BRACE YOURSELFBiomedical Engineering Challenge
The Task: Create a brace for a model knee to stop unhealthy movement but keep healthy movement. Blankner students are given a challenge by one of the most Empathy Creating creatures on the planet...Winter the Dolphin!
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Applying the Blankner Design Process-SPIKE
See a need
Blankner students learned empathy by putting themselves in other people's situations. What is it like to go through the day deaf, blind, crippled or with some other disability. If we SEE A NEED, what can we do to help?
Blankner students were taken on an adventure through the Black Forest in Germany. Here they met our main character Erik, and his friend Matthias, who has had a very bad fall and injures his knee. SEE A NEED The students were even able to add Musical Drama to the story by choosing which of Beethovan's compositions best fit the Climax of the story! (Did you know that Beethovan was also from Germany?)
Problem Solve
Blankner students then learned to research, collect, and analyze data on injured vs. uninjured knees to PROBLEM SOLVE. We learned about being Biomedical Engineers and what a career in that field would look like.
Initiate a plan
They then INITIATE A PLAN as Biomedical Engineers would to create a knee brace to help their injured knee.
Kreate (create)
Blankner Students work together to KREATE (create!) a prototype of a knee brace from materials they were given (1st and 2nd grade) or materials that they chose (3rd - 5th) to work with.
Evaluate
Blankner students then EVALUATE their prototypes to see if they meet the criteria for the project. (Were you able to stop the unhealthy movement of the injured knee?) The students were then given an opportunity to Redesign and improve their TECHNOLOGY
