VCE Systems Engineering Unit 1 — Electrotechnological systems design
Start here
Before week 1
- Order or count the kits — see resources & procurement.
- Charge the laptop trolley; install the Arduino IDE.
- Read Lesson 1 (Understanding control technologies).
- Print the printable folio or share the student link.
When you're teaching
- Open the presentation deck on the projector.
- Send students to the student home.
- Use this dashboard's lesson cards for prep, demo steps and evidence.
Syllabus mapping
NESA Technology 7–8 (2023) is implemented from 2026 — it's the primary mapping. The 2017 Technology Mandatory syllabus remains valid through the transition.
Lessons
Weeks 1-2 — Systems, inputs and outputs
≈ 240 min Identifying & definingLearning intention. Describe any device as input, processing and output, and tell an open-loop system from a closed-loop one.
Weeks 2-4 — How electrotechnology got here, and what it costs
≈ 300 min Identifying & definingLearning intention. Explain how one line of electrotechnological development unfolded, and weigh the impacts of a component choice.
Weeks 4-6 — Components, symbols and circuits
≈ 360 min Researching & planningLearning intention. Read and draw a circuit in several representations, and predict its behaviour before building it.
Activities in this lesson: PRP 1: Voltage divider — calculate, build, measure · PRP 2: Current limiting — why the LED needs a resistor
Weeks 6-8 — Sensing the world
≈ 360 min Researching & planningLearning intention. Turn a physical quantity into a number a microcontroller can use, and judge whether that number is trustworthy.
Activities in this lesson: PRP 3: Light sensing with an LDR · PRP 4: Temperature and humidity, plotted over time
Weeks 8-10 — Control, feedback and code
≈ 360 min Researching & planningLearning intention. Make a system decide: read a sensor, apply a threshold, drive an output, and stop it chattering.
Activities in this lesson: PRP 5: Threshold control — making a decision · PRP 6: Hysteresis, and open versus closed loop · PRP 7: Automatic watering — sensing, deciding, acting
Weeks 10-12 — Investigating and defining your own problem
≈ 300 min Identifying & definingLearning intention. Define a specific problem with a real user, and write evaluation criteria that can actually be measured.
Weeks 12-13 — Generating and designing
≈ 240 min Researching & planningLearning intention. Generate genuinely different options, model them, and justify the one you choose.
Weeks 13-14 — Planning and managing
≈ 240 min Researching & planningLearning intention. Plan production properly: sequence, timeline, milestones, materials, and the risks each process carries.
Weeks 14-17 — Producing and implementing
≈ 480 min Producing & implementingLearning intention. Build the system, test each part as you go, and record what you changed and why.
Weeks 17-18 — Diagnostic testing and evaluation
≈ 240 min Testing & evaluatingLearning intention. Test the finished system properly and judge it honestly against the criteria you set.
Assessment & rubric
Three natural assessment points, each producing evidence against a different part of the outcome:
| When | Evidence | Assesses |
|---|---|---|
| End of sequence 6 | Design brief, research into influencing factors, evaluation criteria | Investigating and defining |
| End of sequence 7 | Design folio: three options, modelling, justified preferred option | Generating and designing |
| Sequence 10 | Working system, test data, evaluation against criteria | Producing, testing, evaluating |
The seven PRP activities in sequences 3-5 are formative. They tell you who can wire a divider and who is copying their neighbour, well before that matters.
Differentiation & UDL
If a student is struggling, constrain the project rather than the thinking. Give them a working reference circuit from the PRPs and ask them to change one thing — the sensor, or the threshold, or the output. They still investigate, design, produce and evaluate; the build is just smaller.
If a student is ahead, push on justification rather than complexity. A second sensor is easy; explaining why the threshold is at 40% and not 45%, with data, is hard. Ask for calibration against a reference, or a power budget, or a second design option modelled and rejected with reasons.
Students who cannot solder can complete the entire unit on breadboard. Say so early — otherwise a few will quietly avoid ambitious projects for the wrong reason.
Safety
Everything in this unit runs on low voltage DC from a USB port or a battery pack. Nothing connects to mains power.
- Never place a board on a metal bench or a conductive surface. Use a mat.
- No liquids near live electronics. The soil moisture and pump work happens in trays, with the electronics kept clear and raised.
- Check polarity before applying power. A reversed LED simply will not light, but a reversed electrolytic capacitor can vent or burst, and that one is genuinely worth eye protection when a student is powering up a new circuit for the first time.
- Disconnect power before changing a circuit. Rewiring live is how boards die and how students learn the wrong lesson.
- Potting mix and standing water. Treat potting mix as a biological hazard: it is a known source of Legionella longbeachae. Dampen it before handling so it does not raise dust, keep it in trays, wash hands afterwards, and do not let water stand in reservoirs between lessons. Students with respiratory conditions should not handle dry mix. Use sterile seed-raising mix if you would rather avoid the issue entirely.
- Soldering, where used, is done at a ventilated station with eye protection and supervision, following the school's own procedure.
- Complete a risk assessment for the tools and processes each project needs before production begins, using the hierarchy of control.
