Introduction

Teacher notes

This website is the main resource for Make it in Scotland Lesson B.

 

With the exception of this page itself, and a few notes to teachers elsewhere in the text, the entire site is addressed to students. This means that the words can be used/adapted by teachers during a lesson, and can also act as a reminder to students of what it is they are being asked to do.

 

Activity timings are provided for single period and double period lessons. Inevitably lessons that involve role-play or devising a product are difficult to squeeze into one period. So the single period timings are tight.

 

It would be more effective educationally, and satisfying for the students, if activities were spread over two or more lessons, with students also progressing the project outside the classroom. This type of assignment usually generates a great deal of engagement and enthusiasm, with young people keen to work on it in their own time.

 

Glow Groups would be the ideal medium for this.

 

Make it in Scotland is now fundamentally inclusive, with lessons based on well-researched and straightforward cooperative learning methods.

Aims

To stimulate interest in jobs and careers in manufacturing.

To increase young people’s awareness of the continuing significance of manufacturing to the Scottish economy and labour market.

To develop young people's planning, organising and teamworking skills – the 'soft' skills – so they are better equipped for the world of work.

Learning Outcomes

Young people:

• can explain what is meant by the term ‘manufacturing’;
• understand the size, diversity and continuing importance of manufacturing to the Scottish economy;
• can provide named examples of manufacturing firms and the products they make;
• are aware of the range of job and career opportunities in manufacturing industries;
• are aware of the skills and qualities manufacturing companies look for in new recruits
• are better equipped to make appropriate subject and career choices;
• know where to go to learn more about manufacturing;
• know where to go to learn more about their own skills and qualities;
• can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of manufacturing by participating in a classroom challenge.

Resources and preparation

Materials

1. One computer with Internet connection (preferably broadband) for every four pupils.
2. Access to the new Make it in Scotland website.
3. Materials and software for presentations, posters, video/audio recording, digital photographs, webpage production or other chosen medium.
4. Four role cards for each group for the marketing product assignment.
5. Pencils and pens.
6. A4 and A3 sheets of paper.
7. One clock or watch per group.
8. Printed company information sheets (two of each per lesson).

 

Some of the multimedia files on the website are large and can take several minutes to open, depending on the speed of the broadband connection. It is worthwhile downloading these to local storage before a lesson begins, so that students can play them on demand. The Rolls-Royce video of gas turbines being assembled and flown is a particularly large one.

 

The lesson motivation is feasible only if two or more periods are available, and in that case the teacher can decide how much of it to use. Within a single period, words can be selected/adapted by the teacher to get the main message across and students can be encouraged to peruse it later at their leisure.

 

It would also be useful, particularly in the single period case, to introduce the Make it in Scotland lesson motivation towards the end of a previous lesson.

Classroom organisation

Teachers who have not used cooperative learning before can examine the principles and structures, and if possible introduce them to their class for some parts of earlier lessons. The structures recommended for Make it in Scotland are straightforward and intuitive, but the educational benefits are enhanced as both teacher and class experience with cooperative learning grows.

 

Assigning pupils to groups should not be done randomly, but by taking account of individual interests and abilities. Having close friends working together is to be avoided. A mix of practical and academic skills is the ideal, and also of boys and girls, although single-sex groups with a good cross-section of skills, aptitudes and interests can also work well.

 

Role cards or printed guidance sheets should also be assigned by the teacher using knowledge of individual students’ interests and aptitudes.

 

The person in a group nominated for a particular part of an activity - such as the one who starts in roundtable - should not be predictable. There are endless possibilities: “starting with the person nearest the door, with the longest hair, who travelled furthest to school, who is oldest, tallest, has the most brothers...”).

 

The interview assignment is role-play, so group roles in addition would only cause confusion. A timekeeper is needed in each group, however, and should be nominated by the teacher.

 

Times for each activity should be announced clearly before it begins, making sure every group is aware of the limits - which, particularly in the single period lesson, will need to be closely adhered to.

 

Group members are assigned numbers for some tasks. This should be done just before the first activity that needs the numbered heads, rather than at the start of the lesson, when participants already have plenty to absorb.

 

Desktop computers in schools are often arranged along walls. Students need access four at a time to these. For most of the lesson however they should be seated in groups of four, with two pairs facing each other and a flat surface between for working and writing upon.

 

The marketing product lesson will go more smoothly, on the first occasion with any class, if the teacher has chosen in advance which medium the groups will use for their product - poster, presentation, illustrated article, acted scene, animation, video or audio recording. This will make preparation and classroom organisation much easier than if groups are allowed a free choice.

 

With a little practice it would be educationally valuable to allow groups to choose their own medium for their marketing product, and for the teacher to provide whatever they might need to do so. This does make for a much more complex lesson.

 

Notes

Nomenclature

In manufacturing industry, and indeed the workplace in general, people work in teams. Within education it is more common to talk about working in groups. Throughout these lessons and resources the word group refers to a set of students working together in school on some project or activity. The word team refers to a set of real or imagined employees working together in a company.

Company information sheets

A selection of these is included, covering companies with operations around the different regions of Scotland. These have also been chosen to show the wide variety of sectors and products that manufacturing industry encompasses.

 

Other companies can readily be added using this same basic layout. Teachers, schools or authorities that would like to suggest companies for inclusion should contact Careers Scotland.

 

We can’t really see what the apprentices are doing or what their workplace looks like, and there seem to be no young women working there. Back

The majority of resources on the Make it in Scotland website are addressed directly to students. This gives teachers the flexibility to choose which sections will be spoken by them and which will be read by the students.

 

The section on cooperative learning, however, is addressed entirely to teachers, as are occasional notes such as this, whose Back button returns a reader to the main text.