Technologies: This Learning Area incorporates the subjects of Design & Technology, Digital Technology and Home Economics across Years 7-12.
Years 7 – 10
Knowledge, understandings and skills involved in the design, development and use of technologies are influenced by, and can play a role in, enriching and transforming societies and our natural, managed and constructed environments.
The Western Australian Curriculum: Technologies actively engages students in creating quality designed solutions for identified needs and opportunities across a range of technologies contexts. Students consider the economic, environmental and social impacts of technological change and how the choice and use of technologies contributes to a sustainable future. Decision-making processes are informed by ethical, legal, aesthetic and functional factors.
Through Design and Technologies students manage projects, independently and collaboratively, from conception to realisation. They apply design and systems thinking and design processes to investigate ideas, generate and refine ideas, plan, produce and evaluate designed solutions. They develop their ability to generate innovative designed products, services and environments.
At Thornlie SHS our interpretation of the WA curriculum provides students in Years 7&8 with opportunities to build skills and experience within a safe and stimulating workshop/kitchen environment. As students progress chronologically through each year, they can elect to specialise in a particular aspect of Technologies demonstrating increased input into projects that satisfy the requirements of design briefs.
Years 11&12
Our Senior students in the Technologies study courses that are vocationally based in that they lead to further training or direct employment in a trades based area. Students are offered a selection of courses that are either VET based as in the Certificate II courses or alternatively the SCSA subjects in Technologies. Each of these courses allows students to develop areas of specialisation and build skills in design and production. Coupled with Workplace Learning, students can use these subjects to demonstrate their skills to a prospective employer or tertiary training centre.
Digital Technologies
Digital systems are everywhere, mobile and desktop devices and networks are transforming learning, recreational activities, home life and work. Digital systems support new ways of collaborating and communicating, and require new skills such as computational and systems thinking. Technologies are an essential problem-solving toolset in our knowledge-based society.
The Western Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies empowers students to shape change by influencing how contemporary and emerging information systems and practices are applied to meet current and future needs. A deep knowledge and understanding of information systems enables students to be creative and discerning decision-makers when they select, use and manage data, information, processes and digital systems to meet needs and shape preferred futures.
Digital Technologies provides students with practical opportunities to use design thinking and to be innovative developers of digital solutions and knowledge. Digital Technologies enables students to become innovative creators of digital solutions, effective users of digital systems and critical consumers of information conveyed by digital systems.
At Thornlie SHS we provide access to a range of computer technologies which can be utilised as an aid to learning in every subject in the curriculum. In Digital Technologies there are further opportunities for students to develop various specialisations in such fields as Programming, Graphic Design, Technical Graphics and Network Engineering to name a few.
Years 11&12
Our Senior students in Technologies study courses that can be vocationally based in that they lead to further training or direct employment. Certificate II courses include Hospitality, Community Services, Engineering, Visual Arts (Furniture) and Business while interested students may alternatively choose the Certificate III course in Information Digital Media and Technology. This course is partnered with the Cisco Network Academy program as an industry partner. These courses require students to participate in WPL and achieve a certain amount of hours in the work place to achieve certificates.
Students are also offered a selection of ATAR courses such as Computer Science, Food Science, Applied Information Technology and Accounting and Finance. Each of these courses are examinable and used to calculate an ATAR score which can used to meet university entry requirements.
Steve Young – Head of Department