Figure 1.--Drafting used to be a subject doninated by boys at New Zealand high schools, but today many girls take drafting.
|
Figure 1.--Drafting used to be a subject doninated by boys at New Zealand high schools, but today many girls take drafting. |
Graphics or mechanical drafting at New Zealand schools is included as part of an overall design and technology program. It is thus organied with the various work shop and realted classes. Quite a few of the students taking drafting, however, come from students involved in academic programs. Many of the students we have noted taking drafting are boys, but girls also commonly take drafting.
This year started as a busy year for the department with the whole of the
Technical Block being renovated and painted, which took much of the first
term. At the end of this we had carpet in T8 Graphics Room and most
rooms with frontrunner on the notice boards, which makes the rooms much
quieter to work in, a real bonus in the workshops which are noisy places at
best.
The Carpentry and Engineering pre-trade courses continue to grow with the
carpentry boys building a fence, a 7m x 7m garage and the curved paved
path at school as part of their course with a deck and pergola still to be built.
For 1998, the hoped-to-be-offered Furniture Making course is already full.
At the junior end of the school, the development of the Technology syllabus
has continued, with form 3MM in particular producing work that has been
right at the cutting edge of this subject‘s development. Mr Clark has been developing two further units for introduction in 1998. Much of this development has begun to put strain on the Department‘s single computer and we look forward to the arrival of a second one shortly to ease the strain.
At the fourth form level, besides working in wood and metal, electronics and
fibreglassing continue to grow as part of the courses at this level. This year has seen Mr Trevor Harvey take over as the department technician on the retirement of Mr Ian Roger at the end of 1996, and Trevor has had an interesting year learning how we operate.
In closing, I wish to thank Mr Clark, Mr Harvey, Mr Lewthwaite and Mr
Shanks for their work in the Department.
Ken McCallum, The Waitakian, 1997.
