Rainey Endowed School

Technology and Design Department

“Guide to Creating
Your GCSE Portfolio”
Ver 1.0

Download @ http://www.podcastschool.net
Guide to Creating Your GCSE Portfolio
•Remember that this folder is worth 25% of your overall GCSE Grade so you should try your best and
make a real effort to produce quality work.
•Always get advice from your teacher if you’re not sure of what to do in a section, but this guide
should give you some points to think about at each stage.
•Take care with sketches and drawings, make sure you use a 2H pencil for drawing and fully colour any
areas you are rendering. Use a ruler if necessary.
•Always have a border on your page- It’s up to you how elaborate you want to make it.

Folder Plan
•The folder should be completed on A3 paper and should be between 15 and 20 pages long.
•It is your choice how you want to present your portfolio, just remember to include all the relevant
sections.
–Introduction Page – 1 page
–Research & Investigation- 3 pages
–Detailed Specification- 1 page
–Concept Drawings- 3 pages max
–Development Drawings- 3 pages
–Energy & Control- 3 pages
–Manufacturing Plan- 1 to 2 pages
–Presentation Drawing- 1 page
–Orthographic Drawing- 1 page
–Evaluation – 1 to 2 pages

Page 1 -Introduction Page

•This is the first page of your portfolio so you need to create a positive first impression.
•Make this page as interesting and as colourful as you can and if possible design a creative scene/
background that is related to your project
•There are three pieces of information to include on this page:
–Problem/ Situation: This is where you set the scene for your project. Give as much
background information as you can. If possible have someone that you can be designing the
product for.
–Design Brief: This is a short statement of what you are going to design and make e.g. To
design and make a ……………… to ……………..

Page 2 - Research & Investigation

•On this page you will include examples of your research about existing solutions. For example, if you
are designing a child’s night light you will use pictures of existing products that are similar to your
product.
•You will then give advantages and disadvantages of each product. Do this either in bullet point form or
by writing a short paragraph
•You can include your personal opinion of each product as well- Do you like/dislike it?
•There should be at least 4 products researched.
Guide to Creating Your GCSE Portfolio
Page 3 - Research into Specification
•This page gives you an opportunity to think about your product and the requirements.
•You should do it in the form of a brainstorm/ mind map where you have your main specification
categories, outlined on Page 1, and you think about each one individually.
•Take each category and write any questions you can think of. When you answer these questions you
will be able to use the answers to write a full specification.
•Example: For the category of ‘Power’ the following questions could be asked:
–What voltage is required?
–How would the battery be attached?
–Will a battery or power supply be used?
–Will the power source be safe?

Page 4 - Detailed Specification

•This page requires a more specific and detailed account of what your product must do and look like.
•Take each factor individually and give individual criteria that it must meet.
•Remember the questions you generated on Page 3- If you answer these you will have information to
use in this specification.
•Example of how to lay out specification:
–1. Power
•1.1The power source must not provide any risk of electric shock
•1.2 The lamp will be powered using a 20W power supply
•1.3 …
•1.4 …

Page 5 - Research- Materials & Manufacturing

•You need to show that you have researched different materials and manufacturing processes.
•Discuss each type of material that you could be using- Wood, Plastic and Metal
•Discuss different manufacturing processes appropriate to your project- vacuum forming, hot wire
strip heater, blow moulding, acrylic fabrication etc.
•If you know your product will be made from wood or metal you will need to mention manufacturing
processes associated with these materials.
•You should mention processes like finishing materials- filing, glass-papering, polishing, etc.
•Ensure you have diagrams of the equipment included on the page and have some mention of safety.

Pages 6, 7 & 8 - Ideas / Concepts

•You should have three A3 pages completed for this section. You are required to produce at least
three concepts (One per page).
•You should include any ideas you have for your product:
–What does it do?
–What does it look like?
–What functions are there?
–What colours/materials are being considered?
•All your sketches need to be fully coloured and you should pay attention to light and shade.
•Make sure you fully label your drawings, especially if there are lots of different functions or parts.
•Try to fill your pages as much as you can and aim to have visually stimulating, interesting layouts.
Guide to Creating Your GCSE Portfolio
Pages 9, 10 & 11 - Development of Ideas
•This section should be three A3 pages.
•You need to start by justifying your choice of concept to develop
•Then you develop your idea from concept stage to final developed idea.
•Consider:
–Shape, Size, Material, Colour, Function,
–What manufacturing processes, tools and equipment will be used?
–Detailed drawings should be done of each part of the product
–Drawings should be done to show how parts join together
•Remember to fully colour any sketches or diagrams and to pay particular attention to light and shade.
Fully label any sketches or parts.

Page 12 & 13 - Energy & Control

•This page details the Energy & Control that you used in your product- Computer Control
•You need to include a diagram of a flowchart that you programmed onto a PIC chip
•Write an explanation of why you used Computer Control, how it works and a brief explanation of the
flowchart.
•Include what each of the shapes in the flowchart mean- Process, Decision, Data Flow Feedback loops,
etc.

Page 14 - Electronics
You need to show that you have considered an alternatice form of energy and control.
Use this page to document possible electronic circuits that you could have used instead of using a PIC.

Pages 15 & 16 - Manufacturing Plan

•The manufacturing plan can be either 1 or 2 pages long depending on how complex your manufacturing
processes are.
•You need to provide a step by step plan of how you made your product.
•Include labelled sketches of tools, equipment or processes.
•Try to tell the reader a story of how you made the product- you could use an interesting page layout
to lead the reader’s eye through the manufacturing steps.
•Include somewhere on these pages a list of cost of materials/ components and product a final
manufacturing price for the product.

Page 17 - Presentation Drawing

•You need to produce a 3-dimensional drawing of your finished product.
•You can do this by hand and take advantage of the range of drawing equipment available- pencils,
markers etc.
•You also could use any solid-modelling computer package to produce this drawing- Pro Desktop,
Solidworks etc.
•Show ‘exploded’ views of your product if you want to. This is easier to do if you are completing your
drawing on a solid-modelling package.
•Ensure your drawing is fully rendered and pay particular attention to light and shade.
Guide to Creating Your GCSE Portfolio
Page 18 - Orthographic Drawing
•You need to include an Orthographic Drawing of your final product.
•Ensure it is fully dimensioned.
•Show three views and make sure they are positioned correctly on the page:

Pages 19 & 20 - Evaluation

•This section can be either 1 or 2 pages long depending on the way you present the information.
•You need to look at your detailed Specification and compare it with your final product:
–Did you meet each point?
–If not explain the reason why
–What changes needed to be made?
•Show any modifications you made to your developed idea during manufacture. Provide some sketches
to show the changes.
•Have a conclusion that includes:
–What parts of the project you enjoyed most
–What new skills you gained
–What would you repeat if you had to start again
–A general comment on how you felt the entire project went.
 Rainey Endowed School
Technology and Design Department

“Example Portfolio”
Ver 1.0

Download @ http://www.podcastschool.net
GCSE Coursework portfolio

A GCSE Design Portfolio

An Electronic Score Board

for the Game of Basket Ball
 Rainey Endowed School
Technology and Design Department

“Example Hand
Rendered sketches”
Ver 1.0

Download @ http://www.podcastschool.net
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