This learning sequence explores how the Nekon family in The Deep television series - and real world scientists use - technology to support the navigation, exploration and protection of our oceans. 

Design thinking is used by inventors, engineers and creatives to help solve complex problems, come up with imaginative solutions and develop new products that meet people’s needs. Following a design thinking sequence, students will write their own design challenge and carry out a range of tasks to design a solution to that challenge.

As a class, discuss what you think of when you hear the word ‘technology’. Now look it up in a dictionary, does this fit with your existing understanding? 

Today we often think of technology as being objects that are electronic and digital, but we are actually using technologies whenever we draw on scientific knowledge or methods. Sometimes it is helpful to think of technology as the tool we use to help us do something. This includes technology such as a knife and fork to a car, from a compass to a smartphone. First Nations peoples in Australia were the creators and experts of many innovative inventions, tools and and technologies for the water, including methods to navigate the oceans. You can learn more about this in the extension task below.

As a class, watch the scenes below from The Deep Series 1 Episode 12: ‘Phantom Sub’. In these scenes Fontaine is attempting to use technology from the past to navigate and travel from one place to another. For sailors and explorers today, it is still important to know about these tools and techniques, just like Kaiko explains in the episode.

As a class or in your small groups, create a mind map answering the following questions:

• What technology do you and your community use to navigate along a journey today?
• What are other contemporary technologies you know about that help people to navigate?
• What are some technologies that people may use to navigate from one place to another before your lifetime. Do you know of any technologies your ancestors used for navigation?

Scientists around the world use a vast array of different tools and technologies to help them learn more about our oceans. This includes learning about different plants, animals, ecosystems and environments. 

As a class, watch this video from the Australian National Maritime Museum that describes several different types of technology that scientists are using to create maps of our oceans, as well as why mapping the ocean is important.

Before we design a solution, we need to understand the problem that we are trying to solve. Let’s look at some of the environmental issues that the Nekton family have witnessed in The Deep. Break the class into six groups and assign one of the following clips to each group. 

Group 1: Fishing lines, nets and pots
Group 2: Oil and illegal dumping
Group 3: Unidentified floating objects
Group 4: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Group 5: Illegal fishing and underwater mining
Group 6: Changing oceans and climate change

In your groups, watch the clips, discuss the following questions and identify your design challenge: 

• What is the real-world problem the Necktons are facing?
• What else do you know about the impact that these issues are having on marine animals and ecosystems?

Identify the problem the Nektons and our oceans are facing, then write a design challenge statement that requires a solution using technology. For example, if your problem is that there are too many discarded fishing nets in the oceans, your design challenge statement could be: Design a piece of technology that will identify and remove discarded fishing nets from the oceans.

Now that you have identified the problem and have your design challenge statement, work through some design thinking activities to find a solution. The next stage in our design process is to come up with many ideas. Using your problem solving skills, you will generate as many solutions to your problem as possible, then narrow this down to one solution to take into the next task.

Equipped with sticky notes, each group should come up with twenty to thirty ideas or solutions to your design challenge in five mins. Set a timer and have everyone write at least one idea per sticky note per minute and display them on a table or wall. This part of the activity works best as a quiet task. 

Once that is done, have a quick group discussion about your ideas. After this discussion, give each group member four small stickers (dots or stars work well). Individually place your sticker on the four sticky notes you are most interested in exploring further. Hopefully one or two ideas have the most stickers and the group can decide which idea you are going to take into the next stage of the design thinking process. If you are finding it difficult to decide, you could take a vote or attempt to combine the two top ideas.

Are we all on the same page? Have a broad discussion as a group about your chosen idea.

Group members should individually write answers to the following questions. Next, compare answers in your groups to ensure everyone has a clear idea of what they are aiming to achieve. 

• Who is it for?
• What will it do?
• When will it be used?
• Where will it be used?
• Why do we need it?

As a group, clarify any differences of opinion so that everyone has a shared vision of what you are aiming to achieve. There should still be room for differences to your ideas, as teams will usually test different versions of their solutions.

As part of a design thinking process, teams produce a number of smaller versions of a product or sometimes just parts of a product. This is called a prototype and it is an experimental phase. Creating prototype models and draft solutions can help designers to find problems that can then be updated before a final product is created. 

Either as individuals or in your groups, draw a sketch of your prototype technology. You can do this either on paper or using a digital device. Label the key parts and answer to the following questions:

• What does it help the user do?
• How does it help to solve the environmental issue?

No prototype is perfect, even the Nektons need to continually improve on their new designs. In the episode ‘Mermaids’, Professor Fiction and Fontaine developed a new suit called the Mimic Knight and in the episode ‘At the bottom of the Gyre’ Ant creates the robot, RIC, to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. As a class, watch the following scenes from these episodes.

After watching these clips, work individually to pick one of these inventions and fill out the Rose, Bud and Thorn table below to evaluate the Nektons’ prototype. This reflection tool can help identify things as positive, having potential or needing improvement.

You should then repeat the Rose, Bud, Thorn activity, thinking about your prototype and how you think it may behave. You could then use this analysis to further develop your idea and create a new and improved prototype.

Now that you have your design, imagine you are explaining it to the Nektons and the World Oceans Authority with the aim to receive funding to further develop and test your invention. 

Each group should develop a 1-2 minute pitch to share their prototype with the class. This visual presentation should aim to explain what the problem is and how your design will solve it. It should also be interesting and engaging for your audience, so they remember it. While developing your pitch, consider the following questions as well as what additional materials (such as drawings and references images) could be included:

• Who is it for?
• What will it do?
• When will it be used?
• Where will it be used?
• Why do we need it?