Showing Design Decisions When AI Is in the Room: Technology, Years 9 to 10
Subject adaptation · Years 9–10 · Technology · Field-Based STEM · Tony Jones
When AI can generate a brief, suggest materials, and draft a design rationale in minutes, the question shifts from whether a student produced work to whether a student made decisions. The Trace Map makes those decisions visible and assessable.
1Name Decisions
2Name the Reasons
3Name the Evidence
4Submit with Work
The Strategy
Introduce the Trace Map as a compact one-page record: three decisions, three reasons, three pieces of evidence.
Before or during the design phase, students record the three most significant decisions they made: a material choice, a structural approach, a rejected option, or a client-related judgement.
For each decision, students name the reason: why this option, and not the alternative?
For each reason, students name the evidence behind it: a test result, a material property, a brief clause, or prior learning.
The Trace Map is submitted alongside the finished design work and assessed as a graded component.
Year-Band Practice
Materials and Processing
Focus decisions on material selection, structural integrity, and fitness for purpose. If AI suggested a material, the student's decision is whether to accept, modify, or reject that suggestion, and why. The AI's suggestion is not the decision; the student's response to it is.
Digital Technologies
Focus on functional requirements, user experience choices, and testing outcomes. AI-generated code or interface suggestions are not design decisions in themselves. The student's reasoned response to those suggestions is what the Trace Map captures.
Collect Mid-Process
A student who completes the Trace Map only at submission is likely reconstructing decisions post-hoc. Collect it mid-project to verify that decisions are being made, not only outputs produced.
Implementation
Decision Checkpoint
The Trace Map is most important at the briefing and development stages. Collect it mid-project to check that decisions are being made. A blank or minimal map at the midpoint is information you need before the final piece is due.
Teacher Judgement Note
For internal assessment at Years 9 to 10, the Trace Map provides process evidence of technological thinking. A student who can name three real decisions and explain them is demonstrating the discipline-specific reasoning the standards require.
