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VCE Systems Engineering Unit 1 — Electrotechnological systems design · Stage 6

Weeks 12-13 · Generating and designing

Generate genuinely different options, model them, and justify the one you choose.

VCE-SE-U1-O1VCE-SE-U1-O2

Open this deck on the projector and press F for full-screen. N toggles speaker notes. The accompanying teacher guide is at /curriculum/vce-systems-engineering-unit-1/teacher/lessons/7.

Before this lesson:

Expect one idea drawn three times. Have an example of three genuinely different approaches to the same problem ready.

intention 2 min

Generating and designing

Generate genuinely different options, model them, and justify the one you choose.

Expect one idea drawn three times. Have an example of three genuinely different approaches to the same problem ready.

concept 10 min

What we're covering

  • Generate three design options that differ in approach, not just in appearance.
  • Annotate every drawing with components, connections and the decisions behind them.
  • Model and calculate each option before you commit — divider voltages, current draw, power budget.
  • Select your preferred option and justify it against your evaluation criteria, using your modelling as evidence.
  • Record why you rejected the other two.
  • Require three genuinely different design options, not one idea drawn three ways. Different sensing approaches, different outputs, different power strategies.
  • Teach drawing techniques for design ideas, options and a proposed design, and insist on annotation. An unannotated sketch cannot be assessed.
  • Model before building. Students simulate their circuits and calculate the numbers that matter — divider voltages, LED current, power budget — for each option.
  • Teach feasibility honestly: an option can be rejected for time, cost, skill or available components, and saying so is good engineering rather than an admission.
  • Students select and justify a preferred option against their own evaluation criteria, with reference to their modelling. The justification is the assessable part, not the choice.
  • Second assessment point.
check 5 min

Quick check

My justification refers to my own modelling and my own criteria, not to preference.

Students think rejecting an option is failure. Rejecting an option with a reason is the most assessable thing they do this week.

reflect 5 min

Before you pack up

Which option was hardest to reject, and what evidence finally decided it?

Three annotated options; modelling and calculations for each; justified preferred option. Second assessment point.

End of lesson 7

That's it.

Tomorrow / next lesson: Planning and managing.

Teacher guide Next lesson's deck → All decks