All sixth graders at La Grande Middle School recently got the chance to be engineers of prosthetics. The program in January was presented by the Greater Oregon STEM Hub (GO STEM) at EOU. Using wind-up bath toys, the students were asked to design and create a prosthetic limb or fin, attach it and test it out in a tub of water.
Kelly Balnicky, Sixth Grade Teacher, said students really liked the project, and the lesson aligned well with the science curriculum since they were learning about the human body and how it works.
“Every student was engaged in learning. It was probably one of the most fun activities we’ve done with GO STEM so far. The kids had a great time and loved the hands-on experience,” Balnicky said.
Sixth grader Brooke said it was fun to engineer the prosthetic, but it was a bit difficult because the tape would get stuck and the limb wouldn’t spin. “I liked cutting all the pieces of the material out and trying to attach them,” she said.
In addition to the materials, there were also 3-D pens the students could try.
Wyett said he liked designing with the materials, hot glue guns and 3-D pens. His favorite part was when the toys just spun in a circle, were removed from the water and splashed everywhere.
Sixth grader Hayden said students had to make adjustments, measure and revise their designs so having different options was fun. “I liked how you got to think through it, see the model and have to make another fin for it,” Hayden said.
LMS sixth graders have a program with the GO STEM Hub once a year. Balnicky would like to thank Kyle Koyle and all the GO STEM Hub staff who are always professional, communicate well and always do a good job interacting with the students.
Also in January, LMS sixth graders had an assembly presented by OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Technology) that focused on chemistry and reactions. Teacher Balnicky said the students really enjoyed the presentation because there were reactions that blew up, which was pretty entertaining to sixth graders.
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