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Automaton Toymaker is a Design Technology unit of work aimed primarily at children aged 9-11. The unit focuses on designing and making an automaton toy using a cam mechanism.
Design Brief: Design and make an automaton toy for the local toy museum
The package provides the medium-term plan, six lessons (each lesson has a MS Powerpoint presentation). Any additional resources are provided as PDFs or as Powerpoint Presentations. This unit of work fulfils the National Curriculum (England) Design Technology requirements for this age group in the following strands of learning:
• Mechanical Systems
• Materials
• Structures

Sequence of Learning for Teachers
In this project, children apply their knowledge of mechanisms and in particular cam mechanisms, to design and make an automaton toy. They learn about the key features of an automaton and use this knowledge when designing and making their own product. They learn how cams can change movement in a mechanical system. When creating their automaton toy, they design the automaton character and decide the movement it will make, selecting the appropriate cam mechanism to produce this movement. They make a wooden box structure for their automaton before adding the cam mechanism and the character. Children decorate the automaton to create a scene for the automaton character. They evaluate their finished product against the design brief and design specifications and consider improvements they would make to their product. As part of the evaluation process, children create a Zine about the automaton toy they have designed and made.

This knowledge, skills and understanding is delivered through the following six sessions:

1. Investigate 1: What is an automaton toy?
2. Focus Task 1 – Making a Cam Frame
3. Design and Make: Designing the automaton toy
4. Design and Make: Making the automaton toy
5. Design and Make: Decorating the automaton toy
6. Evaluation: Evaluating the automaton toy

Some activities / sessions can be re-arranged or delivered in different ways in the learning sequence to allow for whole-class teaching and/or small adult-led sessions to take place at the same time.