Question 1

What is NCEA AS 91358 about?

Accepted Answer

This standard asks you to show you understand how building models and prototypes helps you spot and manage risks when you're designing and making something. You need to explain why you chose different types of models at different points in your project, who you asked for feedback, and how that feedback shaped your decisions about what your product should and could do.

Question 2

What do students need to do for AS 91358?

Accepted Answer

1. Identify where technological modelling happened in your own practice and explain why different types of models or prototypes were used to manage specific risks 2. Describe the types of risk you found (design risks, safety risks, etc.) and explain both how severe they were and how likely they were to happen 3. Explain how modelling helped you decide what your product 'should' do (based on wider factors like safety, environment, or ethics) and what it 'could' do (what's technically possible) 4. Name specific stakeholders you consulted, explain what expertise they brought, and show how their feedback actually shaped your modelling decisions—not just validated choices you'd already made 5. Show how insights from one type of modelling led to the next stage of your design, demonstrating an iterative process rather than a one-off activity

Question 3

What's the difference between Achieved, Merit, and Excellence for AS 91358?

Accepted Answer

Achieved: You describe what modelling you did, identify some risks and their severity, name stakeholders consulted, and show that modelling influenced your decisions about technical feasibility. Merit: You explain how specific modelling methods and stakeholder feedback shaped your decisions, clearly distinguish between 'could' and 'should' decisions with wider factors considered, identify risks with both severity and probability explained, and show how feedback from different stakeholders informed different stages of modelling. Excellence: You discuss why your chosen modelling approach was the most effective compared to alternatives, compare the reliability of different stakeholders' feedback and explain why their opinions mattered, show an iterative process where each modelling stage informed the next, and explain how the evidence from modelling was valid and reliable by linking different stages together.

Question 4

What mistakes do students typically make in AS 91358?

Accepted Answer

1. Describing stakeholders vaguely ('reliable', 'honest') without explaining what expertise or experience they actually had and why that mattered to your modelling decisions 2. Focusing on the step-by-step procedures of what you did (fabrication, testing methods) instead of explaining what you learned from modelling and how it changed your design decisions 3. Identifying risks but not fully explaining the probability—many students only describe how severe a risk is without explaining how likely it actually is to occur

Technological modelling

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