Latest Module Specifications
Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026
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Description This module refines the epistemological definition of technological education by focusing on the relationship between designing and making. The module consolidates previous technical knowledge and skills in design activities that iterate through the continuum from inception to realisation and which are centred around current societal challenges. The module introduces advanced desktop and digital technologies to enhance the capacity to fully realise design concepts. The module activities will utilise graphical and modelling skills to refine designs that can be effectively, sustainably and efficiently prototyped, with consideration for future manufacturability, serviceability, recyclability and sustainability. Through a significant design and make activity, this module will consolidate and synthesis learning across the various programme strands to date. The module will revolve around two primary types of activities; case studies and upcycling project work. Case studies will be selected which reflect major and contemporary historic technological advances and will be analysed by students in terms of their impact on society. Students will focus primarily on the impacts such advances have had or could have on the environment and on their ethical implications. In practical lab settings students will engage in design and make activities where the emphasis will be on upcycling. The focus of upcycling will provide an alternative vehicle for considering the development of psychomotor skills while also promoting reflection on sustainability within the technology subjects. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Investigate the utility of technical specifications and functional prototypes, considering efficiency, cost, effectiveness and design 2. Identify CAD/CAM file formats (including generic file formats) for effective data transfer 3. Select and document design approach to reflect the design challenge 4. Demonstrate the capacity to utilise an array of rapid prototyping technologies, including 3D printers, Laser cutters, and 3D routers 5. Produce functional prototype of design resolution 6. Document design journal with reference to theoretical design process model | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Missing Indicative syllabus Students will be introduced to both the Millennium Development Goals and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and will reflect on the Irish technology subjects in the context of sustainability. The module will place specific emphasis on the development of design and make skills in the context of upcycling, and students will consider the utilisation of upcycling in the context of teaching, learning and assessment in the technologies. Contemporary and historic case studies relating to technological advances in society will be selected and interrogated from the perspectives of sustainability and ethics. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List Books:
Articles: None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Other Resources
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