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.
Jon Schull
Fri 30 Nov 2018 5:15PM
After discussion in today's SPC meeting, I'm changing my vote to "Block" until we resolve the "invited users" issue.
(we are getting multiple votes from "Invited users" from the school.) This is a loophole in the Loomio configuration and we want to address it asap.
We will invalidate inappropriate votes, but I'll point out that an intrinsic collective regulatory mechanism is also available: Vote Disagree or Block. The poll closes in 9 hours.
Jeremy Simon
Fri 30 Nov 2018 7:04PM
Having reviewed other responses, I'm going to have to disagree with this one. It does seem that something like donorschoose.org would be a better path for raising these kinds of funds. And as Jon pointed out, we need to sort out the loophole with voting. The intention of this program is for e-NABLE volunteers to be the ones voting on how these funds get allocated. It's not clear whether the people being invited to vote on this proposal are active e-NABLE volunteers.
Jacquin Buchanan
Fri 30 Nov 2018 9:25PM
I agree with this proposal. I will respectfully disagree with my wonderful colleagues. I think what this project is about is creating a STEM project, which has some meaning to it, for these students. It is not really about supplying hands to the community. There is a plethora of available e-nable hands. There is not a plethora of meaningful STEM projects in schools. I have coached several school STEM programs, based on e-nable. None of them produced a "usable" print. But lots of inspiration
Jen Owen Wed 28 Nov 2018 5:29PM
I have 5 volunteers who are willing and happy to ship unassembled hand kits right to your classroom. Perhaps you could crowd fund for a few rolls of filament and then have the kids assemble the donated hand kits (printed parts) so they can make the hands and then from there get certified as makers and find a recipient on Enable Web Central to make a device for where the kids have to actually do the math and design work to make it the right size for a real person. :) The filament could be used for printing the design for the recipient on the wait listand for earning your approval badge.
Jacquin Buchanan Fri 30 Nov 2018 9:30PM
Where is the online form to ask for this donated filament or kits for schools? I would have used it. Most schools I am around now can likely self fund filament. But, having worked at a title 1 school in Washington D.C. in the past. In those schools, every dime counts.
Jen Owen Fri 30 Nov 2018 9:49PM
Due to this funding request and emails from other teachers and students who want to make hands but need kits, i asked for volunteers to help make the kits and now have some ready and waiting to send to teachers in need.
Maria has rolls of donated filament through the living classroom she created at suny poly.
Alison Tennant Sat 1 Dec 2018 2:26AM
I am interested in the kits that are already made. How do I go about getting them?
Jen Owen Sat 1 Dec 2018 8:00PM
Alison - please email me at jen.owen.enablevolunteer@gmail.com - and I can connect you with makers who are happy to print for you and ship to you directly.
Wayne Munslow Thu 29 Nov 2018 7:52AM
I haven't notices as many "invited users" voting on these proposals before... how does it work?

Sandra Dermisek Thu 29 Nov 2018 5:45PM
That was my thought aswell.

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.. jschull@e-nable.org,
Barry Maxwell Wed 19 Dec 2018 4:24PM
I’ll provide hand kits using donated filament.
tkrick@ glockner .com · Wed 28 Nov 2018 4:42PM
Agree