South Africa Grade 11 Electrical Technology Syllabus

This syllabus outlines the curriculum for Electrical Technology in Grade 11, based on the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document. The curriculum covers a range of topics in electrical, electronic, and digital systems, focusing on both theoretical understanding and practical application. The syllabus is structured around four terms, with a balance of theory and practical work allocated for each term.

Term 1:

• Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act: Focuses on safety regulations, ergonomics, housekeeping, workshop signs, and personal protective equipment. Practical application includes identifying safety signs and gear.
• Tools and Measuring Instruments: Covers the use, operation, application, care, and maintenance of various instruments like multimeters, insulation testers, function generators, and oscilloscopes. Practical skills development includes using an oscilloscope to display waveforms. Hand and power tool safety and usage are also emphasized.
• Single-Phase AC Generation: Introduces the difference between AC and DC, the generation of single-phase supply, and calculations related to field strength, flux, and flux density. Practical work involves rotating a magnetic field and displaying the waveform on an oscilloscope. The sine wave and its properties (instantaneous, maximum, RMS, and average values) are also explored.
• Single-Phase Transformers: Covers magnetic induction, Lenz's Law, magnetomotive force, and mutual inductance. Practical work includes wiring a single-phase transformer to the mains supply. Transformer types, losses, advantages, disadvantages, construction, and symbols are also discussed. Calculations focus on VA ratings, power, ratios, primary and secondary voltage/current, and efficiency.

Term 2:

• Protective Devices: Explores the principles of operation for overcurrent and undervoltage protection, resettable overcurrent protection, and the zero-volt coil. Practical work involves connecting and testing a Direct On Line (DOL) starter.
• Single-Phase Motors: Covers the operation of universal motors, split-phase motors, capacitor-start motors, and capacitor-start-and-run motors. Practical work includes testing motors (visual inspection, insulation, continuity, earth continuity, and mechanical tests) and connecting them to DOL starters.
• RLC Circuits: Focuses on the effect of alternating current on resistors, inductors, and capacitors in series circuits. Calculations involve inductive reactance, capacitive reactance, impedance, power, phase angle, power factor, and resonance. Phasor and wave representations are also covered.

Term 3:

• Semiconductor Devices: Covers the construction, symbols, characteristic curves, values, principles of operation, and composition of diodes, zener diodes, transistors (NPN and PNP), thyristors (SCR), DIACs, and TRIACs. Practical work includes testing components and building circuits using transistors as switches and thyristors with DIACs.
• Power Supplies: Explores the principles and operation of DC power supplies, including transformation, rectification (half-wave and full-wave), filtering, and regulation. Practical work involves building and testing circuits on breadboards and observing waveforms on an oscilloscope. Calculations involve ripple factor and percentage calculations.
• Amplifiers: Introduces amplifier types and the principle of operation of transistor amplifiers. Different biasing methods (fixed base, collector feedback, and voltage divider) are covered, along with calculations of the DC load line. The interpretation of load lines and the influence of biasing are also discussed. Practical work involves building and testing a Class A audio amplifier.

Term 4:

• Logic: Reviews logic gates and Boolean expressions, and introduces De Morgan's Theorem and combinational circuits. Practical work involves simulating logic circuits.
• Communications: Covers radio communication systems, antenna types, and the principles of modulation (AM, FM, and SSB). Practical work may involve building a simple radio receiver/transmitter.

Assessment:

Assessment in Electrical Technology includes both informal (daily) assessments and formal assessments. Formal assessments comprise 25% School-Based Assessment (SBA), 25% Practical Assessment Task (PAT), and 50% final examination. The PAT involves simulations, experiments, and the construction of a final product. The final examination covers the entire year's theoretical content.