Year 9 Technologies – Term 4 (WA Curriculum): Sustainable Design and Production Systems

What this unit covers

In Term 4, Year 9 Technologies in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Sustainable Design and Production Systems”.

Students explore how social, environmental, and economic factors influence the design and development of food, fibre, and materials-based products while considering sustainable technologies for community needs.

Lesson sequence (20 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Investigating Social Factors in Food Production Systems
2. Analyzing Environmental Impacts of Fibre Production
3. Evaluating Economic Influences on Specialized Food Products
4. Exploring Wet Processing Techniques and Nutritional Effects
5. Investigating Dry Processing Methods for Food Safety
6. Designing Food Products for Specific Demographic Groups
7. Analyzing Food Labeling and Packaging Regulations
8. Evaluating Food Storage and Transport Systems
9. Creating Nutritionally Enhanced Food Products
10. Investigating Global Food Tastes and Cultural Preferences
11. Exploring Properties of Sustainable Materials
12. Selecting Specialized Tools for Materials Production
13. Designing Products Using Recycled Components
14. Creating Accurate Product Labels and Instructions
15. Developing Materials-Based Products for Community Markets
16. Analyzing Technologies Impact on Society
17. Designing Sustainable Transport Solutions
18. Investigating Product Obsolescence and Environmental Impact
19. Creating Community-Focused Design Solutions
20. Evaluating Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Strategies in Production

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Skills codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 4

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 4 runs from Monday 12 October to Thursday 17 December — 10 weeks for WA public schools. With 20 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.