The introduction of 3D printing into the educational system for the benefits of our children and the future generations to come is a must. Today, we are going to have a look at how high school students involved in the engineering and 3D printing program help change the life of a 9-year old girl born with underdeveloped fingers on her left hand.
Young Kylie Wicker is the girl in question; unfortunately, she was born with a condition that left her without fingers on her left hand. This made it extremely difficult to perform everyday normal things. Simple tasks like washing, dressing up her dolls, or catching a ball, proved to be serious challenge for Kylie.
That was until her father researched 3D printed prosthetic limbs and approached the teacher of the engineering high school program at Boylan Catholic School in Rockford, Illinois. Kylie’s father asked the engineering students to help create 3D printed prosthetic to improve his daughter’s life.
If Kylie’s family were to pay out for a regular prosthetic hand, it would have cost them in excess of $50,000. Kylie’s family are currently on the waiting list to get her device which has inbuilt sensors once she is fully-grown.
The students at the school created a prosthetic, which cost in total an amazing $5. This shows the real benefits of using a 3D printer to come up with solutions to problems that cost thousands of dollars.
Simple things like riding a bike are now possible, thanks to the help of this caring, ingenious group of students. The statement at the top of this blog rings true, 3D printing must be introduced at an educational level for our children and future generations.
If this is what our children can do with a 3D printer, at such a young age, imagine a future where 3D printing is a technology studied and explored every day. How advanced would our society become and how much better of a place would we be in?