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Edexcel GCSE Design and Technology revision

These activities are mapped to Edexcel GCSE Design and Technology 1DT0. The written paper has two halves and they serve different students, so the split matters more here than on any other page. The core content is taken by everyone, whatever material your department works in, and covers all the material families at the level the paper asks for. Eighteen of our twenty-seven activities sit there. The specialist section is one material category chosen by the department and studied in depth, and we currently cover **timbers only**. If your students are entered for metals, polymers, papers and boards, textiles or electronic systems, the specialist half of this page is not yet for you.

This page lists what we actually have for Edexcel GCSE Design and Technology 1DT0. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it, including where it stops.

The split that decides whether this page is for you

Design and Technology is the only subject on this site where a department's own choice determines whether half the content applies.

The written paper has core content, taken by every student whatever they make, and a specialist material section, chosen by the department and studied in depth. Edexcel offers six: metals, papers and boards, polymers, textiles, electronic systems, and timbers.

We currently cover timbers, and no other category in depth. Eighteen of our twenty-seven activities are core and serve everybody. Nine are the timbers section and serve only departments entered for it.

Saying that first seemed better than letting a head of department discover it two clicks in.

What the core actually contains

The core is broader than its name suggests. Seventeen strands, and they include every material family at the level the paper asks about: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, papers and boards, thermoforming and thermosetting polymers, fibres and textiles, and natural and manufactured timbers.

So a polymers department is not shut out of this page. Their students still need the core, and the core still discusses polymers. What they will not find is the in-depth specialist material on polymers: stock forms, specialist processes, surface treatments, and the rest of the detail the specialist section asks for.

The core also carries the design strands: investigating the work of others, generating ideas without fixation, communicating and justifying decisions, and the environmental, social and economic challenges around what gets made.

What the timbers section covers

Eight strands, and they are the specialist depth: sources and origins, properties and footprint, selection factors, forces and stresses, stock forms and sizes, manufacturing processes and scales of production, specialist techniques and equipment, and surface treatments and finishes.

That is the shape every material category takes. If we add another category later, it will follow the same eight strands, which is why the gap is a content gap rather than a structural one.

What is not here

The design and make task is coursework. A student is assessed on what they design and build over many weeks, and nothing on a screen is a substitute for that. Everything on this page is for the written paper.

There is also little calculation: five of the twenty-seven activities involve a typed value. This specification leans on justification and evaluation, and the activities follow it rather than inventing arithmetic the paper does not ask for.

Finding the right one

The lists below group by classroom use, worked out from what each activity contains. Homework is not a heading, because all twenty-seven suit it and a heading holding everything separates nothing.

The three activities embedded below are core content, playable here without an account, so they are worth a look whichever material you teach.

Using them

For short tasks and a weekly routine to drop these into, see the revision homework toolkit. For a short cycle with a recheck built in, see revision intervention a department can sustain. To put several in front of one class in order, build a sprint.

Our past paper archive carries Edexcel's own Design and Technology papers and mark schemes, free and unaltered.

What this page does not do

It does not cover five of the six specialist material categories.

It does not touch the design and make task.

It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live Design and Technology activity for Edexcel

27 activities, all mapped to Edexcel GCSE Design and Technology (1DT0).

Good for intervention (19)

Good for independent study (19)

Good for starter (9)

Good for mock preparation (7)

Good for cover lesson (1)

See all 27, by topic

Try it with your class

Edexcel Design and Technology 14 minutes

Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals

12 steps, 8 interactive, 9 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Independent study Mock preparation
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

What is it that makes a metal a ferrous metal?

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Edexcel Design and Technology 15 minutes

Papers and Boards

13 steps, 9 interactive, 9 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Independent study Intervention
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

Which paper is thin and translucent, used for copying an outline?

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Edexcel Design and Technology 15 minutes

Programmable Components and Flowcharts

12 steps, 8 interactive, 9 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Independent study Mock preparation
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

Which flowchart symbol is used for a decision that asks a yes/no question?

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Common questions

Which material category do you cover?

Timbers only, which is the 1DT0/1F section. The other categories, metals, papers and boards, polymers, textiles and electronic systems, are not covered in depth yet. The core content applies to all of them.

Is the core content useful if we do a different material?

Yes, and it is most of what is here. Eighteen of the twenty-seven activities are core, and the core covers every material family at the level the paper needs, including metals, polymers, papers and boards, and textiles. Only the in-depth specialist section is timber-specific.

Does this cover the design and make task?

No. That is coursework assessed on what a student designs and makes over many weeks, and nothing on a screen substitutes for it. Everything here is for the written paper.

What is in the core content?

Seventeen strands, from mechanical devices and electronic systems through the material families to design strategies, communicating ideas, and the environmental, social and economic challenges around design.

How much calculation is there?

Not much: five activities involve a typed calculation. This specification leans on justification and evaluation rather than numerical work, and the activities follow it.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

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Written by David Wright, Co-Founder, DoRevision.

David builds DoRevision with his son Noah (15). David has spent his career building EdTech products, and Noah has grown up watching lines of code being written. As a student at an important stage of his education, together they are building the revision platform that Noah is using to help revise for his GCSE exams and hopes his friends will find useful too.

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Related for teachers

  • GCSE revision intervention a department can sustain A workable shape for revision intervention: find the gap, work on one narrow thing, check whether it moved, repeat. Built around what a small department can keep up for a term, and clear about what this site can't tell you.
  • The GCSE revision homework toolkit What to actually set as revision homework at fifteen and thirty minutes, a weekly routine that lasts a full term, options for a class with a wide range in it, what to tell parents, and a printable sheet students keep themselves.