Students worked very hard in ensuring they as a class had all the materials they needed for their knee brace maker day. Students decided they would use pool noodles for their model leg/knee, as well as velcro, fabric, sticks, paper, and fasteners. Students and families were instrumental in donating the supplies, and give the students the opportunity to use the EDP to build their braces.
Students began working with their partner, and listening and working together to merge their designs together. Students worked on their EDP papers, and goal setting worksheets together, creating their list of materials, and outlining their design process and how they will begin creating their knee brace.
Students researched the different types of knee injuries and braces designed specifically for each injury. Students then chose a brace that they believe could help Matthias, and what components created that brace.
Students have been continuing their studies of our body's systems, and learning about what Biomedical Engineers do. Students listened to Erik's story, and have begun the EDP for our next maker day of creating a knee brace for Matthias. Matthias injured his knee, so students are tasked with creating a knee brace to help Matthias walk to get medical help, all while making sure his knee does not move side to side, and is stable.
Students were presented with the task of creating a realistic leg model, that include the joints that connect their leg bones. Students planned and started to create their ball and socket joint, hinge joint, and pivot joint, along with their cylinder shaped tibia and femur bones. Through this hands on building, students are able to understand how their own leg works, and the capabilities of their joints. As well as how each joints' movement is essential to our everyday tasks.
As students continue to learn about our bones and systems, they created spinal cords to see the movement our vertebrates allow us to have. Students used pasta for the vertebrate bones, and paper as the cartilage in between.
While continuing to learn about our bodies' systems, students create different shapes to see why the femur is cylinder shaped, versus other shapes. Students then tested out each shape to see which shape was able to hold the most weight. Students soon came to the conclusion that the cylinder shape held the most weight. Thus, that is why our femur bone is cylinder shaped so it can sufficiently hold our body weight when we are standing.
As we continue to learn about our body's systems, we began to understand how our center of gravity works. Students had a fun time experimenting in the hallway. Students quickly found out that when their center of gravity is not above their base of support, the brain sends messages to our muscles to move our base once we started to bend over (without removing our feet from the wall), to prevent us from tipping over. Students understood that in order to maintain our balance and stability, and keep our center of gravity above our base, we need to move our lower torso backwards. Or, move our base, which is why we unconsciously moved our feet forward to balance ourselves when bending against the wall.
Students have been working diligently on writing all about the Engineering Design Process and how they applied it to our problem pertaining to "Windy Island". Students began writing their drafts, following their informational writing checklist, and making revisions. Next, they moved on to the new (to them!) task of typing their essays. After students did MANY revisions to their typed papers on Google Drive, that they accessed through Google Classroom, they had their peers edit their papers. After peer editing, students then listened to their papers read aloud to them on the computer with the help of Read and Write for Google. This really helped the students hear their words, and listen for any incorrect grammar, and helped them self edit their writings.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
July 2016
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