IB MYP Design – Criterion C – Creating the solution Study Guide

This study guide teaches Criterion C: Creating the solution for IB MYP Design. It is aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Design, from 2014, which names Creating the solution as one of the course’s four assessment criteria. MYP has no SL/HL split; the page suits MYP years 4 and 5, including the year 5 ePortfolio that the IB moderates in each exam session.

MYP has no prescribed content list – schools design their own units – so this page covers a skill the brief’s criteria name, not a topic from a set syllabus. Your teacher will share the task-specific clarifications for each real project.

Revise afterwards with the Criterion C revision notes and test yourself with the Criterion C practice questions. Course links: IB MYP Design hub · printable checklist.

What this unit covers

The brief describes Criterion C in one line: you plan how to create the chosen solution, then follow that plan to make a prototype good enough to test and evaluate. This guide splits that into four working skills.

Part of the unit	What you must be able to do	Level
Logical plan	List the steps in a workable order, with time and resources for each	MYP years 4-5 (no SL/HL)
Technical skills	Use suitable tools, materials, software and techniques accurately and safely, and show it	MYP years 4-5
Following the plan	Make the solution in the order planned and keep a record of what happened	MYP years 4-5
Justifying changes	Explain any change to the chosen design or to the plan, with reasons and effects	MYP years 4-5

Facts from the brief worth knowing:

• The four criteria (A Inquiring and analysing, B Developing ideas, C Creating the solution, D Evaluating) are equally weighted.
• Each criterion has eight achievement levels (1-8) in four bands, and teachers judge work against the band descriptors.
• A solution can be a model, prototype, product or system.
• Design is assessed as product design, digital design, or combined digital and product design.
• The ePortfolio is a design project presented as a complete design folder, marked by your teacher against the year 5 criteria, with the IB moderating a sample from each school.

Criterion C sits between choosing a design (B) and testing it (D). For how C fits the whole cycle, see the design cycle study guide and the four criteria in practice.

1. Writing a logical plan

A plan is logical when someone else could pick it up and make your product in the right order without asking you anything. It answers four questions for every step:

1. What is done? One clear action per step (“drill two 12 mm holes in the end pieces”, not “do the handle”).
2. In what order? Each step depends on the ones before it. You cut before you sand; you dry-fit before you glue.
3. How long? A time for each step, so the total can be checked against the lessons you have.
4. With what? The resources: materials (with sizes and quantities), tools and machines, software, people (a technician, the client), and any cost.

Strong plans also add two columns: safety (the risk and how you control it) and quality check (what you measure before moving on, with a tolerance such as ±1 mm).

Choosing a format

• Step table – best for detail: step, time, resources, safety, check.
• Gantt chart – shows steps across lessons or weeks, so overlaps and waiting times are easy to see.
• Flowchart – useful when a check can send you back a step (“parts within ±1 mm? No: re-cut”).

Pick whatever makes your process clearest; a table plus a Gantt chart works well.

Worked example: a plan for a product

A fictional client, a primary-school art teacher, needs a caddy to carry paint brushes between tables. The chosen design (from Criterion B) is an open box in 6 mm plywood: base 300 × 200 mm, two sides 300 × 100 mm, two ends and a divider, with a 12 mm dowel handle. The ends fit between the sides, so each end is 200 − 2 × 6 = 188 mm long.

You have 6 lessons of 55 minutes: 6 × 55 = 330 minutes.

#	Step	Time (min)	Resources	Safety	Quality check
1	Mark out all parts from the cutting list	30	Plywood sheet, steel rule, try square, pencil	–	Each part within ±1 mm on the drawing
2	Cut parts on the laser cutter	40	Laser cutter, cutting file, technician	Extraction on; never leave the machine	Edges clean, no scorching through
3	Sand edges and check sizes	35	Sanding block, 120-grit paper, rule	Dust mask	All parts within ±1 mm
4	Drill handle holes in ends	20	Pillar drill, 12 mm bit, clamp	Goggles; clamp the work	Holes line up across both ends
5	Dry-fit the box	20	Masking tape, try square	–	Corners square
6	Glue and clamp; leave overnight	30	PVA glue, sash clamps	Wipe excess glue	Diagonals equal
7	Fit dowel handle	15	12 mm dowel, glue	–	Handle firm, no wobble
8	Two coats of water-based finish	60	Finish, brush	Ventilated area	Even coat, no drips
9	Photograph and check against the specification	20	Camera, specification	–	Ready for Criterion D tests

Total planned time: 30 + 40 + 35 + 20 + 20 + 30 + 15 + 60 + 20 = 270 minutes. Contingency: 330 − 270 = 60 minutes, which is 60 ÷ 330 × 100 = 18.2% of the time available.

Resource cost (fictional prices): plywood £4.80 + dowel £0.90 + glue £0.40 + sandpaper £0.60 = £6.70, inside the specification’s £8.00 budget with £1.30 to spare.

What makes it logical: glue dries overnight, outside lesson time; dry-fit comes before glue; every step has a check; and there is contingency for problems.

Worked example: a plan for a digital solution

The same approach works for digital design. A fictional school gardening club wants a small website. You have 5 lessons of 50 minutes = 250 minutes.

Step                                   Time   Resources
1 Set up project folder and hosting     20    school web platform, login
2 Build page template (header, menu)    50    code editor or site builder
3 Add three pages of content            60    club text, style guide
4 Prepare and add compressed images     30    image editor, club photos
5 Accessibility checks (alt text,       25    contrast checker
  contrast, headings)
6 Test on phone and laptop browsers     30    two devices, test checklist
                                       ----
                                        215 min  (contingency 35 min = 14.0%)

Here the resources are software, devices, accounts and client content. The plan still needs an order (template before pages) and checks.

2. Showing technical skills

A well-made prototype is not enough on its own. Your folder has to show the skill that went into it, because a moderator sees the evidence, not the object. Show:

• Choice of technique – why you used a laser cutter rather than a coping saw, or CSS grid rather than a table layout. One sentence each.
• The process in stages – photos or screenshots at each key step, not only the finished piece.
• Accuracy – measured results against tolerances (“all nine parts within ±1 mm; the divider was 0.5 mm oversize and was sanded to fit”).
• Safe working – the control you used, shown in the photo or noted in the log.

Annotate every image: what the image shows, the skill involved, and what you checked. “Photo 4: drilling the 12 mm handle holes with both ends clamped together so the holes line up” is evidence. “Photo 4: drilling” is not.

For digital work, short code extracts or before-and-after screenshots do the same job: show the feature, then explain the technique and how you checked it works.

3. Following the plan

Following the plan means you really do make the product step by step as planned, and you record it as you go. The usual tool is a production log (build diary) that sits next to the plan.

A good log entry has the date, the step number from the plan, the time actually taken, what was done, a photo reference, and any issue. Comparing planned and actual time turns the log into evidence.

Worked example: comparing plan and log

In week 2 of the caddy project the laser cutter was out of action, so the parts were cut on a scroll saw instead. The log recorded these times:

Step	Planned (min)	Actual (min)	Difference
2 Cut parts	40	65	+25
3 Sand and check	35	45	+10
5 Dry-fit	20	15	−5
8 Finish	60	55	−5
All other steps	115	115	0
Total	270	295	+25

The project used 295 of the 330 minutes, so 330 − 295 = 35 minutes of contingency was left. The log shows the plan was followed in order, where it slipped, and that contingency absorbed the problem – far stronger than “everything went to plan”.

4. Justifying changes

Changes are normal. What matters is that each one is explained. Keep two kinds apart:

• A change to the design alters the product itself: a material, a joint, a size, a feature.
• A change to the plan alters how or when you make it: the order of steps, the time, the tool or machine.

One event can cause both. In the caddy project, switching from the laser cutter to a scroll saw was a plan change. Because clean finger joints are hard to cut on a scroll saw, the joints were also changed from finger joints to glued butt joints with panel pins – a design change.

A four-part justification

Write each change in four parts:

1. What changed – precisely.
2. Why – the cause, with evidence (a machine fault, a test result, client feedback, cost).
3. Effect on the solution – which specification points it could affect, and how you will check them in Criterion D.
4. Effect on the plan – time, resources and the order of later steps.

Worked example

Change (design and plan): Joints changed from finger joints to glued butt joints with 19 mm panel pins; parts cut on the scroll saw instead of the laser cutter. Why: The laser cutter was out of action in week 2 (technician’s notice), and finger joints cannot be cut accurately enough on the scroll saw to meet the ±1 mm tolerance. Effect on the solution: Butt joints are weaker than finger joints, so the strength point of the specification (carries ten full paint pots) must be tested in Criterion D. Appearance changes slightly; the client agreed by email. Effect on the plan: Cutting took 25 minutes longer and sanding 10 minutes longer. This used 35 of the 60 minutes of contingency. Panel pins and a pin hammer were added to the resource list.

“I changed to butt joints because the laser cutter was broken” gives the cause but not the effects, so it is only a partial justification.

When to update the plan

If a change affects later steps, mark up the original plan (a “revised” column, say) rather than replacing it, so both versions are visible.

Common errors

• Writing the plan after making the product.
• Steps that are too broad (“make the box”) so no order, time or check can be seen.
• Listing tools but not materials with sizes and quantities, or forgetting software and people as resources.
• Times that add up to more than the lessons available, or no contingency at all.
• Photos with no annotation, or only a photo of the finished product.
• Saying “I followed my plan” with no log, dates or actual times.
• Hiding changes: an unexplained difference looks like the plan was not followed.
• Justifying a change with the cause only, and leaving out its effect on the specification and the plan.
• Stopping at a half-finished prototype. The brief asks for a prototype sufficient for testing and evaluation, so it must be complete enough to run your Criterion D tests.

Where to go next

• Condensed recall: Criterion C revision notes.
• Practice: Criterion C practice questions.
• Folder checklist by stage: ePortfolio preparation; course overview: MYP Design subject guide.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Design, from 2014. Published by the International Baccalaureate Organization.