This month, second grade students took an active role in their study of the human body as they presented their work to Primary School classmates. After a project to design knee braces, each team presented their final prototype to the class, explaining their design choices and discussing the challenges and successes they encountered. They also explained their learning journey to first grade students as they led them on a tour of the human body systems they learned about this term. 

During the winter term, second graders delved into the fascinating world of the skeletal system. They learned how bones, muscles, and joints work together to support the human body and enable various movements. They explored different types of joints, such as the ball and socket and hinge joints, and even imagined how it would feel to move without a particular joint. Armed with this knowledge, second graders embarked on a practical biomedical engineering design project to construct a knee brace. This project tested their problem-solving and collaborative skills while allowing them to apply their knowledge in a real-world context.

To kick off the design challenge, second graders listened to the story, Erik’s Unexpected Twist, about a group of students who must design a knee brace out of materials they have on hand when one of them gets hurt on a camping trip. The guiding question for the Fay designers was, How can we use our knowledge of how a knee moves, materials, and the Design Process to design a brace for an injured knee?

Students refreshed their knowledge of the parts of the knee and how a healthy knee moves to understand the types of movement a knee brace must allow and prevent. Using a goniometer, students tested the range of motion of their knees as they tried to bend them in different directions. Design Teacher Deborah Morrone Bianco introduced students to the injured knee model they would use to design their knee brace and the materials they could use, including duct tape, felt, velcro, rubber bands, cardboard, and foam. Working in small groups, each team analyzed the properties of their materials, noting which items were suitable for adding rigidity, flexibility, and comfort and thinking about how they could use them in their design. Students brainstormed their design ideas on their “Imagine” sheet, worked together to merge their ideas into a single design, and then started to build.

As each group got up to present their design, students took turns highlighting important aspects of their design, like strategically adding cardboard to increase stability or discovering that a brass fastener would allow their design to bend. Deborah measured the range of motion for each knee brace, and the class gave compliments, asked questions, and made suggestions, keeping the presentations interactive. 

As a culmination of the unit, first graders were invited to visit the second grade class to see their knee brace designs and hear about the other highlights of the body system study. Second graders presented the life-sized brown paper outlines of their bodies hanging in the hallway. Second graders explained that as they learned about each successive body system, they added its major components to their skeleton. The outlines include aspects of the muscular, digestive, cardiovascular, nervous, and respiratory systems. The second graders answered their classmates’ questions about some systems and how they work. They also showed first graders the model lungs they created using straws, water bottles, and balloons and explained how the esophagus, lungs, and diaphragm work together when they breathe.