Key Stage 1 design and technology · Evaluate

KS1 design and technology: evaluating ideas and products

Evaluating means checking how well something works and deciding what to change. In Years 1 and 2, children are taught to evaluate their ideas and finished products against design criteria, the “must” statements they agreed at the start. This turns a vague feeling of “it’s good” or “it’s wrong” into a clear check, and it is what makes the design process a cycle of improvement rather than a one-off task.

Evaluating against criteria, explained

Evaluation happens at two points. The first is during designing, when a child looks at an idea or a mock-up and asks whether it will do what the criteria say. The second is at the end, when the finished product is tested. Teachers encourage children to check as they go, not just at the finish, because it is much easier to change a card model than a finished one. This is what the National Curriculum means by an iterative process: going round the cycle of designing, making, checking and improving more than once.

The criteria make evaluation fair. If a child designed a bag for a teddy and wrote “it must hold three toy foods” and “the strap must stay on his shoulder”, the check is straightforward: put the foods in, hang the bag on the teddy and see. Each criterion gets a yes, a partly or a no. Good criteria cover the three things the curriculum asks of a product: that it has a clear purpose, that it works (is functional) and that the user likes it (is appealing). This is much more helpful than “I think it is good”, and it teaches children that success is measured against what the product was meant to do.

Young children are usually honest evaluators when they are shown how. Teachers use prompts such as “What went well?”, “What would you change?” and “How could you make it better next time?” A smiley-face scale or a thumbs-up and thumbs-down chart is common. Children may also ask the user for an opinion, whether that is a classmate, a younger child or an adult. Listening to someone else’s view is part of evaluating, though at this age the main focus is the child’s own judgement.

A good evaluation leads to action. Children are taught that finding a problem is useful, not embarrassing, because it tells the designer what to improve. Sometimes the change is made straight away, and sometimes it is a suggestion for next time. Either way, the habit of looking back at the criteria and saying “here is what I would do differently” is the most important skill at this stage.

Words your child will hear

Evaluate: To check how well something works and decide what could be better.
Criteria: The “must” and “should” statements a product is checked against.
Test: To try something out to see whether it works.
Improve: To make something better.
Feedback: What other people say about how well your product works.
Success: When a product does what it was designed to do.
Problem: Something that does not work as intended.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

When designing and making, pupils should be taught to evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria
When designing and making, pupils should be taught to design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: checking a paper sun hat for a toy

A child made a paper sun hat for a teddy. The design criteria were: it must stay on the teddy’s head, it must shade his eyes, and it should be yellow. How do they evaluate it?

Put the hat on the teddy and shake him gently. Does it stay on? In this case, it slides off.
Check the second criterion by holding the teddy up to the light. Is his face in shade? The brim is wide enough, so it is.
Check the third. The hat is yellow, so it meets the criterion.
```
stays on head    no
shades eyes      yes
is yellow        yes
```
Say what went wrong and why. “It slides off because the hat is too big at the back.” Suggest an improvement: “I could add a strip of paper under his chin, or make the hat smaller.”
Make the change and test again. The hat now stays on when the teddy is shaken.

The first version met two of the three criteria. A strong evaluation says which criteria were met, names the one that wasn’t, explains why and suggests a change. “It was good” alone would not be enough.

Common mistakes and how to help

Saying everything went well, even when the product doesn’t work

Young children are proud of their effort and may think a problem means they did something wrong.

What helps: Praise honest checking: “You noticed the hat slid off, that is a useful thing to know.” Make it clear that designers expect to find problems.

Judging the product against how hard they worked, not against the criteria

Children link success with effort, so “I tried really hard” feels like evidence the product is good.

What helps: Read back the criteria together and test each one. Effort deserves praise, but the product is judged on what it does.

Treating the criteria as optional once making has begun

While making, children focus on the next step and forget the original aims, so they may add features that were not needed.

What helps: Keep the criteria visible, perhaps on a sticky note next to the model, and glance at them at the end of each making session.

Thinking an improvement means starting again

Children may not realise that a small change, such as a longer strap, can fix a problem.

What helps: Ask “What is the smallest change that would help?” and try that one first. Changing one thing at a time shows which change worked.

How to help at home

Write the “musts” first. Before your child starts making something, agree two or three “must” statements aloud, and write them on a scrap of paper. They are what you will check afterwards.
Check each one. When it is finished, go through the list together and test each statement in turn. Give each a yes, partly or no, and let your child decide.
Ask “What went well?” and “What would you change?”. These two questions are enough for an honest conversation. Accept the answer, even if it is a small change such as “a longer string”.
Ask the user. If your child made something for a sibling, a grandparent or a toy, ask the user what they think. Talk about how their view might lead to a change.

Leads on to

Key Stage 2: Analysing existing products
Key Stage 2: Design criteria and evaluating work
Key Stage 2: Inventors and designers who shaped the world