Cover lesson · Design Technology · Year 10 · Intermediate

Designing sustainable packaging

DCF: Producing → Creating digital content

Name: Class: Date:

Cover teacher — you need no subject knowledge

Print: this sheet, one per pupil, plus the stimulus sheet "Packaging material datasheet", one per pupil or one between two. Pupils need a ruler and a pencil. Computers are optional — Parts A to D are all paper and a calculator; Part E is a ten-minute digital extension if you have machines.

Run: 5 min — read the datasheet · 8 min — Part A, work out the internal sizes the box needs · 15 min — Part B, draw the net to scale and prove it closes · 10 min — Part C, the material decision with its trade-off · 7 min — Part D, cost and mass for 120 boxes · 5 min — Part E or the swap-and-check. Every number in Parts A and D can be checked with a calculator; a net that does not close is the most common mistake and Part B makes pupils prove it.

Collect: this sheet. The net drawing is the part the class teacher will mark.

The brief

The Year 10 enterprise group is selling boxes of six Welsh cakes at the school fair. They need a pack that protects the cakes, survives a greasy afternoon, can be recycled in an ordinary Welsh kerbside collection, and costs as little as possible. You are designing it: the internal sizes, the net, the materials and the on-pack message.

Step by step

  1. 5 min — Read the datasheet, including the drawbacks column and the net rules at the bottom.
  2. 8 min — Part A: decide how the six cakes sit in the box and work out the internal L, W and H.
  3. 15 min — Part B: draw the net at 1:2 scale, label every dimension, and complete the closure check.
  4. 10 min — Part C: choose your materials and state what each choice costs you.
  5. 7 min — Part D: board area, mass and cost, for one box and for 120.
  6. 5 min — Part E on a computer, or swap and check your partner's closure sum.

Part A — How big does it need to be?

Each cake is 60 mm across and 15 mm thick. You have six of them.

How I am arranging the six cakes (describe or sketch)
Space the cakes take up (length × width × height, in mm)
Internal box size, with a little clearance: L =
W =
H =
Internal volume (mm³, then cm³)

Part B — Draw the net

Draw at 1:2 scale (so 125 mm on the box is 62.5 mm on your drawing) inside the frame. You need: four side faces in a strip, a top panel, a bottom panel, tuck flaps on the lid and one glue tab. Label every dimension in real millimetres, and mark fold lines with a dashed line and cut lines solid.

Closure check — do this before you colour anything in

Perimeter of the box: 2 × (L + W) =
Total length of my four side faces added together =
Do those two numbers match? If not, what will I change?
Size of my top panel, and the size of the opening it has to cover
Overall size of my flat net (width × height). Does it fit on a 420 × 297 mm sheet?

Part C — Material decisions and what they cost you

Use the letters A to F from the datasheet. Every row needs a real drawback, not "none".

Part of the pack Material Why What I am giving up by choosing it
The box itself
Grease barrier
Window, or no window
Printing and finish

Part D — Cost and mass

Total board area in my net (mm²) — add up every panel, flap and tab
That area in m² (divide by 1,000,000)
Mass of one blank (area in m² × gsm)
Cost of the board for one box
Cost of the board for all 120 boxes
Total mass of card the class is putting into the world

Part E — The on-pack message

Write what will actually be printed on the base of the box. It must tell a customer in Wales what to do with each part of the pack, and it must be true of the materials you chose.

If you have a computer: redraw your net to scale in Tinkercad or a drawing tool, or lay out the printed face in Canva. Save it into your class folder with your name and the date in the file name.

Success criteria

If you finish early