DOMO ARIGATO, MR. ROBOTO
After learning how the skeletal and muscular systems work
together to create movement in the human body, seventh-grade
students were given the challenge of creating a robotic version of
a human hand. Using any materials that their group requested,
they had three weeks to design, prototype, redesign and test out
their hands before a panel of guest judges. ey were visited by
prosthetists and an orthopedic surgeon and video chatted with
a biomedical engineer to get feedback and advice. Students
reected on the design process, valuable lessons they learned and
the teamwork skills that were necessary in order to meet this
challenge. A huge variety of hands were created as a result, ranging
from simple cardboard replicas complete with stick-on ngernails
to mechanical hands with servos and Arduino microprocessors.
7
LATIN MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2018
