5th Grade Students Build Prosthetic Hands
Hello! My name is Mrs. Alison Tennant, and I’m a fifth grade math teacher. I teach at a socioeconomically disadvantaged school in the small city of Portsmouth, Ohio.
Within the fifth grade, we started a program called The Trojans Give Back Team. The team was formed as a result of students wanting to give back to the community that so often gives generously to them. Others just wanted to get involved and lend their help to those students and other community members in need. This team allows students to help others and give back to the community. All meetings/activities happen during the school day so all students have the opportunity to participate.
Recently my students and I were inspired by a compassionate project from a another school district in my state as my students and I attended the OSBA Student Achievement Fair. For our version of this project we would like to build prosthetic hands for those in need. Our students raised the money to fund our 3D printer. Our need however remains in acquiring supplies necessary for implementing our proposal.
James O. Whitlock Thu 29 Nov 2018 10:41AM
Here’s is Loomio’s write up: https://help.loomio.org/en/user_manual/groups/membership/
Alison Tennant Thu 29 Nov 2018 3:22PM
I appreciate all the feedback. Unfortunately, rather than enrichment activities beyond the state curriculum, our community support comes from helping students meet their basic needs such as food and clothing. The local businesses, churches, and other organizations do so much for our students already.. Often such enrichment activities as this, are not funded because it is not a necessity. We felt that this project would give students something to be proud of, a way to feel empowered, like they are truly doing something bigger than themselves. We are a Title 1 school. We do not have the technology available that most school districts have. We are not one-to-one with chromebooks or ipads. This project is not designed only to help the needs of people without out hands but to help my students as well.
Jen Owen Thu 29 Nov 2018 7:30PM
Alison, I have some volunteers who can print some unassembled hand kits for your class and save $ on filament. I have some donated hand assembly kits through 3D universe that can be donated for your classroom as well and we may have some filament donations. I would suggest having your students work in groups and assemble the donated hand kits first to give them a test run to show them what they can make with the 3D printer. Instead of making more hands that do not have actual recipients after those first kits are put together, Id suggest having your students reach out to local Retirement centers who have folks who have suffered a stroke or have severe arthritis or other different-abilities that the students could design tools for right there in their own local area. They would get to work one on one with the recipient of whatever it is (Maybe the older folks can't pick up bingo chips so your students design some with finger loops that can be 3D printed? etc) - they get to learn about 3D printing, design for helping others and get to make a difference in the lives of actual people they can see the joy in their faces on or maybe use the printer and some donated filament to make a hand for an actual recipient from e-NABLE Web central.
I'd really love to see your students inspired to do great things and feel a sense of accomplishment and that they got to help someone - but I think it would be best if they worked in teams with some donated hand kits first before committing to making 25 3D printed hands that have no specific recipient and may just end up sitting in a box in a clinic somewhere because it doesn't fit anyone in particular.
If you would like to have some hand kits donated and shipped to your class - please email me and I will connect you with the volunteers who would like to send them to you for free - fully printed but unassembled and ready for your students to build.
Alison Tennant Fri 30 Nov 2018 6:14PM
I am not sure why I was offered a link to invite people to vote it is frowned upon. Also, I regularly use donorschoose.org so I am aware of how to use it. I have been successful in having many projects funded through that organization. I was specifically told to go about funding for this project the way I did it by someone who does it this way regularly. I do not feel at this time my students are ready to "design" their own project as many have suggested. I am sorry so many people are upset. My intentions were genuine as I truly wanted to help my students as well as those in need. Please know my heart was in the right place, and I was given the option to invite people to vote.
Jon Schull Fri 30 Nov 2018 6:31PM
Thanks for your speedy reply. Please be of good cheer.
I have changed the configuration. I thought "invite to vote" meant invite existing Loomio members to vote. But thanks to you, I discovered that all the doors and windows were open. The new configuration is shown in the attached image.
Not counting "Invited Users" from Portsmouth, there are currently 5 Agrees, out of 14 apparently valid votes. The poll closes in 9 hours. I'm changing my vote from Block to Disagree, because I am persuaded by the other Disagreers. Assuming this proposal does not pass, please feel free to submit another. Suggestions on improving our process are welcome as well.
I look forward to hearing more about the Trojans and their future work with e-NABLE and perhaps adding them to the Chapters Map.
Feel free to call me or email me personally.. [email protected],
Barry Maxwell Wed 19 Dec 2018 4:24PM
I’ll provide hand kits using donated filament.
Sandra Dermisek · Thu 29 Nov 2018 5:45PM
That was my thought aswell.