Commentary for thumbnail sketches

These thumbnails and accompanying commentary have been produced by Amanda Griffiths, teacher at Dixons CTC, for www.foodforum.org.uk. They show how students may be supported to communicate and present their coursework effectively and in a focused way.

Teachers could develop their own support structures for students along similar lines, either on paper or in electronic form as templates. You may access the thumbnails and print them out for display to set a presentation standard for students. You may also download the generic coursework templates which have been left blank for student use.

If you do not have a pdf reader you can link to Adobe using the button on the right to download one.

1. Contents
Asking students to record where evidence can be found in their folder is a useful exercise in keeping track of what they have done and helps to reinforce to that this process is not linear. Industrial practices should be evident at different stages of the process and may, in some places, only be a couple of lines of text. Pointing out the evidence to the examiner can help ensure that it is not missed during marking and moderation.

2. Design Brief
This page should include some general analysis of the problem and where necessary, narrow any open briefs and clearly state what the student is going to do. This will help to focus the activity and ensure that the task is a realistic one for a 40-hour project (full course).

3. Task analysis
The task analysis should provide an indication of what the student already knows about the task. Use of prior knowledge is important in reducing the time spent researching further and will help students to focus on additional information needed for what they are doing.

4. Research and summary
A plan for research is written as part of a task analysis. Students should plan what they need to know and the research technique they wll use t find it. This will mean that the research is closely focused to the brief and that the student has already considered why the information is needed and how it will help them. A questionnaire is a good example of a task that can be cut down through a more focused approach. A student may only need to know 3 pieces of information from this source and it is perfectly acceptable to only ask 3 questions! Each piece of research needs some analysis to explain how it has helped to move them onto the design stage. Some research elements (particularly minor tasks) may only appear on the analysis page. Where students have decided to save time by not writing up individual pieces of research, teachers can confirm this work was done on the candidate record form. Mood boards are a useful way to collect imagery to help with ideas generation. eg. to look at finishing techniques for a particular product. This may be a piece of research carried out once the general type of product or target group has been identified.

5. Specification/Ideas
An initial design specification should reflect the analysis and will include criteria, which demonstrates the student's prior knowledge as well as any research carried out. The specification is quite general at this stage and helps to inform and evaluate initial design ideas. Later product specifications provide more detailed design parameters for products, ie. they are more specific. Development work will be based on evaluating and modifying ideas to meet set requirements for things such as sensory characteristics, nutritional details and cost. A manufacturing specification is likely to form the basis of a design proposal and will reflect a series of development and evaluation work.

6. Ideas Ð Pastry product/Mousse product
Initial ideas may take several forms, egs. images of existing products, labelled sketches and 2D views, brainstorms, existing product recipes that could be adapted etc. Some practical work may be carried out at this stage:

• product analysis to try and copy the sensory characteristics of a bought product
• making up products from existing recipes to evaluate suitability

In selecting suitable ideas to carry forward, it is important to consider the depth of practical work this enables. Can students show a range of high level making skills? Students may decide to carry one complex product through to the design stage, but may need to develop several simpler ideas to show breadth of practical skills.

7. Investigation
One way of providing evidence of an understanding of ingredients, materials and processes is to carry out some investigative work. Focused experimental work can help students to understand how combinations of materials work together. This will help ensure that any changes made at the development stage will work. Textbooks can provide students with the theory behind making processes to help establish essential quality control points for the processes they are using. Some examples of investigations may include:

• pastry making Ð what happens when you vary the type or proportion of fat used?
• experiment to find out which ingredient is best for setting cheesecakes and how much is needed
• experiment to test the palatability of a range of artificial sweeteners in desserts

8. Development
Any development activity should be focused. Producing an outline plan of development work can help with this. Students should be able to explain what they are planning to do and why (aims), so they can evaluate how successful they have been and plan what they need to do next. Students need to think carefully about ways in which development work can be evaluated and try to demonstrate a range of evaluation techniques. Development work does not necessarily require a full sheet for each practical session. In some cases it may be appropriate to simply describe what was done and provide some summary evaluation. Again, the candidate record form is important in verifying that this work has been done. Where possible, try to limit repetition of evidence, eg. making plans are not necessarily needed for every practical session. One good plan could be annotated for subsequent practical activities to show changes made.

9. Design Proposal
May not necessarily appear on a page with this title. Details of the final product could be recorded as a manufacturing specification and may well appear on a page about industrial practices. Wherever it appears it should be clear to the examiner. There should be evidence of evaluation against the original design intentions.

10. Industrial practices issues
Industrial practices should be an integral part of the work - there are industrial design practices as well as industrial manufacturing practices. Where students have referred to industry or used/simulated an industrial practice in their work, this should be recorded on their contents page. Evidence may include:

• market research to establish user profiles, gaps in the market etc
• product evaluation
• including quality control points in making plans
• modelling recipe ideas using graphics software or nutritional analysis software
• costing
• packaging and labelling

Some work on industrial processes would most logically occur at the end of the design process once a design proposal has been established, eg. as part of a manufacturing specification the students may:

• produce a HACCP chart for production of their final product
• design a flow chart for production by breaking down the final recipe into unit processes
• produce the food product label and establish appropriate storage and reheating instructions for their products

11. Testing and evaluation
This should be evident throughout the work. There is no need for a final summative evaluation if this has been ongoing throughout the project, although it may provide a good conclusion. It should not be a commentary on how the student felt about what they did, eg. "I was really pleased with my work and they liked it at home"! Rather it should summarise the extent to which they achieved what they set out to do against the specification, what went well and where and how improvements to the product could be made.

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