No Bones About It: Designing Knee Braces
Science Topic: Human Body
Engineering Field: Biomedical Engineering
Country: Germany
Storybook: Erik's Unexpected Twist
In this unit, students are introduced to Erik, a boy from Germany who is dreading an upcoming trip with his camping club. Whenever Erik goes camping, disaster seems to follow. During a scavenger hunt, one of the other campers, Matthias, injures his knee. Erik is able to use knowledge he gained from his mother, a biomedical engineer, and pull from his personal experience with a torn ligament in his knee, to help design a knee brace for Matthias.
Students will think like biomedical engineers as they learn about differences in arch height of people’s feet, and make recommendations to a fictional sneaker company about how many different types of sneakers they should create. Students will then measure the range of motion of healthy knees, and the range of motion of a model injured knee. After exploring the properties of materials available to them, students are asked to design a knee brace for the model injured knee that helps to restore its normal range of motion.
FOSS Connections: Human Body
STC Connections: Human Body Systems
Insights Connection: Bones and Skeletons
Science Companion: Human Body in Motion
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