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Scotland's Forth Road Bridge may not be the most beautiful bridge over the Firth of Forth, but it is an incredible feat of engineering and is integral to the economy of the entire area. However, rust is threatening to destroy the cables that suspend the road. This unit uses video to explore the issues associated with the potential demise of this great bridge.

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Although ethics is often viewed as an academic specialism or an add-on to training programmes in technology and science, it is in fact an area of the utmost relevance to professionals and, indeed, everyone. The unit draws upon examples taken from dialogues, plays and the media to discuss ethics and ethical issues within the context of Infor

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The internet provides a world of information, but how do you find what you are looking for? This unit will help you discover the meaning of information quality and teach you how to evaluate the material you come across in your study of technology. You will learn how to plan your searches effectively and be able to experiment with some of the key resources in this area.

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This unit looks at the process of design – from assessing the complexity of design as an activity, to exposing the difficulty in making general conclusions about how designers work. You will be able to identify innovation in a wide variety of designed objects and evaluate the impact of this innovation.

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How are designs turned into products? What resources, materials and methods used and what set of activities that goes under the heading of ‘manufacturing’? This unit will introduce manufacturing as a system and will describe some of the many different ways of making products. We will illustrate how the required properties of the materials in a product influence the choice of manufacturing process used.

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How do we learn? Understanding ‘how’ is the key to learning more effectively. This unit looks at the three main categories of theories: the acquisitive, constructivist and experiential models of learning. There is no right way to learn but developing an active approach will ensure that you are open to new ideas.

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Are you always the quiet one when it comes to group discussion? This unit will help you improve your working relationships with other people in groups of three or more. This unit also deals with project life cycles, project management and the role of the leader.

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Engineering is about extending the horizons of society by solving technical problems, ranging from the meeting of basic human needs for food and shelter to the generation of wealth by trade. Engineers see the problems more as challenges and opportunities than as difficulties. What they appear to be doing is solving problems, but in fact they are busy creating solutions, an altogether more imaginative activity.

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Engineering is about extending the horizons of society by solving technical problems, ranging from the meeting of basic human needs for food and shelter to the generation of wealth by trade. This unit looks at the impact of changes in temperature on a variety of objects and looks at the problem of boiling water.

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Without it we are dead! Water is essential, but what processes must it go through to become fit for human consumption? This unit will guide you through the continuous cycling of water between land, open water surfaces and the sea before moving on to an overview of the water treatment and supply process.

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Designed products surround us all and range from bus tickets to buildings. This unit focuses firmly on usability and the increasingly important phenomenon of people-centred design. It aims to inform consumers of design (i.e., all of us) about this crucial characteristic of design. The unit is derived from the Open University course T211 on Design and Designing, but as well as stimulating interest in areas of concern for producers of design it might also provide an introduction to engineering, manufacturing and business studies.

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There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview. Thus, the study unit promotes the shift in perception towards socio-economic systems as dependent upon the finite resources and finite wastes sinks of planet Earth.

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There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview

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There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.

Share in:

There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.

Share in:

There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.