Teaching Sequence

30 minutes	Part A: Background
15 minutes	Part B: Dreaming Up Ideas For Your Dream Car
60 minutes	Part C: Creating a Dream Car and Entering the Contest
15 minutes	Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Background

Step 1.

Begin by breaking the class into pairs. Give each pair a piece of butcher's paper and two pens/markers. Each pair should spend two to three minutes brainstorming as many answers as possible in response to the following scenario:

Imagine you are designing the future – the future environment, future societies, future cities, future technology, etc. What are your dreams for the future? What would it look like?

Invite students to draw their ideas on the butcher’s paper.

Step 2.

Invite students to display their butcher’s paper and briefly explain some of the things they drew.

As students share their ideas, lead them to the idea of sustainability as one of the things we might dream of in the future.

Through your discussion, ask students to share their understanding of sustainability, and use the following definitions to clarify their understanding where necessary:

Some Definitions of Sustainability

- The ability for something to keep going at the same rate and in just as good condition as before.
- Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- Living within the limits of what the environment can provide and understanding the many interconnections between economy, society and the environment.

Explain to students that for something to be sustainable, there must be a balance between the environmental, social and economic needs. Display the following diagram:

Explain to students that the Venn diagram graphically represents the balance between the environmental, social and economic (or, planet, people and profit) needs. Sustainability is only achieved where there is a balance – represented on the diagram where the three circles overlap. Further information about sustainability can be found here: https://vimeo.com/171742902/23cda8f936

Step 3.

Refer students back to the ideas for the future displayed on their butcher’s paper. Invite students to offer elements from their visions of a better future. Add these ideas to your whiteboard. Now, work together to add the symbols below (or a similar symbol system) to classify these ideas as having an emphasis on the elements of sustainability; either the environment, society or the economy.

Where all three elements of sustainability meet, add an S. For those that meet only one or two elements of sustainability, engage students in a discussion around what would need to change for them to be sustainable. For example, instead of dreaming of owning shoes with rocket boosters (economy), perhaps the dream could be of owning shoes (economy) with energy-efficient rocket boosters (environment) that can be used to propel people out of dangerous situations or that are manufactured in fair trade workplaces (social).

Step 4.

Now, explain to students that in this lesson, they are going to be dreaming up a car for the future. They will then be creating a drawing or painting of this car and submitting this to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Spend a few moments discussing the process of submitting their artworks and the prizes that might be won.

Next, invite students to view the artworks of previous winners of the 12-15 years category and the statements written by the artists describing the ideas behind their artworks (available below and on the Student Worksheet). Using the questions on the Student Worksheet, invite students to work independently to analyse each artwork.

My Dream Carcher – “The Toyota's logo, symbolising love and unity, forms the dream catchers’ inner core. By the crack of dawn, My Dream Carcher has dissolved the bad, evil spirits of the children replacing them with the most joyous and happy dreams they ever had. Anything is possible with the magic of Toyota!”

Cherishing the Elderly Car - "Elderly people are the link between the knowledge, traditions, values and lessons for us to learn. The "Cherishing the Elderly Car" is a self-driving vehicle that cares for and celebrates elderly people. It records their stories and projects their memories onto a screen for future generations to see. A sliding throne chair is filled with medical equipment and sensors. There is plenty of room for family and friends to join them. This car provides a place where the elderly can feel safe, cherished and celebrated.”

Toyota Sea Cruiser Max 19 – “The idea behind my Dream Car was to solve the issue of sea level rising for cars, by incorporating principles of biomimicry into the design. My car was largely inspired by sailfish (the body of the car), and an octopus (four replicas of an octopus' tentacles were installed in place of tyres). This nature-inspired car could be a major influence for engineers all over the world.”

View the full list of winners here.

Once complete, invite students to share some of their answers, and to talk about which is their favourite and why.

Step 5.

For each artwork, invite students to identify the elements of sustainability featured in these artworks. Explain to students that although the artists behind these artworks may not have been given a design brief that required sustainability to be incorporated into their dream cars, it is interesting that many do have a strong sustainability element. Invite students to reflect on the inclusion of sustainability in these designs using the following questions:

Why do you think sustainability is important to the future?
Why do you think sustainability is important to technology and design?
What are some other ways sustainability can be incorporated into technology and design?

Part B: Dreaming Up Ideas For Your Dream Car

Step 1.

Explain to students that it’s now time to start thinking about what they would like their dream car to have and do: what would it look like, and what would it do? Set a time limit for dreaming up ideas (e.g. 5 or 10 minutes).

Invite students to write or draw their ideas on sticky notes and stick these to the board. Invite volunteers to share their ideas in more detail and their reasons for suggesting them.

Some questions to facilitate the dreaming stage:

Does your dream car only drive on roads, or can it float, swim, sail, balance, bounce and/or burrow?
What does your dream car use for fuel?
How big is your dream car?
What is your dream car made of?
How will your dream car make the world a better place?

Some Tips for Dreaming Big

- No idea is a bad idea - sometimes it's the little ideas that open the way to big dreams!
- Be brave in sharing your dreams!
- Don't worry about what's possible: just focus on what you'd like to see.
- Listen with respect to other people's ideas and dreams, and be inspired by other people's ideas and dreams!

Step 2.

Once complete, work as a class to identify the elements of sustainability in these ideas. Spend some time discussing why each idea would be classified as being for people, the environment, the economy or all three. Create a Venn diagram on the board and invite students to add various dream car features to the relevant places on the Venn diagram.

Part C: Creating a Dream Car and Entering the Contest

Step 1.

Working independently, invite students to take a moment to look at the features of the class' dream cars you have added to the board. Invite students to record the ideas that appeal to them the most.

Step 2.

Explain to students that they are now going to create an artwork that describes their very own dream car. Once complete, this artwork will be submitted to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Explain the following contest rules for creating your dream car:

You must create your dream car artwork by yourself (no working with a friend or in a group).
Your dream car must be hand-created using things like pencils, pens/markers, crayons, paints, etc. It can’t be made using collage or a computer/digital device.
It must be drawn on an A3 piece of paper (or smaller). You might like to use this Toyota Dream Car Drawing Template.
Find the contest entry information here (including dates, prizes and full terms and conditions).

Step 3.

Invite each student to create a draft version of their dream car. Give students a set amount of time to create their draft, and emphasise that perfection is not important at this stage: instead, it is more important to dream big and create a car for the future they would like to see!

In creating their drafts, students need to think about the intentions for the artwork and the conventions they will use. Although they do not need to present a complete work as their draft, they do need to be able to explain their choices in terms of intention and visual convention and justify these choices.

This dream car can include some of the features written on the board from the class brainstorm, or it can include features that are entirely new.

Step 4.

Once students have created their drafts, invite them to share them with a classmate and to offer feedback. Use the following tips to guide the feedback process (also available on the Student Worksheet).

Tips for Providing Feedback

- Be kind - it can be hard sharing your ideas with other people, so make sure you remain kind and supportive.
- Be specific - be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying, "I like the wheels", say something like "I like the way those wheels have spikes because I can see they will be useful when driving through snow".
- Be helpful - try not to just say what is strong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

Step 5.

Once feedback has been provided, invite students to create the final draft of their dream car on A3 paper, incorporating feedback where necessary.

Step 6.

As part of their entry, students are required to write a statement in response to the following: “Please explain the idea behind ‘Your Dream Car’ artwork”.

Ask students to create a draft version of their response, ensuring that they focus on being clear and brief and that they have explained what their car will do and how it will do it.

Again, invite students to share their statements with another student to seek feedback, and to check spelling and grammar.

Finally, have students scan or take a clear photograph of each entry and submit all entries using the online entry form.

Students (or yourself) will need to hang onto their artworks after entering in order to be eligible to win prizes and have their artwork showcased.

Please make sure entries are received by the closing date.

Reflection

Invite students to answer the following reflection questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What do you think is the best part about the car you dreamed up?
What do you think could be improved and why?
How successful do you think you were at conveying your intention? Explain your answer.
How well do you think your choice of materials supported your visual intention? Explain your answer.
How well do you think you managed to incorporate principles of sustainability into your dream car? What could have been improved?
How do you think your car would be different to a car dreamed up by someone 30 years older than you?
How do you think your car would be different to a car dreamed up by someone living in a developing country?
Is technology a challenge or a solution to sustainability? Explain your answer.
How would your dream car help make the world a better place?

Extension

An important part of real-world learning - such as in this activity - is the opportunity for students to present their learning in a public arena. The main objective of this is that work is presented publicly, thus making it authentic.

Work with students to create a gallery walk for students, teachers and parents at your school. Students could expand upon the statement they wrote on the idea behind their artwork, developing it into an artist’s statement that describes their artistic intentions.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

- What did you learn about your teaching today?
- What worked well?
- What didn't work so well?
- What would you share?
- Where to next?
- How are you going to get there?

Toyota Dream Car Art Contest - Designing Your Dream Car

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