Build an Artificial Bicep
Posted on May 21st, 2021 by Mary Lord
Students in grades 5 to 7 learn about how muscles work and follow the engineering design process to create their own biomedical device to aid in the recovery of a strained bicep. They discover the importance of rest to muscle recovery and that muscles (just like engineers!) work together to achieve a common goal.
Image from NASA Jet Propulsion Lab
Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Build an Artificial Bicep
Tags: anatomy, biceps, biomechanical engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Human Body, Lesson Plan, muscles
Biomedical and tissue engineers are harnessing the power of 3-D printing, engineered bioinks, and novel materials with the aim of one day fabricating replacement hearts and other body parts. 
Students in grades 6-8 use their knowledge about how healthy heart valves function to design, construct, and implant prototype replacement mitral valves for hypothetical patients’ hearts. In the process, they discover the pros and cons of different types of artificial heart valves based on materials, surgery requirements, and lifespan.
It seemed like a simple request. Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, Mo., needed 150 face shields for those caring for coronavirus patients. Students at nearby Camdenton High School rushed to help – and soon began fielding requests from first responders and even U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Their supply source: 3-D printers the nearby middle school had received as part of a University of Missouri program to improve STEM education. 
Rapid diagnostic tests for use in the field, protective gear for physicians, and genetically modified mosquitoes are among the ways engineering researchers are joining the global health effort to fight ebola and other emerging diseases.
A Defense Department study recruits engineers and scientists in an effort to study animal-to-human disease transmission and prevent emerging epidemics. 
A classic engineering challenge involves designing and building devices that can deliver necessary goods to “Toxic Island,” an island that has been quarantined by the World Health Organization due to a nasty outbreak of disease. Working within specific constraints, including limited materials, middle school students follow the engineering design process to design, test, and improve a device that can deliver “medicine” and other vital supplies accurately and quickly without touching either the water or island.
The human body is an engineering marvel, but ligaments snap and organs fail. What if replacement parts could be grown in the lab – or by patients themselves? That’s the exciting frontier of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that biomedical engineers, scientists, and physicians are exploring, with tantalizing results.
Students in grades 3 to 5 learn about their heart rate and different ways it can be measured by constructing and using a simple device to measure their heart rate under different circumstances, such as sitting, standing, and jumping. They make predictions and record data on a worksheet.
