Market Pavlova Design

Overview

Across two 60-minute lessons, groups of three will design a pavlova dessert suitable for sale at a farmers’ market. Building on the demonstrated pavlova, cream, custard and seasonal fruit components, students will develop and justify a practical design plan that responds to a target customer, market conditions, presentation, cost, food safety and sustainability.

Learning intentions

Day 1 — Investigate and plan

• WALT identify a target customer and market need.
• WALT generate and compare pavlova dessert ideas.
• WALT plan a product that uses the available components safely and effectively.
• WALT explain how design decisions meet a purpose and audience.

Day 2 — Develop and communicate

• WALT refine a pavlova design using feedback and agreed criteria.
• WALT communicate a clear production and presentation plan.
• WALT justify decisions about appearance, portion size, ingredients, packaging and price.
• WALT work collaboratively and contribute responsibly to a group outcome.

Success criteria

By the end of each lesson, I can:

• describe the target customer and purpose for my pavlova dessert;
• sketch and annotate a realistic product design using meringue, cream, custard and seasonal fruit;
• explain choices about flavour, appearance, portion size, packaging, price and food safety;
• use feedback to improve a shared group plan;
• identify my role and next steps for producing the dessert.

Curriculum links

• Technology — developing a technological outcome in response to a need or opportunity.
• Technology — using planning, modelling, testing and evaluation to support informed design decisions.
• Technology — considering users, purpose, sustainability, resources and safe practice.
• English — creating a visual text that combines language, structural and stylistic features deliberately for purpose and audience.
• Mathematics and Statistics — reasoning about duration and using the 12- and 60-based time system when sequencing production tasks.

Lesson structure — Day 1: Investigate and plan (60 minutes)

1. 0–8 min · Market hook. Teacher displays the market hook and design examples showing contrasting pavlova products and asks, “Which one would you buy at a farmers’ market, and why?” Students individually note two reasons, then share ideas about customer appeal, practicality and value.

2. 8–15 min · Revisit learning. Teacher briefly revisits the demonstration and trial meringue shells, cream, custard and seasonal fruit, then clarifies that the task is to design—not yet make—a product suitable for sale. Students identify what worked and what problems they noticed during their mini pavlova trials.

3. 15–25 min · Design brief and criteria. Teacher uses the design brief and criteria to establish the shared brief: create a safe, attractive and achievable pavlova dessert for a defined farmers’ market customer using the three provided components. Students form groups of three, allocate initial roles (customer researcher, designer, production planner), and record a target customer and product purpose on the pavlova market design planner.

4. 25–40 min · Generate possibilities. Teacher models a quick annotated sketch, demonstrating how to show layers, textures, colours, portion size, fruit placement and packaging. Students generate at least two possible designs, labelling the meringue, cream, custard and seasonal fruit and considering transport, serving and likely customer preferences.

5. 40–52 min · Compare and select. Teacher prompts groups to compare ideas against the criteria: visual appeal, taste balance, stability, seasonality, food safety, waste, affordability and time. Students use a simple decision grid on the worksheet, discuss evidence from their trials, and select one design to develop.

6. 52–60 min · Share and exit check. Teacher invites each group to give a 30-second product pitch and records common strengths or risks on the board. Students complete the Day 1 reflection on the worksheet: “Our strongest design decision is…” and “Tomorrow we need to solve…”.

Lesson structure — Day 2: Refine and communicate (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Reconnect and review. Teacher opens the review and refinement prompts and asks groups to restate their design brief, target customer and main risk. Students retrieve their plans, check their assigned roles and identify one decision requiring improvement.

2. 7–17 min · Mini-teach: feasibility. Teacher models a production sequence, including hygienic handling, separating wet and dry components where appropriate, careful transport, portion consistency and clear labelling. Students use the worksheet to estimate preparation, assembly, presentation and pack-up time, remembering that a market product must be realistic within available resources.

3. 17–35 min · Develop the final plan. Teacher conferences with groups, questioning “How does this suit your customer?”, “What could collapse or become soggy?” and “How will you reduce waste?” Students refine their annotated sketch and complete the final plan, including ingredients/components, equipment, method sequence, portion size, presentation, packaging, food-safety controls, sustainability choices and an indicative selling price.

4. 35–47 min · Peer feedback. Teacher displays the peer-feedback protocol and assigns each group a peer group. Students present their design, receive two strengths and one actionable suggestion, and record feedback. Each student must ask or answer at least one question.

5. 47–56 min · Improve and pitch. Teacher supports groups to act on feedback rather than simply add it to the page. Students revise one or more decisions and prepare a concise market pitch covering product name, customer, key features, price and reason to buy.

6. 56–60 min · Plenary and assessment. Teacher uses the final pitch and reflection slide for rapid presentations or selected group pitches. Students submit the completed worksheet and individually write: “One design decision I can justify is…” and “My contribution to the group was…”.

Resources

• the market hook, design brief, criteria, review prompts, peer-feedback protocol and final reflection
• the pavlova market design planner
• Demonstration notes or photographs of the pavlova components
• Trial meringue shells or photographs from the practical session
• Sample seasonal fruit and packaging images
• A3 paper, pencils, coloured pencils and rulers
• Calculators or a classroom costing example
• Whiteboard and markers
• Access to food-safety and allergy information for the provided components

Assessment

• Observe group discussion, role-sharing and use of evidence from the trial practical; question students about customer, feasibility, safety and sustainability.
• Check each group’s design planner for an annotated design, coherent production sequence, realistic resources, market purpose and justified decisions.
• Use the individual Day 2 reflection to assess understanding and contribution. Provide feedback before the practical production session.

Differentiation

• Provide a completed example, a visual sequence of the three components, word banks and sentence starters such as “Our target customer is…”, “This design is suitable because…” and “We will reduce waste by…”.
• Offer dyslexia-friendly access: use a clear sans-serif font, uncluttered worksheet layout, large writing spaces, high contrast, short instructions read aloud, and allow speech-to-text, scribing or oral pitching instead of extended writing.
• Support diverse learners by assigning purposeful roles, allowing sketching before writing, pairing students for reading, and checking understanding privately rather than relying only on whole-class responses.
• For advanced learners, require a more detailed costing and pricing justification, compare two packaging options, investigate seasonal availability, or develop a second variation for a different customer segment while maintaining the same components.