Choose a subject

Choose subject:

Sub navigation:

In this section

Dollar Academy

PETS: a pre-engineering option at S3–S4

Dollar Academy The following is based on a presentation to the Scottish Learning Festival in September 2008.

The aim of this project was to enable pupils to develop their interest in Physics and Technological Studies whilst considering the real-world impact through Economics.

We planned to develop a course that would:

give pupils three Intermediate 2 qualifications in the time that it would normally take to teach two
enable the streamlining of Physics and Technological Studies thereby consolidating areas of significant overlap
offer cross-curricular work for both teachers and pupils
enable multi-disciplinary project work to take place

The idea for this project arose from consideration of opportunities to try to increase the numbers of high-achieving students taking Engineering courses at University. At Dollar Academy we had the opportunity to 'compress' Physics, Technological Studies, and Economics into six hours per week instead of the normal nine hours usually allotted for these Courses.

Evaluation of the Physics and Technological Studies Courses indicated several areas of significant overlap; one such area being the electricity content. By co-ordinating our teaching we were able to make up the shortfall with regards to the lessons and create extra time in which we could develop a multi-disciplinary project. Avoiding duplication of teaching content worked well. It was important to ensure that both Physics and Technological Studies staff were aware of all of the nuances of each course and that these were relayed to the pupils. Such an example would be the value of 'g', the gravitational field strength which is taken as 10N/kg in Physics and 9.81 N/kg in Technological Studies.

Dollar Academy During the summer term of S3 the pupils undertook an interdisciplinary project. The topic chosen was the 'energy crisis'. This area was selected as it gave significant scope for project work and neatly linked the three subject areas together. It enabled pupils to see how different subjects can fit together, and by choosing topical subject matter, helped them to see where the knowledge that they had gained has applications in the real world.

The ideal timing for this project was felt to be after the S3 exams in May. At Dollar Academy we don't begin our new session until we return to school in August and so we had a reasonable window of opportunity in which to undertake this project work. It was sometimes difficult to get continuity from lesson to lesson as pupils were also involved in other activities (exchange visits, sports etc) during this time. Basing the work around short, stand-alone project activities went some way to addressing this issue.

Dollar Academy We were impressed with the pupils' positive attitude towards the project work. They enjoyed the varied discussions that were entered into and the variety of practical project work that was available. It was clear that they were transferring knowledge in between the different subject areas — particularly as they were learning about the economic aspects of the energy crisis. It was also encouraging to see that some of them were beginning to think about engineering as a career and how important science and technology is to their futures.