship Foundation Apprenticeship in Engineering course at SVQ2 level.

Within the Senior Phase, DET offer courses suited to everyone’s needs, whether it is National 4, National 5, Higher or Advanced Higher.  There is a realistic progression and transfer of skills across these courses which impact on all of our course options.

 In DET you can choose different subjects to study a progressive route from S4 to S6, some examples are;

• Design and Manufacture (N5) in S4, Practical Woodwork (N5) in S5 and Practical Metalwork (N5) in S6
• Graphic Communication (N5) in S4, Graphic Communication (Higher) in S5 Practical Woodwork or Practical Metalwork (N5) in S6
• Various other options.

This Department has been very successful in delivering the new National courses at Level 4 and Level 5 showing a success rate for 2013/2014 of;

• Design and Manufacture (National 4) = 100% pass rate
• Design and Manufacture (National 5) = 94% pass rate
• Graphic Communication (National 4) = 100% pass rate
• Graphic Communication (National 5) = 89% pass rate

In the senior phase we also offer ‘Wider Achievement’ options:

 Greenpower Formua 24  (Mechanical Engineering)

Our overarching aim is also to promote and encourage non gender participants to look at and consider pursuing a career in engineering and technology.

This Course encompasses the design and construction of an endurance electric race car which has a standard electric motor and sets of batteries.  There are strict regulations and guidelines to follow when the cars are entered for National competition, unfortunately the component parts of the car arrived very late in the session and curtailed our entry for this year, but this certainly doesn’t restrict the creativity of the final product.

The aims of the course are to deliver skills in the following areas:

• Engineering principles (Gearing, Electrical circuits, Structures and Forces, Engineering calculation.
• Sustainable Energy and Greenpower elements
• Sheet metalwork and Thermal Joining skills (SQA National 4 / 5 Units ~ 2015-16)
• Workshop Health & Safety

Engineering spans a huge range of topics – everything you interact with within your environment has had an engineer input in some way; either in its research, design, development and/or manufacture.

Scotland has always been a world leader in many areas of engineering and will be for many years to come. Choosing a career in this diverse sector is guaranteed to involve you in sector leading developments and an exciting career.

Design for Enterprise

This course will enable you as a designated Enterprise Team to source and produce creative, innovative and unique bespoke products which can be marketed and sold as a Business Enterprise. The intention will be to produce simple modern products and manufacturing them to ‘shop quality’ standards for resale to the public through Craft Fairs etc.

You will be taking responsibility to be part of an allocated team in the following areas ie. Market Research, Planning, Resourcing, Design & Manufacture, and Sales Team including publicity and promotions.