Design is seen as a creative problem solving activity that enables the students to make the most of their time and extract the best result from the material they are working with. The process helps develop a range of valuable skills and learning strategies. It encourages students to formulate briefs, draw up specifications, conduct research, generate a range of possible solutions, set up criteria upon which to select a solution, realise their projects and conduct evaluations. Every boy in the School does a semester of Practical Arts and Graphic Arts over these two years. This provides an initial contact with a wide range of workshop activities and materials.
Considerable time is spent working with computer generated and traditional rendering techniques.
Designing and building vehicles for the Australian Fuel Challenge is a popular activity. Other students elect to design and build furniture or draw up the plans for and make a model of a passive solar house. There are three main areas of work in this subject. The Comparative Case Study involves an investigation of two different type of organisations that carry out technological activity. The structure, organisation and operation of these organisations are compared and contrasted.