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Animal Prosthetics Clinic

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Grades K-230-45 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Compassionate young engineers design mobility aids for toy animals with pretend injuries. It's a sweet way to explore how real animal bodies work while building empathy and engineering skills.

Choose your version

Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Prep: 9 minActivity: 35 min1 session~$1/groupOne table or a small area of floor spaceBeginner-friendly

Setup

Gather cardboard strips, pipe cleaners, tape and clear a small work surface. Read the Animal Prosthetics Clinic mission aloud, then place the supplies where children can choose and compare them safely.

Activity

  1. Examine a toy animal's pretend injury and study how a real animal's legs or wings help it move.
  2. Design and attach a mobility aid, like a brace or wheel, using cardboard and pipe cleaners.
  3. Test the animal walking or rolling across a table and discover the aid slips off, then adjust the attachment.
  4. Demonstrate the patient completing a short obstacle course to show the clinic's success.

Done when: Children complete the core mission and the patient completing a short obstacle course to show the clinic's success.

Materials

Toy animals, pipe cleaners, cardboard, felt scraps, rubber bands

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Disclosure: Materials links below go to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Steps

  1. Examine a toy animal's pretend injury and study how a real animal's legs or wings help it move.
  2. Design and attach a mobility aid, like a brace or wheel, using cardboard and pipe cleaners.
  3. Test the animal walking or rolling across a table and discover the aid slips off, then adjust the attachment.
  4. Demonstrate the patient completing a short obstacle course to show the clinic's success.

Standards it satisfies

  • NGSS · 1-LS1-1

    Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.