Little J is initially scared to approach the ‘monster’ in the back yard. Encouraged to face his fears, he vows to catch the frilly-necked monster and sets about building a monster trap with the help of Levi.

Elaborate - Sequence steps for making designed solutions and working collaboratively.

Theme - TRAPS

Write the word ‘Trap’ on the board or IWB and ask students what they understand by the term. Have students suggest various types of traps that they know about.

Present students with the design brief that they are to design a ‘trap’ for an imaginary monster or animal such as a dragon, monster, fairy, dinosaur, etc.

Step 1

Have the students decide what the characteristics of their imaginary animal are:

• Size: how big or small?
• Surface: Type of skin/fur/hair/feathers, etc.?
• Colour?
• Favourite food?
• Sound?
• Nocturnal or diurnal?

Have students illustrate their imaginary animal and label its characteristics. Ask students to also construct a small 3-Dimensional replica of the design.

Invite students to develop a story about their imaginary animal which involves the animal being trapped in their trap. Have students add the design brief, story and photos of the constructed animal into their Design journal.

Ideas about developing background story:

Quandary (Scootle: TLF ID M017178)
This iPad app is a roleplaying game where players are the captain of a futuristic space colony and have ultimate decision-making power in relation to three different scenarios presented by the game. The captain must work through the issues in each scenario, evaluating what colonists know, think or propose to resolve the issues.

Step 2

Follow the Design process. Have students design and construct a trap for their imaginary monster.

• Design
  • Define the need
  • Brainstorming
  • Design the solution
• Make
  • Develop scaled drawings
  • Make small models to test mechanics.
• Build
  • Test, evaluate, re-design
• Evaluate
  • Share the design
  • Receive feedback

Step 3

• Ask students to evaluate their trap design:
• What do I like/dislike about it?
• Does the design work as well as I proposed?
• How would I improve my design?

The design brief, design process illustrations and the explanations should be entered into their Design journal.