The internet can be a great source of ideas for your Design and Technology (D&T) school projects. The worldwide web can also help you with the other skills that you need to hone for all of your qualifications. All across the internet, you'll find sites dedicated to the aspects of design and technology that you are studying. But not just for your D&T classes. As you know, you can find plenty of resources online that have been created specifically to study a GCSE-level course:

  • BBC Bitesize
  • Exam board sites, particularly those offering past papers, marking schemes and examiners' reports
  • S-Cool
  • Quizlet targeted study pages
  • Twinkl

This is just a partial list of the resources we'll talk about later in this article. For now, you only need to know that these and other sites will arm you with subject-specific information and knowledge. You'll need intensive study to ace your D&T course. Luckily, these handy guides give you plenty to read or download ahead of your summer project. Are we on the same page? Then let's get on and see how to ace that D&T course!

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Why Study Design & Technology?

Think back to when you were a very small child. How did you spend your days? "Playing!", you might say. That's a safe enough answer and it's generally true. But there's playing - tag, hide-and-seek and so on, and then there's playing.

Do you remember playing Pretend? It's not an actual game; it's more of a state of mind. You pretend you're a doctor, a soldier, a business person... Those are the types of games wherein a stick can be a gun, a lunchbox becomes a briefcase and a balled-up sock serves as a medical scanner.

When small children venture into their pretend worlds, their focus is absolute. They might be engaged in a specific activity at the moment, perhaps preparing a pretend meal, but their minds already working out the three or more steps ahead. For instance, after they dabble at their play cooker, they'll turn to set the table, pour the drinks and serve the food. They have the entire sequence laid out in their minds before it's time to commit to the actions.

You might say that such play amounts to mere imitation. They see mum and dad prepare tea so they want to, too. To an extent, that's true. But that glosses over their ability to imagine - to see function in perfectly mundane things like a cardboard box as an actual cooker. And how do you explain their ability to project thin air as food and drink?

Unless you've had the type of childhood where play is a luxury, you've been dabbling in design and technology for a very long time. You started honing your innate design skills in primary school. Remember all those art classes, when you had to draw pictures? If your early art classes were like mine, you weren't drawing from a model. You communicated on paper what your mind's eye vividly saw.

It's just that, now, you have a whole range of technological tools at your disposal. You possess an intellect that takes you far beyond your childhood visions. And the crucial third factor: you've been given license to 'play' as you did when you were a small child. Only this time, adults won't dismiss your efforts as child's play. Because what you design will be functional, useful and perhaps even visually appealing.

D&T is no ordinary GCSE subject. Unlike, say, the Religious Studies GCSE, you'll not have to memorise a lot of information or answer a lot of questions. This subject is more of a personal challenge. You have to think more than remember and create rather than recall. Let's see what it will be like, wading in the D&T waters now, shall we?

A group of designers working on a project with one worker in a green top cutting some material while the others look on
D&T gives students a recognised industry to go into which helps power our economy. Photo on Visualhunt

Design & Technology GCSE At A Glance

This course gives you a look at how things work and what they are made of. But it mainly sets out to teach the basics of product design. It provides a fundamental grounding for students working in industry, and powering our economy. The current content of the GCSE is technical and complicated as well as practical. As mentioned above, it's a great subject for those who want to challenge themselves.

The skills learned in the D&T GCSE expand on ideas from other subjects, particularly science and maths. For instance, before you can join two materials together, you have to know if they are compatible. That's a very general example of D&T's science aspect. As for maths, that should be self-evident. Measurements, ratios, proportions, scaling and vectors; all of these concepts and more factor in design.

Teachers comment on how students apply learned concepts in practical, everyday projects. They contend that Design and Technology helps students to develop a true understanding of mathematical and scientific ideas. They aver that students need to develop logic, analysis, creativity and common sense. They marvel that the D&T curriculum will include robotics and computer-aided manufacturing.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but D&T is a long way from subjects like woodwork. As James Dyson, whose Foundation supports DT in schools, put it: "DT inspires young people to go into industry as designers. But it also inspires creativity and, perhaps most importantly, encourages them to work out their own answers to problems. It gives them vital life skills, whether they go on to become engineers or not. We downgrade it at our peril."

Traditionally, boys populated D&T classrooms. Those statistics are no longer valid. To wit, girls accounted for over 41% of students taking the exam in 2013. And they've proven themselves every bit as capable as their counterparts. The gender bias in high results that applies across the board at GCSE is very strong. Of those female students who sat D&T GCSE, 26.6% achieved A* and A grades. By contrast, only 12.3% of male candidates got these high marks.

These numbers show that gender bias data doesn't apply to just GCSE French or other language exams. Are you ready to contribute to the positive statistics for GCSE Design Technology? Let's take a look at what this course consists of. And then, we'll go over a few excellent resources that could help you on your way to success.

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Design & Technology Areas of Study

Design and Technology is rumoured to be one of the most intensive and challenging GCSEs. But that's only if you look at the entire curriculum at once. Broken into its component parts, it would be better described as engaging, fascinating and laden with possibilities.

We started this article by drawing a parallel between childhood imaginary play and the inventive qualities it takes to succeed in the D&T world. You'll need every ounce of imagination, innovative thinking and creativity you have. And, much like the toddler-designer you were, you'll once again work independent of mandates or edicts.

However, you have a lot to learn. You need to know all about the materials available for you to design with. Those range from paper to polymers and fabrics to metals and wood. These materials and others fall under the Specialist Technical Principles header. As you explore the various materials used in design, you'll keep your focus on their suitability to the design project at hand.

Is the material suited to the purpose? Is it readily available and cost-effective to use? Will the finished product be aesthetically pleasing? Are there any harmful environmental impacts associated with this material?

That last question hints at the deeper intent this course embraces. Let's take timber as a design material, for instance. Deforestation over the last century has had a dramatic effect on the climate and ecosystems. The loss of canopy - trees' greenery is bad enough but losing entire root systems has caused massive soil erosion and destabilisation. In light of that, is it ethical to further thin forests to design and build new products?

Ethical considerations such as those run through your course. As you learn about design materials, you'll confront these issues again and again. But fortunately, the Core Technical Principles learning module is nowhere near that thought-provoking.

These six core aspects are a bit like unpacking a Lego building set. You'll get acquainted with materials and their properties, new and emerging technologies and the mechanical devices that will set your design in motion. You'll also learn about energy generation and storage, how new materials are developed and how to incorporate technology into your designs. With all of that mastered, you'll be ready to build.

Grasping these core principles is the most academically-intensive aspect of your Design curriculum. From there, your studies will get more theoretical and far more cerebral. You'll actively consider the ethical aspects of designing and meeting clients' needs while still remaining true to your moral and creative ideas. Much like the Art and Design GCSE course, you'll produce a portfolio to go along with your academic learning.

A person in a blue shirt and brown cardigan sits at a wooden table working on a laptop with a cup of tea close to their right hand
You can find a range of useful revision tools for DT online. Photo on VisualHunt

Top 10 Resources for GCSE Design Technology

Now that you know how intensive the GCSE D&T is, you can see why there are so many resources to guide students' revision. There are many for you to avail yourself of but you could drive yourself mad trying to figure out which ones will serve you the best. Fortunately, you can relax a bit on that score. Superprof combed through them all. Here are the best we found.

BBC Bitesize

The BBC’s Bitesize website is a good place to start if you are looking for help with your D&T course. It has sections for each of the subjects covered by Design and Technology, including graphics, electronics and textiles and more. As you likely know, Bitesize presents information in easy-to-read language.

Bitesize is a good place to review the material that you have covered in school. Once you've gone over everything, you can test yourself to check that you have understood all of the core ideas. Unlike, say, their Physical Education GCSE offering, the Bitesize D&T revision pages present a selection of different resources.

You might like their selection of downloadable tools linked at the bottom of each page. Be sure to take advantage of the tips based on a past paper within the section for your subject. This additionally includes revision materials, activities and tests, so there are plenty of ways you can incorporate this site into your preferred revision style.

Technology Student

Technology Student has plenty of resources that might help you with the ideas that you encounter during your course. The site has information about the design process as well as using different kinds of materials. There are sections for electronics, graphics and resistant materials. All of these will be particularly useful for GCSE Design and Technology students. There are other resources alongside those just mentioned that would be useful if you wanted to learn more about technology.

Mr DT

The Mr DT site features some examples of students' work in GCSE Design and Technology courses. Their efforts might help to inspire you with some ideas for your own projects. Mr DT goes on to offer useful tips and resources to guide you to the skills you need to develop during your course.

You can find tips on how to lay out your product designs, how to plan your project and how to develop your ideas. You'll also discover practical tips for different kinds of projects. This is a very useful site if you want to review a particular topic. But it will be most helpful if you take a look at the resources on offer when you start your coursework. Mr DT can guide you through the process of coming up with and implementing your ideas.

Design Technology Department

The Design Technology Department website has a selection of quizzes and resources. They are designed around the school subject paper; purposefully meant to aid you with the concepts you need to learn for your exams. You can test yourself on your core knowledge of different kinds of materials. Or you can read up on topics that you are revising ahead of the summer final.

Practical Action

Practical Action has a section on sustainable D&T that might help you to understand some of the ethical aspects of design that you  cover in class. The site is intended for teachers, but it is full of resources that you can download via the link to use for your own study purposes.

S-Cool

Many of these sites focus on other areas of Design and Technology. But if you are studying Food Technology for your GCSE, S-Cool has some useful resources to help you to understand the most important topics. The site has notes to review for each topic and questions for you to use to test yourself on what you’ve learned.

Instructables

Plenty of sites can help you to come up with ideas and techniques that you can use in your course and in the summer exam. Instructables is a good place to start looking. There, you'll find suggestions for a wide range of different products and materials that you could use in your work.

There are also some more specialized sites worth checking out if you are interested in a particular type of design. For example, Popular Mechanics has some interesting articles on different kinds of technologies. You may even enjoy some of their how-to articles. They describe, in-depth, the kinds of projects you might like to develop if you are taking a course in electronics or resistant materials.

An assortment of jewellery strewn together featuring green beads, amber pearls and ribbons
Design Technology is not just limited to designing packaging boxes and the like, it also includes Jewellery Design and Furniture Design plus much much more. Photo credit: allispossible.org.uk on Visualhunt.com / CC BY

Design Addict

Design Addict is a treasure trove if you are looking for inspiration for your projects. And especially so if you are interested in furniture or jewellery making. Their index has information on many famous designers; you can also search for individual products by period, function or material.

This site will be particularly useful if you are planning on pursuing design or technology at a higher level. You'll get an idea of what you can accomplish in this sort of career - more on those in a mo. This site will also tell you how to land your dream design job.

If you intend to study Design and Technology at A Level, you might also want to check the Arkwright Scholarship website to find out if you can apply for support. Be sure to apply ahead of the exam season, though. Otherwise, your mind will be fully preoccupied with your GCSE studies.

STEM

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. STEM and D&T are closely related, as you'll surely note from your study papers. The STEM website offers a range of resources and a learning centre you're welcome to visit. As quoted from their web page:

"At the National STEM Learning Centre, we house the UK's largest collection of physical and online resources to support the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

Our resource centre, located at the heart of the National STEM Learning Centre in York, contains thousands of physical resources to browse through, including books, gadgets, DVDs, and a unique archive collection.

Thousands of physical resources are featured on our online collection, allowing you to browse through these resources on our website before you visit the resource centre in York. [...] the resource centre contains thousands of STEM-related resources, perfect for both primary and secondary phases of education."

Twinkl

Twinkl is the last of our fantastic GCSE D&T resources. This fabulous page helps students gather ideas and inspiration for D&T projects. This self-proclaimed 'home of teacher-created planning and assessment materials and teaching resources' is great for students and teachers alike. The entire Twinkl site is loaded with many tips and templates! When you visit, you'll find a range of informative areas. Which will you explore first: joining materials, packaging, sewing and cross-stitch? Or will you head straight for the D&T planning sheets, Design and Technology booklets, reports, experiments and more?

We hope you found the above resources useful for your subject level. If you know of any more great websites for GCSE students then please feel free to add them to the comments section below. Now, to keep you motivated, let's talk about what kind of jobs you can get with a D&T education.

A student wearing a green face mask gets advice from his teacher wearing a brown jumper as they look at his robotic design
The technology components can lead you to a research position in a robotics lab. Photo by Marília Castelli on Unsplash

Design & Technology Jobs

Throughout this article, we've hinted at some of the possible career fields you might work in. They include furniture design, jewellery-making, other types of product-building... Now, we get down to brass tacks. What will all of your hard work to ace GCSE D&T net you?

First, consider the STEM aspect. Those four skills are desperately lacking in the workforce today and they're needed in practically every industry. It's pretty easy to see how Engineering and Technology might fit into your future career plans. Less obvious are Maths and Science applications. They too offer a broad range of jobs. You could further train as any level of professional from a food technician to a teacher.

What if you want a more creative gig - something that maybe a Spanish GCSE could deliver, complete with travel opportunities? The D&T GCSE will serve you so much better than a language exam! You'll have your pick of work situations ranging from the scientific to the visionary. And as for working abroad... Jobs websites currently boast long lists of D&T jobs overseas; most of them in warm climates.

There aren't too many jobs that will pay you well to essentially revert to the imaginative child you were. Design and Technology GCSE paves your way to them by arming you with the skills and knowledge to flex your creative side. All while imparting the very real-world concerns that many industries face today. If you're up to the challenge, this is the GCSE for you.

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Joseph

Joseph is a French and Spanish to English translator, language enthusiast, and blogger.