After four weeks of designing and building, Granger Middle School STEM Plus students have helped their one-footed duck friend Charlie get back on his feet.
“When I saw him moving around a lot in real life, it showed me truly how much he could do now, especially when he ran around the whole room,” said STEM Plus student Adam Juma.
STEM Plus students take on the challenge
Over a month ago, the students were introduced to Charlie by their STEM Plus teacher, Mr. Drmolka. After finding the waterfowl on his farm with only one foot, he was determined to challenge his students to help get Charlie up and running.
For the past four weeks, the students have been hard at work, 3D printing over a dozen prosthetic feet, each taking between four and eight hours to process.
“We started really focusing on our prototypes and adjusting them after each trial because we found where we had to improve it. We wanted to have the best prototype for Charlie,” said STEM Plus student Shreyan Bhandari.
After testing several materials, the group settled on the one that was most comfortable for Charlie.
“We started using PLA (Polylactic acid) which is just a normal plastic, nothing special. Then we moved on to TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane), which was like a rubber film; it was stretchy and flexible,” said Juma.
Charlie begins to walk again
On Monday morning, Charlie was brought back to the school for a final test, which was a success.
“Now he’s going to be able to do normal stuff that ducks do, which he wouldn’t be able to do without the leg, like swimming, walking around, and just basic stuff that we don’t really take value of,” said Bhandari.
Moving forward, Mr. Drmolka will monitor Charlie’s progress on his farm.
“If we see that there’s any new needs or evaluation that needs to be done, I will bring these students back together and have them redesign maybe that little portion of it,” said Doug Drmolka, Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher at Granger Middle School.
It’s an assignment that’s left its mark both on Charlie…and the students who brought back his waddling walk.
“They’re going to remember this for the rest of their life,” said Drmolka.
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