When a student calls a cardboard design “strong”, ask, “How do we know?” That’s a useful moment to agree on what success will look like before anyone starts building.
Place a closed classroom picture book on the table. Inspect its size and shape, then discuss who needs to see the cover and where they’ll view it from. Offer this brief: Make a cardboard stand that displays our selected closed picture book on this table so pupils can see its front cover. Plan for a main cardboard part to be used again.
Students can sketch and label an idea. Before the lesson, trial the book, materials and proposed checks, and establish safe routines for cutting, folding and joining. Investigating a need, communicating ideas and selecting suitable materials are part of the Years 5–6 Design and Technologies processes.
Agree on what students will observe
Words such as “stable”, “visible” and “reusable” become more useful when everyone knows how they’ll be judged. In Years 5–6, students negotiate design criteria that include sustainability and use them to evaluate their work. Criteria should grow from the identified need and guide decisions throughout designing, as explained in the ACARA Technologies overview.
| Criterion | Suggested observable check |
|---|---|
| Stable | After hands are removed, the selected book stays supported without the stand tipping or collapsing for 30 seconds. |
| Visible | From the agreed marked viewing position, the stand covers none of the title or main cover illustration. |
| Reusable | After testing, at least one main cardboard component can be removed intact and kept for another prototype. |
These are suggested thresholds to trial and negotiate, not curriculum requirements. The reuse check makes one sustainability consideration observable; it doesn’t prove the whole design is environmentally sustainable.
Keep the project limits in a separate list
Criteria describe what students will judge. Constraints describe the limits they’ll work within. Here, students might use only the supplied reclaimed cardboard and allocated tape, with 20 minutes for initial making. Allow separate time for testing and revision.
“Use only the allocated tape” is a constraint. “Remove a main cardboard component intact” is a criterion. A material requirement may serve another purpose in a different brief, but separate headings help students distinguish planning resources from evaluating the result. Both belong in the design process described in the ACARA guidance.
Repeat the test under matched conditions
Use the same book, tabletop, placement, marked viewing position and 30-second duration for both rounds. Record what happens rather than writing only “yes” or “no”.
| Criterion | First observation | Met? | Retest observation | Met? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stable | ||||
| Visible | ||||
| Reusable |
Test support and visibility first. Photograph or sketch the arrangement before removing a component for the reuse check. Afterwards, restore that arrangement before making the chosen modification and note any rebuilding differences that couldn’t be avoided. Matching the conditions makes the two results easier to compare, although this short activity doesn’t test long-term strength or structural safety.
Use one observation to choose one change
Suppose the first stand tips after 12 seconds. The title and illustration remain visible, and a main support panel comes away intact. Students widen the base because they observed the tipping.
On the retest, the stand supports the book for 30 seconds, but its wider front edge covers part of the illustration. The panel still comes away intact. Stability is now met, visibility isn’t, and reuse remains met.
Keep both sets of results. Testing and improvement are part of an ongoing evaluation process, and this example reveals a useful trade-off: one change addressed the tipping but didn’t improve the design against every criterion. Ask students what they’d change next and which observation supports that decision.
Extend the planning when you’re ready
The book-stand activity above was developed for this article and works without a purchased resource. For a longer sequence involving design planning and review, the Smart Systems Unit - Years 5-6 includes a Design Criteria Mixer, a three-page Smart System Project Planner and a three-page Smart System Design Review assessment.
Ask students to explain their change
Use this response frame: “We changed __ because we observed __. When we repeated the checks, __. We still need to __.” Students can draw or use adult scribing where needed.
“We widened the base because the stand tipped after 12 seconds. It then held the book for 30 seconds, but the front edge covered part of the illustration. Next we’d try changing that edge and repeat all three checks.”
Which observation explains the change you want to make?