Design Principles Insights

Lesson Overview

Unit: Market Stall Mastery
Lesson: 2 of 10 – Understanding Design Principles
Year Level: 6
Duration: 60 minutes
Class Size: 30 students
Learning Area: Technologies (Design and Technologies)
Subject Focus: Key design principles for market stall creation including aesthetics, functionality, and sustainability.

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Australian Curriculum Alignment

Content Descriptions

• AC9TDE6K01 – Explain how people in design and technologies occupations consider competing factors including sustainability in the design of products, services and environments.
• AC9TDE6P04 – Negotiate design criteria including sustainability to evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions.
• AC9TDE6K05 – Explain how characteristics and properties of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment affect their use when producing designed solutions.
• ACHIEVE generative AI as a TOOL in digital technologies to enhance design insight (refer AC9TDI6P07 for digital tools use).

General Capabilities

• Critical and Creative Thinking
• Ethical Understanding
• Personal and Social Capability

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will:

1. Identify and describe the key design principles of aesthetics, functionality, and sustainability in the context of market stalls.
2. Analyse examples of market stall designs for how well they use these design principles.
3. Begin to negotiate design criteria integrating sustainability considerations for their own market stall project.

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Resources Needed

• Slide presentation featuring strong examples of market stall designs illustrating aesthetics, functionality, and sustainability.
• Whiteboard or smartboard.
• Student notebooks or worksheets for reflection questions.
• Photographs and visual case studies of market stalls.
• Sustainability checklist handouts aligned with design criteria.

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Lesson Structure

1. Introduction and Context Setting (10 minutes)

• Teacher Activity:
  • Welcome students and briefly recap Lesson 1.
  • Introduce today’s focus: Understanding key design principles (aesthetics, functionality, sustainability) important for creating a successful market stall.
  • Explain why these principles matter in real-world designing and how they affect customers and environment.
• Student Activity:
  • Whole-class think-pair-share: What makes a market stall appealing? What should it do besides looking good?

2. Slideshow Analysis of Market Stall Designs (20 minutes)

• Teacher Activity:
  • Present a well-curated slideshow with diverse market stall examples from simple to complex designs.
  • For each stall example, highlight and discuss:
    • Aesthetics – visual appeal: colours, decoration, signage.
    • Functionality – layout, ease of access, usability.
    • Sustainability – use of recycled materials, energy-efficient lighting, waste reduction.
  • Use prompting questions such as: How does this stall catch your eye? Is it easy for customers to interact with? What materials do you think were used and why?
• Student Activity:
  • Students take notes using a guided worksheet that prompts them to identify design principles seen in each example.

3. Group Reflection and Class Discussion (15 minutes)

• Teacher Activity:
  • Facilitate a class discussion drawing on students’ observations.
  • Link the discussion back to the curriculum content descriptor AC9TDE6K01 about competing factors and sustainability.
  • Introduce the concept of negotiating design criteria, linking it to the upcoming project stages.
• Student Activity:
  • Discuss in small groups what design principles seemed most effective and why.
  • Groups share one key takeaway with the whole class.

4. Individual Task: Design Criteria Brainstorm (10 minutes)

• Teacher Activity:
  • Direct students to brainstorm design criteria relevant to their own market stall plans, prioritising sustainability alongside aesthetics and functionality.
  • Provide a sustainability checklist aligned with AC9TDE6P04 to guide criteria negotiation (e.g., materials should be recyclable; stall should minimise waste).
• Student Activity:
  • Students independently draft 3-5 design criteria to apply in their stall projects.
  • Optionally pair to discuss and refine their criteria with a peer.

5. Lesson Wrap-up and Preview of Next Lesson (5 minutes)

• Teacher Activity:
  • Summarise key points of the lesson.
  • Explain the next lesson will focus on applying these principles to initial stall design sketches.
  • Collect students’ criteria drafts for formative assessment.
• Student Activity:
  • Students share one design principle they found most interesting with a partner before leaving.

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Assessment and Feedback

• Formative assessment through observation of group and class discussions.
• Review of student design criteria drafts to check understanding of design principles and sustainability considerations.
• Use annotated slideshow notes and worksheet responses as evidence of engagement and comprehension.

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Differentiation and Extensions

• For diverse learners:

  • Provide sentence starters for design criteria.
  • Allow oral responses or drawings instead of written notes.

• For advanced learners:

  • Challenge students to consider additional design principles such as cultural appropriateness or innovation.
  • Introduce simple lifecycle thinking about materials (referencing AC9TDE10P04's sustainability evaluation ideas).

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Curriculum References in Detail

• AC9TDE6K01: Students explain competing factors including sustainability in design. This lesson’s focus on aesthetics and functionality alongside sustainable design directly addresses this.
• AC9TDE6P04: Negotiating design criteria including sustainability to evaluate and improve ideas. Students begin practising this negotiation in their design criteria brainstorming.
• AC9TDE6K05: Understanding materials and their properties informs sustainability and functionality discussions.
• AC9TDI6P07: Selecting and using digital tools (e.g., slide presentations) to communicate content effectively.

This integration ensures the lesson is deeply aligned with the Australian Curriculum (v9) for Technologies in Year 6, combining knowledge, practical skills, and ethical design considerations to prepare students for real design challenges .