Nursery pupils become 'Chief Testers' for a Year 7 DT project

Year 7 children have been working on a children’s rocking toy project in DT this term and have been designing sit-on rocking-animals/vehicles/other children’s items for the Nursery children to play with.

They have been looking at ergonomic and anthropometric data online to gauge the right size to make their toys, but once they had cut out a full-size model we wanted the opportunity to do some first-hand research, so we asked if the Nursery children could be our chief testers.
The Year 7s took their models to Nursery with card rockers to measure against the younger children see if they were the right height and width for them to use and be able to get on and off safely. The Nursery children were absolutely fantastic and really engaged with the Year 7s. The unicorn and the tractor in particular were a huge hit!!
Year 7 children all made me very proud as they were perfect role models for the younger children, they were friendly and really enjoyed chatting to the Nursery children.
It was such a valuable experience for them to get first-hand experience of their ‘customer’ and that will influence the reflective process of product design and development through an interactive process. Some refinements were made after their models were tested and we are now in the process of making their actual toys that will be tested by the Nursery when they are finished. We plan to donate the rockers to the Hazlegrove Nursery, the local doctor's surgery and other local nurseries when they are finished and have been safety tested.
There’s so much super work that goes on in DT, every day the children are creative and resourceful. I feel like I literally have the best job in the world being head of DT at Hazlegrove! 

Mrs Barton.

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