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.
Poll Created Wed 28 Nov 2018 2:44AM
5th Grade Students Build Prosthetic Hands Closed Sat 1 Dec 2018 2:02AM
Project Proposal for Prosthetic Hand Kits and Filament
Description of Proposed Project:
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.
Expected results/impact:
Throughout the course of a typical school year, I notice many benefits for our student team members. Not only do I expect students to learn teamwork through helping others, they will also reap the benefits of showing kindness and compassion in the selfless act of giving back. Many bonds of lasting friendship will be made giving students who may not otherwise belong, a sense of self-confidence and acceptance. They will develop crucial skills as they prepare to enter jr. high school, such as goal setting, public speaking, and other organizational and leadership skills. Moreover, our students will be changing the lives of every recipient of their heartfelt generosity.
Estimate of work effort involved:
Our goal is to create a minimum of 25 hands by the end of this school year. It will take a minimum of 18 hours for each hand to print. This will be accomplished by allowing the machine to run throughout the evening as well as the school day. After that students will need the remainder of their allotted time to complete each project. The overall conclusion of the project this school year is Wednesday, May 29, 2019.
Estimated timeline for completion:
The estimated goal for completion is Wednesday, May 29, 2019 for this school year, but will continue as long as the need remains in upcoming school years.
Names of individuals responsible for deliverables:
The fifth grade staff of Portsmouth Elementary School will be responsible for deliverables. The staff includes Mrs. Alison Tennant, Mr. Bill Vest, Mrs. Tiffany Newsome, and Miss Kelsey McFarland. This responsibility also extends to the 40 student members of the Trojans Give Back Team.
Amount of funding being requested:
We are respectfully requesting the amount of $956.37 This will completely fund the 25 prosthetic hands at the cost of $25 each and 13 spools of filament at $25.49.
A brief overview of my background with e-NABLE:
This project will be our first experience with e-NABLE.
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Agree | 56.0% | 14 |
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| Abstain | 8.0% | 2 |
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| Disagree | 32.0% | 8 |
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| Block | 4.0% | 1 |
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| Undecided | 0% | 109 |
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25 of 134 people have participated (18%)
Jen Owen
Wed 28 Nov 2018 7:15AM
I love seeing e-NABLE in schools - however we have some filament donations as well as hand kits that can be donated vs using funding. A crowdfunding campaign would also help. Discounts on filament for education can be obtained through 3D Universe. Would rather see the kids learning to design new tools than making generic devices without specific recipients and push their design skills forward and challenge them. Perhaps some of our volunteers can print unassembled hand kits for the class.
Thierry Oquidam
Wed 28 Nov 2018 7:15AM
All the non-printed elements are easy to find and should be sourced locally for only a few $ instead of buying expensive kits, and good chances are you can find them from within the school.
You don't need 13 spools to print 25 hands, you need six plus maybe a couple to allow for a few fails.
Thanos Mitzifiris
Wed 28 Nov 2018 10:13AM
In general I agree with the idea of this project at the school. However I also agree with the comments of Thierry and Jen. I think that you can try to have some donations from local market, activating the school community. Maybe it's more realistic to print fewer devices and as Jen said it would be good to have a recipient at the end. So I agree for a smaller amount of funding (about 30-40% of what you are asking for).
Wayne Munslow
Wed 28 Nov 2018 11:28AM
The goal of creating 25 hands is fine in principle, but I think we should be trying to build for requests raised within EWC so that the resulting hands are wanted by someone, and that they are correctly sized and as fit for purpose as possible
Jon Schull
Wed 28 Nov 2018 4:37PM
I found this nice article about your project. https://www.communitycommon.com/news/5358/great-little-workers-give-back-again I'd like to support this but I do think that focussing on volume (25) is a mistake. We don't actually have a shortage of hands. I'd suggest you start by making a few good hands for practice, and then seek a recipient to work with through EWC or by reaching out to the community. If you need supplies or support for following through on a plan like that, I'd be all in!
Peter Byron
Wed 28 Nov 2018 9:49PM
There are volunteers all over the country that as far as I know would be happy to print devices and know they are being used in a classroom. I suspect with a little notice, organization and few well placed calls for assistance most of the printing could be done for free. Just my thoughts.
Sandra Dermisek
Thu 29 Nov 2018 6:28AM
I agree with Jen and Thierry. I don't think these funds should be used for materials to build the known designs. I think the funds should be used f.e. for the Development of new designs with new capabilities or effort to organise this community better.
Ian Lewis
Fri 30 Nov 2018 8:26AM
eNABLE hands work out, including all parts and materials, at around £12 so say $15. So the money is way too much. But do they actually have 25 recipients for these hands? Making them for makings sake is, realistically, a waste of plastic, time and materials. I would be more inclined to agree if; 1. the costing was more realistic and 2. if they researched a list of recipients for these hands and did the preparatory work to scale them appropriately. Sorry
Jordan Kamer
Fri 30 Nov 2018 11:55AM
As public school teachers, we have access to donorschoose.org for all of our funding needs. If you copy and paste this proposal and create a project following the guidelines of DonorsChoose, you will get it funded! Look me up on Facebook and ask me for more info if you would like and I'll help you create a project or look me up on DonorsChoose. This is how I have funded all of my e-NABLE projects with my students :)I haven't received a penny of funding from the school. It's either my own $ or DC