Seven Resources of Technology
Nothing gets made from nothing
A cardboard catapult and a highway bridge have something in common: both are made from the same seven kinds of resources. A resource is anything a project draws on. Learn the seven and you can plan any project, spot what is missing before you start, and explain why some designs are possible and others are not.
The seven
| Resource | What it means | In a Craft Lab catapult |
| People | The skills, ideas, and hands that do the work | You, your partner, the teacher who shows you a knot |
| Information | What you know and can find out | How levers work; a video of a catapult; your own test results |
| Materials | What the thing is made of | Craft sticks, a rubber band, a bottle cap, glue |
| Tools and machines | What shapes and joins the materials | Scissors, a hot-glue gun, a ruler, the 3D printer that made the connectors |
| Energy | What powers the work and the product | Your muscles; the stretched rubber band; electricity for the glue gun |
| Capital | Money, and the things money buys (buildings, equipment) | The class budget that bought the sticks |
| Time | The hours available to design, build, and test | Two class periods |
Materials and tools are easy to spot. The others hide. A team that cannot agree is short on people skills. A team building a catapult without knowing what a lever is is short on information. A team with every stick in the room but only ten minutes left is short on time, and time is the one resource you cannot buy more of.
Resources become constraints
Look back at Unit 1. Most constraints are just resources with a limit on them. "Cardboard and glue only" is a materials constraint. "Done in two periods" is a time constraint. "Spend under five dollars" is a capital constraint. When you write a design brief, you are really listing which resources you have and how much of each.
When one runs out: substitute
Real projects always run short of something. Designers substitute: they trade one resource for another. Out of glue (materials)? Use a rubber band and a notch (a different material plus information about joints). Out of time? Use a construction kit instead of cutting every part (capital trades for time). No hot-glue gun (tools)? Switch to a lap joint that holds with white glue and a clamp. The project changes shape, but it still gets done.
Before your next build, list the seven resources on paper and write what you have for each. The empty lines are your first problems to solve.
🔤 Words to know
🛠 Mini activity: Stock the project
Your team is building a craft-stick bridge in Craft Lab and then for real. Sort what you have into the seven resources, then rescue the project when things run short.
- 1Sort each item into the resource it is.💡 Ask what the item IS, not what it is for. A video is information even if it is about materials.For each card, tap the bin it belongs in.The electricity that heats the glue gunA hot-glue gunA bag of 200 craft sticksYour test results from last weekA ruler marked in quarter inchesA video showing how trusses carry weightThe $12 the class spent on sticksTwo class periodsYour partner, who is good at knotsPeopleInformationMaterialsTools & machinesEnergyCapitalTime
- 2It is the last 15 minutes of the second class period and the bridge is half built. Which resource has run short?
- 3The glue gun broke (tools and machines ran out). Choose every substitution that could keep the project going.
- 4Each constraint from a design brief is really a resource with a limit. Sort them.
✅ Check: Seven Resources of Technology
- Mini activity: every step needs its ✓.