Complete Grade 7 Technology study guide in English, aligned to the CAPS curriculum. 14 chapters with explanations, worked examples, exercises with solutions, and original practice papers with memos.

Chapters

Chapter 1. The Design Process FREE

Look around you. Almost everything you see was thought up, designed and made by a person. The chair you sit on. The mobile phone in your hand. The pen, the glasses, the car in the street. None of it came about by chance — every item is the result of someone who saw a problem and made a solution. Technology is the study of this process: how we get from a problem to a solution.

What is technology?

Technology is the use of knowledge, skills and tools to solve problems and meet human needs. It can be as simple as a hammer, or as complex as a satellite — the idea is the same.

Important: technology is not just 'computers and electronics'. A chair is technology. A bread knife is technology. One of the earliest technologies was the wheel, about 5 500 years ago. People created technology long before any electricity existed.

The design process

How does a new product come about? Not by chance. It follows a set system that we call the design process. Its stages are Investigate, Design, Make, Evaluate and Communicate:

Investigate. Understand the problem. Who experiences it? What has been tried? Why does it not work yet?
Design. Sketch a few solutions. Think widely — there is always more than one idea. Then choose the best.
Make. Build a prototype. This is a model that brings your idea to life physically, so it can be tested.
Evaluate. Does it work? How well? What must be improved? Be honest with yourself.
Communicate. Tell others about your design. Write a report, draw final drawings, demonstrate.

The process is a cycle, not a straight line. After evaluation you can go back to the design phase if things do not work. That is not failure — that is how good designs come about.

The design brief

Before you do any design work, you write a design brief. This is a short document that says exactly what you are trying to do — and what will limit your choices.

A good design brief has four parts:

Situation. What is the background? E.g. "At our school, mobile phones are left on the desks during lessons, and they are sometimes stolen or damaged."
Problem statement. What must be solved? E.g. "Design a safe storage place for 30 mobile phones in a classroom."
Specifications. What must the solution be able to do? E.g. "Must hold 30 phones. Each one must be safe. Must be lockable. Must be able to be fixed to a wall."
Constraints. What are the limits? E.g. "Budget under R500. Small enough to fit in a classroom. One week to build."

The design brief is a contract with yourself. When you are finished, you can test against the brief: did I make exactly what I promised?

Sketches

Designers sketch their ideas before they build anything. Sketches do not have to be beautiful — they just have to be clear. Make 3–5 different sketches before you choose. Technology subjects teach you two kinds of sketches:

Freehand sketches — quick ideas, with a pencil and paper. You throw out ideas, then choose the best.
Technical drawings — final, accurate drawings with dimensions, usually made with a ruler or a computer program. Tradespeople use them to build the thing.

Evaluate honestly

The most important step in the design process may be the EVALUATION. It is easy to be in love with your own design. But a good designer asks:

Does it do what I promised in the design brief?
Is it safe?
Is it durable?
Will people really use it?
What would I do differently next time?

Failures are part of the process. Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, is said to have remarked: "I have not failed. I have found 10 000 ways that do NOT work."