There is a short document which explains in more detail how you could teach this in your school and it is in the resources folder in this forum http://community.edexcel.com/files/folders/adg/default.aspx

I teach at a sixth form college and from September am going to teach AS Edexcel, Art and Design, 3-Dimensional, Product Design using the new media of CAD and not the traditional practical workshop skills.

I have found Susan Young the Art and Des. Subject Advisor most helpful and would like to hear from an other teaching staff who are considering teaching similar new media Product design courses.

I have been teaching 3D Design for the past 5 years as an alternative to D&T and find it a fantastic subject for those wanting to go into design rather than engineering. We use some CAD/CAM but am finding it very hard to get funding from the school to get some new kit. Using just CAD should work but you would probably need to use foam/card models in the development process to show user interaction. if you want any more info or help just get in touch.

ben.wilkinson@caterhamschool.co.uk

i have also been in contact with Susan and i am hopefully in the process of sorting out a contact group of all schools teaching 3D design in A&D, would you be interested in this?

 hope it goes well. BW  

Yes the same is true of A level and not just GCSE, I know of several Design & Technology teachers who are considering the Art & Design 3D Design syllabus as a replacement to the traditional extremely prescriptive D & T syllabuses with their heavy weighting on the written theory exam.

Hi I have taught Btec level 3 3 D for a long time and I have been working recently with Huddersfield University teaching first year HE students Product and Transport Design.  There seems to be a growing belief that everything can be done using CAD.  I am a great believer in CAD but I have found students cannot truely understand the scale and form of a design unless they make actual models. Only then should they use CAD to build realistic computer models. Too many students try to design on the computer and this leads to compromises, it also means they are not drawing enough.   We use solidworks software for 3D modeling.  Google sketchup is a great  programme for architecture, easy to use with great results- free download from google