Bring Science Alive! Designing a Prosthetic Hand Engineering Challenge

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BODIES ENGINEERING CHALLENGE

Designing a Prosthetic Hand 1. Outline (in red) the bones that you can see. Outline (in black) the muscles that you can see.

Outline (in blue) the tendons and ligaments that you can see.

2. With a blue line, mark the joints that allow the fingers and thumb to move.

3. Why is it important that the muscles and bones are connected?

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Designing a Prosthetic Hand

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Defining the Engineering Problem 1. Finish the following sentence:

Our goal is to create a prosthetic hand that can . . .

2. Do you think that your prosthetic hand needs to look like a real hand? (For example, does your hand need to have 4 fingers and a thumb? Does it need to have skin?) Why or why not?

3. Does your prosthetic hand need to be the same size as a real hand?

All mechanical hands have some kind of “bone” structure and a means of moving the parts. Talk with your partner: 4. What parts of a real hand do you need to include in your prosthetic hand?

5. What parts of a real hand are not needed for the particular function you have chosen?

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Designing a Prosthetic Hand

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6. What are the criteria and constraints?

Criteria

Constraints

Examine the materials with your partner.

7. What materials might you use for bones?

8. What materials might you use for muscles or tendons?

9. What materials would you use to test your hand design?

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Designing a Prosthetic Hand

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Developing Possible Solutions 1. Keep a log of your design attempts below. For each new entry, explain how you modified the design from the previous version.

Design 1:

Design 2:

Design 3:

Design 4:

Design 5:

Design 6:

2. Record each way the structure or function of your prosthetic hand matches the structure or function of a real human hand.

Prosthetic Hand

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Designing a Prosthetic Hand

Real Human Hand

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Optimizing the Solution 1. In the space below, compose a post to add to the Engineering Forum. In the post you should: • Describe your design, its features, and how well it performed the function you chose.

• Include at least one sentence about the impact your design could have on people who need a prosthetic hand.

• Explain any problems you feel have yet to be addressed, and ask for suggestions for solving these problems.

• Add a drawing of your prosthetic hand design. Label the materials you used.

To: All Forum members

From: ___________________________

Re: Prosthetic Hand

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Designing a Prosthetic Hand

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Engineering Challenge Assessment Use the rubric below to evaluate your work on this engineering task. Then record your score in the Score column.

Achievement Levels

Engineering Process

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Proficient (2 points)

Emergent (1 point)

Defining the Engineering Problem

Narrowed down the engineering problem to an achievable goal using knowledge of the structure and function of the human hand.

Defined an engineering goal for a prosthetic hand but the goal is not connected to the structure and function of a human hand.

Did not define an engineering goal.

Developing Possible Solutions

Designed and built a prosthetic hand taking into account the properties of different materials, and how materials can be shaped and used.

Designed and built a prosthetic hand without considering the shape, size, or the properties of different materials.

Did not create a prototype.

Optimizing the Design Solution

Improved the design based on input from outside sources.

Changed the design but the changes may not have been improvements.

Did not attempt to improve the design.

Designing a Prosthetic Hand

Not Present (0 points)

Score

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