MYP Design Following and Adapting a Plan Notes

Following a Plan Means Working the Steps, Not Remembering Them

1. Open the plan at the start of every lesson and begin at the step you stopped on, rather than at whatever you half remember from last week.
2. Tick each step as you finish it, so the plan doubles as a progress record without any extra writing.
3. Put the date next to the tick, because dates are the only thing that lets you compare planned time against actual time later.
4. Keep the order you wrote unless you have a reason to change it, since that order carried all the dependencies you worked out beforehand.
5. When a lesson gets cut short, stop at a step boundary instead of halfway through a glue-up that will then set out of square.
6. Have the plan at the bench on paper or on a phone, because a plan sitting in a folder in your bag is not being followed.

Plans Break in Four Predictable Ways

1. A step fails, so the joint will not close, the 3D print warps off the bed, or the code throws an error on line 40.
2. A resource runs out, so there is no 3 mm acrylic left in the store, the filament spool empties mid-print, or the class set of hinges has gone.
3. Time runs short, usually because three lessons disappeared into a trip, a fire drill and a cover teacher who could not open the workshop.
4. The design turns out to be wrong once real material is in your hands, like a 3 mm shelf that visibly flexes under the books it was drawn to hold.
5. Each of these four needs a different response, so naming which one you are facing is the first move, not the last.

When a Step Fails, Diagnose Before You Redo

1. Stop before you cut another piece, because repeating the same step with the same settings leads to the same failure.
2. Check the marking out first, since most joints that do not fit were measured from the wrong face or cut on the wrong side of the line.
3. Check the machine settings next, because 3 mm acrylic that cuts cleanly at 60% power and 12 mm per second will only score at 40%.
4. Test the fix on scrap before you commit real material, which costs five minutes and saves a whole sheet.
5. If two attempts both fail, change the approach instead of trying harder, for example screwing and gluing a butt joint.
6. Write down the setting that finally worked, because the same material will come up again later in the build.

Running Out of Material Is a Design Decision

1. Ask the technician what is actually on the shelf before you redesign anything, because a workable substitute is often already in stock.
2. Check any substitute material against the specification and not just against the size, since 3 mm MDF in place of 3 mm acrylic loses transparency and adds a finishing step.
3. Watch the thickness above everything else, because swapping 18 mm pine for 12 mm pine changes every joint width and every screw length in the build.
4. Redesigning around what you have is real design work and belongs in the folder as a recorded change with a reason attached.
5. If nothing suitable exists, reduce the quantity rather than drop the feature, such as making two matching shelves instead of four.

Record the Deviation the Moment It Happens

1. Write what changed, when it changed and why during the lesson itself, because the useful detail has evaporated by the following week.
2. Tie the entry to a step number, so "step 12 changed" links your record directly to your plan.
3. Photograph the failed part before it goes in the bin, since a picture of a split joint is evidence while a sentence about it is only a claim.
4. Update the plan document itself rather than carrying a corrected version in your head, so what a moderator reads matches what you built.
5. Hiding a change works against you twice, because Creating the solution looks for the plan you really followed and Evaluating asks you to judge the solution honestly against the specification.

Adapting Is Not the Same as Drifting

1. An adaptation has three parts: a reason, a record and a check against the design specification.
2. Drifting means changing things because the plan stopped being consulted, and it shows up as a solution nobody can trace back to a drawing.
3. Before any change, name the specification point it touches and decide whether the new version still meets it.
4. If a change breaks a specification point, say so plainly and explain the trade you accepted, such as losing the clear lid to gain strength.
5. Re-read the rest of the plan after any big change, because one substitution usually knocks over three later steps.