By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
It is not every day that students get to change the lives of a person, but Crestline students are doing just that through their satellite classes at Pioneer.
Engineering students in Pioneer’s satellite program at Crestline High School are helping to create a prosthetic hand for Shelby Elementary student Riley Plante at a fraction of the cost of what a regular prosthetic hand would cost.
Plante was born with Jacobson’s Syndrome that left him without a right hand since birth. Riley’s mother Kelly Zakrajsek had viewed a news segment which was posted on You Tube in which a 3D printer was used to make a hand. Zakrajsek soon contacted Crestline satellite teacher Keith Strickler about the possibility of doing this as a project for his class.
Zakrajsek explained, “I watched a You Tube video of a boy whose dad had printed him one in West Virginia, and as I searched other videos like that one I found ones printed in Washington, and South Africa, and then I caught the section where that said the plans were posted online for free.”
“I searched for them before I was able to think if I were able to print them off as well, and found that you needed a 3D printer. I couldn’t think of anyone who had a 3D printer, and I taught with Keith’s wife who had printed her a hall pass using a 3D printer. So I texted her asking if she could show the video to Keith and she did, and then he has been gung ho and ecstatic, and the kids have too,” Zakrajsek continued.
Strickler explained how the Pioneer Satellite Engineering program at Crestline began to work on the project.
“We were ready to move on in the curriculum, and we did 3D modeling at the start of the year. But then we were just about ready to start teaching the kids how to use the 3D printer, what you can use it for, and how it impacts manufacturing,” Strickler said. “So as I watched the video I couldn’t believe it. I was absolutely amazed that they had developed this thing and that they put the files out there for free so that all of us could download and share. So I downloaded some of the files that night, and I (was) determined that we could actually make this work.
“I came into class, I sat them down and put a video up on the board and had them watch the video. It was during finals so we had an hour and a half to talk about it and the kids jumped all over it. They were so excited, and they couldn’t wait to do that. That was before they even met Riley. When we asked questions about how are we going to do this, they wanted to know about Riley.”
The project began in January with hopes to have the hands completed for Plante by May 30.
“It has been great in not only the engineering aspects and the manufacturing aspects, but there is also the human element to it where you have a fifth grader from another district that now all these kids know and have a relationship with Riley,” Strickler said. “So hopefully this will change Riley’s life, but one of the things I didn’t expect to happen is that it would change the lives of the kids in my class as well.”
Each student had their own specialty in working on the project to create the robo-hand.
“I didn’t really have a lot to do until it was all put together, and then I helped Mr. Strickler on what things we were going to use for the wires and stuff,” Keenzie Byers said. “Then after we got it together and decided we needed to get different parts and figure out how we could make it better, I started working with Jackson asking if we could do one thing. And he would draw it up and we would see if it worked.”
“I did most of the 3D modeling, drawing up new parts that weren’t originally in the diagram, improving the parts, and taking ideas that Kenzie had on how to make the parts better and add them in to the program,” Jaxson Oxendale said. “Then I would send them to Nick and he would print them.”
Amy Tracey took photos of the project, and posted updates on Facebook, while Nick Johnston ran the 3D printer. Patric Jackson, Kanann Auflick, and Kamin Gerhart assisted in the manufacturing of the pieces to complete the hand.
Plante says of the hand, “I think about it when I can hold stuff with two hands like holding two bars of a bike, and I could hold the drum sticks for Guitar Hero, and probably the holes for a bowling ball,” Plnate said. “I am really excited my friends will probably be jealous of my hand, and it will be really cool.”
With the hand being created through software and a 3D printing machine, production of the hand will be cheap.
“There have been some other robo-hands that have been printed across the world. They are doing a lot in Africa in war torn areas where they don’t have access to a lot of top-notch health care and prosthetics are so expensive,” Strickler said. “You can have an organization with a 3D computer and they can be printing out prosthetics for people for $25 as opposed to $20,000. They can do these things for people and that is amazing.”
Strickler said Pioneer was a big help as well.
“We have a 3D printer in this classroom, but ours prints in plaster which is really fast. It prints lots of parts and it is great if you are doing prototyping, but it’s not real durable,” Strickler said. “That was kind of the problem with doing this. But I knew that the CAD program at Pioneer (has) a dimension machine that prints in ABS plastic. It is really hard and really durable.
“So I knew that if these guys could get a prototype working in this classroom, and we could fit it on Riley, then we could send the files to Pioneer and we would have our durable robo-hand for Riley.” ]
The robo-hand built at Crestline High School will have a feature that no other robo-hand will feature: it will have artwork and effects on it done by Robert Kurtzman.
“Allen from Kurtzman’s came out, and we got them to agree to work with us. He took a look at this hand and said ‘it looks kind of cool, but if you were an 11-year-old boy and you got to design your own hand would it look just like everyone else’s or would you make it look like everyone else’s or would you come up with something really cool,'” Strickler said. “He was talking about would you want an Ironman hand, (or) a Batman hand. I think what he has settled on is making a Terminator hand. So maybe we will take it over to Kurtzman’s and maybe they will put some chrome on it to make it look like the Terminator hand.”
The robo-hand will using a plastic part attaching to Riley’s wrist which will be held on by Velcro. Another portion will attach to the back of the his hand, and as the wrist bends down, the cables will create tension to pull the fingers back.
Bungee cables from MedCentral will act as tendons pulling the fingers up. As Riley bends his wrist it will create tension pulling the fingers down. The 3D printers have holes running through them which the wires are placed through.
The robo-hand will be able to grab larger objects such as bicycle handles and back packs as well as soda cans. It will also be lighter than a regular prosthetic arm which attaches to the shoulder which works by pulling back with the arm. The robo-hand created in Crestline will operate by movements of the wrist.
Pioneer Supervisor of Satellites, Dr. Mike Martin, explained of the project.
“I think that is where these guys as a class took the project to the next level, because that kind of stuff doesn’t come up on the plans of open source software,” Martin said. But Mr. Strickler and his students, after meeting Riley, wanted to do everything that they could to make the hand as best as they could. So they went beyond the plans of open source software. I honestly think that they made the project better than what it was originally when it came to us.”
“To me probably the most exciting thing is looking at this great idea, and they upped it because of who they are and what they done,” Martin continued.
“I would like to see this as an ongoing thing, and as Riley outgrows his hand we can hand down if there is another kid that this would fit,” Strickler added.
Martin explained the educational aspect behind the project.
“It is the content that we teach and a heck of a lot more, They are learning to use Sketch Up Pro Software, they’re are learning how to collaborate with other organizations. They are doing that – – we aren’t doing that,” Martin said. “They are learning to collaborate, they are learning to communicate, and they are learning to work in a teamwork environment. They are learning all the skills that they need every day.
“At the end of the day they learn everything they need to learn, but they change lives. Education when done right should change lives, it is rare to see it, but when it does it is fun to watch. It is what I call enduring learning, because in 30 years they won’t forget about it.”
To follow more on Crestline High School’s Pioneer Satellite project of building the robo-hand visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crestline-School-Projects/683199048368147 and http://pioneerineducation.blogspot.com/.