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EngineeringArtScience

Prosthetics and Performance Lab

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Grades 6-890-120 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Students build two versions of a simple model hand or limb inspired by prosthetics. One is built only to work well, and one is built for movie-style looks. They compare how real engineering and movie engineering solve the same problem. It is a fascinating side-by-side comparison.

Budget levels

Amazon prices checked Oct 9-10, 2026 and may change

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Start

Digital downloads only.

$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.

Student time: one class period, one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one class period on a single day.

Scale back: Fit it into a shorter period, use fewer effects, or run a demo instead of a build.

Scale up: Add one extra effect, or spread the share-out across another day.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

  • Illustrated reading on body tissues and cellsPrintinguse what you have
  • rulers for reaction testBorrow or school hasuse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$5.29 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one school day.

Scale back: Fit the build into one period with fewer effects.

Scale up: Spread the work across days, or add more effects.

  • sponges or clothespinsRequired1 x 50 pins50 pins$5.29Amazon

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$5.29 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day (one session, one-day event).

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one session, a one-day event.

Scale back: Shorten the event, or run a demo for a smaller audience.

Scale up: Spread the build and the event across days, or invite a bigger audience.

Materials

Straws; String; Materials for a hand or limb model (card or similar); Test objects of different shapes and weights; Illustrated reading on body tissues and cells; sponges or clothespins; rulers for reaction test

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change.

As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

  • Plastic drinking straws

    Straws

    Shop

  • String

    String

    No link

  • Materials for a hand or limb model

    Materials for a hand or limb model (card or similar)

    No link

  • Test objects of different shapes and weights

    Test objects of different shapes and weights

    No link

Steps

  1. Study how a real hand grips: watch and feel the tendons on the back and inside of your wrist move as fingers curl. Predict which body parts work together to make a grip.
  2. Read a short illustrated text on the cells that make up bone, muscle, tendon, skin, and nerve tissue, and how tissues form organs and systems.
  3. Collect evidence: squeeze a sponge or clothespin as many times as possible in 30 seconds, rest, and repeat 3 times; record counts. Do a reaction-time ruler drop test. Use the data to show muscles tire and nerves send signals.
  4. Build a working gripper with straws and string tendons. Label which part stands for bones, tendons, muscles (the pull), and nerves (the person pulling).
  5. Test the gripper on different objects and record what it can and cannot grip. Adjust the mechanism to grip better.
  6. Build the movie-prop version that is all about looks.
  7. Write and present an argument with evidence: how skeletal, muscular, and nervous subsystems, each made of groups of cells, interact to make a grip, and what both models leave out (such as sensation and feedback).

Standards mapped

  • NGSS · MS-LS1-3

    Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.