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

Weeks 14-17 · Producing and implementing

Build the system, test each part as you go, and record what you changed and why.

VCE-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/9.

Before this lesson:

Set a documentation routine from day one — last ten minutes, every lesson. It will not happen otherwise.

intention 2 min

Producing and implementing

Build the system, test each part as you go, and record what you changed and why.

Set a documentation routine from day one — last ten minutes, every lesson. It will not happen otherwise.

concept 10 min

What we're covering

  • Follow your work plan, and record where you depart from it and why.
  • Test each subsystem on its own before you connect them together.
  • When something does not work: state what you expected, measure what is actually happening, and change one thing at a time.
  • Photograph the failures as well as the successes.
  • Record every modification and repair, with the reason.
  • Production runs for three weeks. Expect the plan to survive about one of them.
  • Insist on subsystem testing before integration. Students who wire everything and then power it up cannot find the fault. Sensor working, then output working, then the decision between them.
  • Teach troubleshooting as a method, not as luck: what did you expect, what did you measure, where do they diverge, what is the smallest thing you can change to test one hypothesis.
  • Enforce OHS compliance for the tools each student is using, against the risk assessment they wrote in sequence 8.
  • Require progressive documentation: photographs of the version that did not work, the measurement that prompted a change, the modification and why. Ten minutes at the end of each lesson, alongside the work plan review.
  • Run a weekly design review in small groups: each student explains their current problem to three others and takes suggestions. It costs fifteen minutes and it is the most reliable way to unstick a student who has been quietly failing at the same thing for a fortnight. Students record whose suggestion they took, which is both good practice and useful evidence.
  • Watch for the students who quietly abandon their design and copy a PRP. Redirect early — a smaller original project is worth more than a copied larger one.
check 5 min

Quick check

My record shows the version that did not work, the measurement that made me change it, and what I did.

Students integrate everything then debug. Test subsystems first, or the fault could be anywhere.

reflect 5 min

Before you pack up

What is the one thing you would build differently if you started this again on Monday?

Progressive record of evidence: photographs, measurements, modifications with reasons.

End of lesson 9

That's it.

Tomorrow / next lesson: Diagnostic testing and evaluation.

Teacher guide Next lesson's deck → All decks