GCSE DT AQA Product Ideas (help needed)

Hey guys, I would really appreciate if any of you guys could help me choose an idea for my NEA (2026), these are the contextual challenges:

1: Reducing waste
2: Products to help in the home
3: Supporting charities

I am leaning towards Products to help in the home since I think it’s the easiest but I am pretty much ruling out Supporting charities for because that’s brutal. I was thinking -for cc num 2- to do a dry food dispenser (for lentils, rice ect.) or a bedside table with a special function or two. I’ve asked ChatGPT for cc num 1 and I’ve was recommended to make a ‘cleaning product caddy’ ( of which I don’t believe fits the challenge the best ?

I would really appreciate feedback from people currently in year 10 who know what they’re doing and past GCSE students who managed to acquire high marks in their NEA
(I would also appreciate ANY other tips for my NEA since I’m really nervous and hearing conflicting advice)

Reply 1

bkay4

Original post

by rhnnn

Hey guys, I would really appreciate if any of you guys could help me choose an idea for my NEA (2026), these are the contextual challenges:
1: Reducing waste
2: Products to help in the home
3: Supporting charities
I am leaning towards Products to help in the home since I think it’s the easiest but I am pretty much ruling out Supporting charities for because that’s brutal. I was thinking -for cc num 2- to do a dry food dispenser (for lentils, rice ect.) or a bedside table with a special function or two. I’ve asked ChatGPT for cc num 1 and I’ve was recommended to make a ‘cleaning product caddy’ ( of which I don’t believe fits the challenge the best ?
I would really appreciate feedback from people currently in year 10 who know what they’re doing and past GCSE students who managed to acquire high marks in their NEA
(I would also appreciate ANY other tips for my NEA since I’m really nervous and hearing conflicting advice)

I think the one you picked is really good. There's more interesting ideas you could think of for that compared to the other two. For your actual product you should take different factors into consideration and try to make it multifunctional so you can talk about how it is efficient and saves space. Honestly what you pick for your product isn't so much of an issue, it's your actual coursework that matters. I did mine two years ago now, I can't remember all the contextual challenges but I picked one that was related to animals so I made a cat tower but rather than the product I think it was the detail from the coursework that got me full marks so definitely make sure the coursework is detailed! Goodluck!!

Reply 2

fizzyr

Original post

by rhnnn

Hey guys, I would really appreciate if any of you guys could help me choose an idea for my NEA (2026), these are the contextual challenges:
1: Reducing waste
2: Products to help in the home
3: Supporting charities
I am leaning towards Products to help in the home since I think it’s the easiest but I am pretty much ruling out Supporting charities for because that’s brutal. I was thinking -for cc num 2- to do a dry food dispenser (for lentils, rice ect.) or a bedside table with a special function or two. I’ve asked ChatGPT for cc num 1 and I’ve was recommended to make a ‘cleaning product caddy’ ( of which I don’t believe fits the challenge the best ?
I would really appreciate feedback from people currently in year 10 who know what they’re doing and past GCSE students who managed to acquire high marks in their NEA
(I would also appreciate ANY other tips for my NEA since I’m really nervous and hearing conflicting advice)

I would recommend things like better storage to avoid throwing away things like plastic bags and whatever. Maybe a set of shelves with installed containers? Or for supporting charities maybe do something like a big wooden storage container thing that is on wheels and can be dragged around, but at the same time it is strong enough to hold the weight of people so they could use it as a bench or a bed? I have just left year 11 and I got around 64/100 on my NEA despite my teacher having 3 months off. My advice is go online and look at example portfolios from your exam board and just give it all you got, it is really easy to gain high marks on the NEA. And if you can without your teacher knowing then do some of it at home, make improvements. Yes it can be classed as cheating but you wont get caught and my teacher let us do stuff like that and we have achieved high results even though she is a bad teacher and also she had 3 months off and we had no teacher. Trust me try your best and you will be fine! Do plenty of research.. Good luck😀