Technologies · Year 8

Lesson 1

Convert between binary, hexadecimal and decimal, and see why programmers use hex for colours and memory addresses.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 2

Use personas and empathy maps to understand exactly who a design is for and what they really need.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 3

Work out the biggest number n bits can hold and predict exactly when a calculation will overflow.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 4

Generate stronger design ideas with brainstorming rules, SCAMPER prompts and morphological charts.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 5

Discover how Unicode gives every character in every language — and every emoji — its own number.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 6

Choose between quick low-fidelity mock-ups and detailed high-fidelity prototypes to answer the right design question.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 7

Predict exactly what SUM, AVERAGE, COUNTIF and IF will return when applied to a real data table.

⏱ 20 min · 8 questions

Lesson 8

See how CAD tools, layers and photo-realistic rendering communicate a design more precisely than hand sketches.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 9

Pick the right chart for a data set and catch the tricks that make graphs misleading.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 10

Analyse how an innovation changed a product and judge whether it moves us towards the future we want.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 11

Organise information about objects and events into records and fields with sensible data types and a primary key.

⏱ 20 min · 8 questions

Lesson 12

Tell copyright, patents, trade marks and registered designs apart and work out which one protects a design.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 13

Write reusable functions that take parameters, and trace exactly what each call does with the arguments it is given.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 14

Follow Australian wool and cotton from the paddock to the spinning mill, and weigh up the sustainability issues along the way.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 15

Learn why returning a value is different from printing it, and predict exactly what a function call evaluates to.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 16

Match fibre properties and fabric construction — woven, knitted or non-woven — to the textile product that needs them.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 17

Store many values in one Python list, then read, change and add items using zero-based and negative indexes.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 18

Follow a new food product from the design brief through prototyping to fair, safe sensory testing.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 19

Use for loops to total, count, filter and find the largest item in a list, and trace them accurately.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 20

Modify a recipe to meet a nutrition brief using the Australian Dietary Guidelines and food label maths.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 21

Classify syntax, runtime and logic errors in Python and choose the right fix using a systematic debugging process.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 22

Weigh protection, cost, appearance and environmental impact to choose the right packaging material for a product.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 23

Trace a linear search through a list, count the comparisons it makes, and work out its best and worst cases.

⏱ 18 min · 9 questions

Lesson 24

Calculate material, labour and overhead costs, then add markup and GST to price a designed product.

⏱ 20 min · 10 questions

Lesson 25

Find out how bits ride on radio waves, then compare Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile networks by range, speed, power and cost.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 26

Read circuit symbols for resistors, LEDs, switches, capacitors and motors, and work out the right resistor to protect an LED.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 27

Encrypt and crack a Caesar cipher, then see how keys, key length and public-key encryption keep data safe as it crosses networks.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 28

Choose between LDRs, thermistors, PIR and ultrasonic sensors, and work out where to mount them and what their readings mean.

⏱ 18 min · 9 questions

Lesson 29

Break a messy real-world problem into sub-problems you can actually solve, and write design criteria that can be tested.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 30

Trace how a microcontroller reads its pins, makes a decision and switches outputs — including PWM for dimming lights and controlling motor speed.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 31

Write user stories in the form ‘As a…, I want…, so that…’, test them against the INVEST checklist and add acceptance criteria.

⏱ 17 min · 8 questions

Lesson 32

Calculate pressure and force in fluid systems, and decide when compressed air or pressurised oil is the better choice.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 33

Trace how active and passive data builds your digital footprint, and why a ‘deleted’ post can live on in screenshots, caches and archives.

⏱ 17 min · 8 questions

Lesson 34

Predict how reverse-motion, parallel-motion and bell-crank linkages move, and use moments to calculate forces on levers.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 35

Uncover what apps and accounts collect about you — provided, observed and inferred data — and use permissions to stay in control.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 36

Calculate energy use in kilowatt-hours and evaluate the design features that cut the energy a product or system consumes.

⏱ 20 min · 10 questions

Lesson 37

Trace a binary search as it halves a sorted list, count its comparisons and see why it leaves linear search for dead on big data.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 38

Replace take-make-waste thinking with design that keeps products and materials in use through reducing, reusing, repairing and recycling.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 39

Count the steps two algorithms take on the same problem, see how single and nested loops grow, and choose the more efficient one.

⏱ 20 min · 9 questions

Lesson 40

Calculate the embodied energy and carbon of a product’s materials and use the numbers to compare design options fairly.

⏱ 20 min · 8 questions

Lesson 41

Run a project in short sprints using a backlog, daily stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives, and forecast progress from team velocity.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 42

Compare one-off, batch and mass production, work out how setup costs spread across units, and match each method to suitable products.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 43

Test a digital solution against its design criteria and user stories using evidence, test data and user testing, then decide what to improve.

⏱ 20 min · 8 questions

Lesson 44

Use tolerances, the right measuring tools and quality checks to decide whether made parts pass or fail.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 45

Choose between PNG, JPG, SVG, CSV, PDF and more by thinking about compression, editability and who will open the file.

⏱ 18 min · 8 questions

Lesson 46

Organise design folio evidence and write annotations that show your thinking, from the brief to the finished solution.

⏱ 17 min · 8 questions

Lesson 47

Learn how machine-learning systems are trained, then weigh up the possible benefits and harms of an AI-powered solution for different people.

⏱ 20 min · 8 questions

Lesson 48

Reflect on how a project was run, not just on the product, using criteria, evidence and tools like PMI to plan better next time.

⏱ 17 min · 8 questions