The Sustainable Design Award: supporting 16 plus students in addressing sustainable design issues

This paper outlines a new award scheme currently being trialled in nine schools in England and Wales with AS and A2 design and technology students and discusses some early feedback. The scheme’s fundamental aim is to integrate thinking about sustainability into advanced level work. Students who show they have thought through sustainability issues at each stage of their coursework option will be given an award. The scheme is designed to provide students with ideas for devising design briefs and specifications from genuine, real life contexts from around the world. It is backed by a number of different organisations which will give back-up information and feedback to students throughout their AS and A2 coursework. Teachers in the pilot schools have access to a sustainability pack that helps both them and their students to tackle fundamental issues of sustainability such as reducing, recycling and reusing. The scheme is currently funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) with in-kind support from other organisations, including DATA. Over 70 schools have expressed an interest in becoming involved in the Sustainable Design Award (SDA) scheme in 2003/4

Reviews

The following publications have been reviewed by the mentioned authors;Textile Innovation - reviewed by Helen WilsonTransferring Designs to Textiles - reviewed by Helen WilsonFood Solutions - reviewed by Jonty KinsellaICT Activities for Food Technology - reviewed by Jenny JupeGCSE Food Technology for OCR - reviewed by Karen O'MahonyFocus on Wood Joints - reviewed by Alison HardyDesigning for the future - reviewed by Ian CapewellLearning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School - reviewed by Jenny JupeUnlocking Potential - reviewed by Rowland DyeThe E-learning Revolution - reviewed by Les Porte

The Sustainable Design Award: Supporting 16 plus Students in Addressing Sustainable Design Issues

This paper outlines a new award scheme currently being trialled in nine schools in England and Wales with AS and A2 design and technology students and discusses some early feedback. The scheme’s fundamental aim is to integrate thinking about sustainability into advanced level work. Students who show they have thought through sustainability issues at each stage of their coursework option will be given an award. The scheme is designed to provide students with ideas for devising design briefs and specifications from genuine, real life contexts from around the world. It is backed by a number of different organisations which will give back-up information and feedback to students throughout their AS and A2 coursework. Teachers in the pilot schools have access to a sustainability pack that helps both them and their students to tackle fundamental issues of sustainability such as reducing, recycling and reusing. The scheme is currently funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) with in-kind support from other organisations, including DATA. Over 70 schools have expressed an interest in becoming involved in the Sustainable Design Award (SDA) scheme in 2003/4

Re-evaluating the Rose approach: comparative benefits of the population and high-risk preventive strategies

BACKGROUND: Options for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, the greatest global cause of death, include population preventive measures (the Rose approach), or specifically seeking out and managing high-risk cases. However, the likely benefit of a population approach has been recently questioned. OBJECTIVE: To compare the estimated effects of population strategies at varying levels of population-wide risk factor reduction and high-risk strategies at varying rates of screening uptake on cardiovascular disease mortality. METHODS: Data (of 109 954 participants) were pooled from six European general population cohort studies [the high-risk cohorts from the SCORE (Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation) dataset]. The effects of various population and high-risk strategies for the reduction of risk factors were estimated by calculating the change in 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease mortality (SCORE risk) before and after the particular intervention. Risk factors studied were: total cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking. RESULTS: At population level, if a 10-year reduction of blood cholesterol level of 10%, a BP reduction of 10% and a 10% reduction in the prevalence of smoking is considered possible, then 9125 lives per million of the population would be saved over 10 years. In contrast, an approach that treats all high-risk individuals with a polypill containing statin, three half-dose antihypertensives and aspirin, with a 20-80% uptake, would save 1861-7452 lives per million. However, the high-risk estimates are very optimistic, as their achievement would require complete compliance. CONCLUSION: High-risk and population strategies are complementary. These estimates of the benefits of each may be useful to health planners, when combined with their local knowledge. Recently, benefits of population strategies have been underestimated