Lesson Plan

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Lesson Plan
Grade: Date: 25/02/2026
Subject: Design and Technology
Lesson Topic: Ways to modify designs to make them more sustainable, including reducing material quantity, minimizing manufacturing steps, designing for repairability, using standardized components, and enabling easy disassembly.
Learning Objective/s:
  • Describe key strategies for making product designs more sustainable.
  • Analyse how reducing material use and manufacturing steps impacts environmental and economic outcomes.
  • Apply design principles to create repairable, modular products using standardized components.
  • Evaluate material and process choices for sustainability using life‑cycle considerations.
Materials Needed:
  • Projector and screen
  • Whiteboard and markers
  • Student worksheets with case studies
  • Sample product components (fasteners, modular panels)
  • Laptop with CAD software (optional demo)
  • Handouts of the sustainability strategy table
 Introduction:
Begin with a short video showing the environmental impact of discarded electronics to hook students. Review the previous lesson on product life‑cycle and ask learners to recall how design influences sustainability. Explain that today they will identify and apply specific design modifications, with success measured by their ability to propose a sustainable redesign.
Lesson Structure:
  1. Do‑now (5’) – Students list everyday items they think are hard to repair and share responses.
  2. Mini‑lecture (10’) – Present the 15 sustainable design strategies, emphasizing material reduction, process minimisation, repairability, standardisation, and disassembly.
  3. Group activity (15’) – Teams analyse a sample product worksheet, identifying at least three improvement opportunities using the strategies.
  4. Design challenge (20’) – Groups redesign the product (sketch or CAD) incorporating chosen strategies and write a brief justification.
  5. Gallery walk & peer feedback (10’) – Groups display designs; peers use a checklist to assess sustainability criteria.
  6. Whole‑class debrief (5’) – Summarise key insights and link back to the objectives.
Conclusion:
Recap the main sustainable design approaches discussed and how they reduce material use and waste. Students complete an exit ticket describing one redesign they would implement in a real product. For homework, they research a commercial product that uses at least two of the strategies and prepare a short summary.