Meet the Mission to Engineer Program at Penn High School
The Mission to Engineer (ME) program has been a catalyst for collaboration, innovation, and inclusion at Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana. ME students and staff were the spark that helped launch The Nora Project STEMpathy work at Penn. ME students met with Nora Project leaders at the ATIA conference in January of 2020, and as a result, The Nora Project got up and running the following fall. Today, we invite you to learn more about the ME program and the exciting work they’re doing through this special guest blog post.
Developing a Passion for Assistive Technology
In 2015, Penn Robotics Team 135 started an assistive technology initiative to work with a girl in our community. In 2017, Mission to Engineer was founded by ATMakers and Penn Robotics, all thanks to a local family in need of assistive technology. ATMakers originally had the idea to start a program able to introduce people with physical disabilities in need of assistive technology to local makers willing to help. Thanks to a local family in need, Team 135 developed a close relationship with ATMakers.
Hand of Grace
Side-by-side images of Grace showing her prosthetic arm.
Penn Robotics’ first Assistive Technology project was Hand of Grace. We first met Grace in 2015 when the principal of one of our district elementary schools contacted us. He told us about Grace’s limb difference and that she was looking for an effective, cheap, and durable product that would improve her quality of life. The engineering classes at Penn High School quickly showed interest in the project and began researching prosthetics, 3D printing, ways to attach a prosthetic to a limb, and anything else that could help Grace’s quality of life. Grace received her fully functional arm at the end of 2016.
Braylen’s Words
Collage of three photos of Brayden and the team that made his podium-style rolling desk.
In the Spring of 2016, we were introduced to a boy named Braylen. Braylen was a kindergarten student at a local elementary school who has Joubert Syndrome, a disease that impacts Braylen’s balance, coordination and speech. Braylen uses an Accent 800 speech device to communicate. Unfortunately, this tablet was 6 pounds and far too heavy for him to carry. To solve this problem, we created a stable, light-yet-maneuverable, podium-style rolling desk that he could take anywhere, allowing him to communicate with his friends and help him balance throughout the day. After many conversations, trial and error, and some manufacturing knowledge, in 2017 Penn Robotics was able to make the perfect product for Braylen that he can use in his everyday life.
Mission to Engineer is Established: Engineering Ella
Collage of five photos showing the ME team working with Ella.
Then, in 2017, our Mission to Engineer team was founded by Penn Robotics and ATMakers. Mission to Engineer unites technological organizations in the community with people in need. We have continued to work with those in our community who have disabilities. Penn Robotics’ Mission to Engineer began with a single project and has since grown to a nationwide endeavor.
During 2017, ATMakers introduced us to an 8 year old girl named Ella, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1. This prohibits her from developing muscle, moving her body on her own (with the exception of her fingers), and using her voice to communicate. At the time she was communicating using Eye Gaze and an AAC device. In collaboration with Ella and her family, we set a few goals: create an arm stabilizer, food overflow monitor, adapting toys, and improve the code of her power chair. After a lot of trial and error, we finally created better resources to make Ella’s life easier, including:
Arm stabilizers and switch adaptation so that she can drive her wheelchair independently
Toy adaptations
Food Overflow Notifier - This device specializes in detecting Ella’s food pump overflow and sends an alert to her mother’s mobile device. This was important because every time her food overflowed, Ella wouldn’t be getting the constant food drip her body requires.
Zephan’s Magic Wheelchair
Collage of three photos showing Zephan and the ME team with his Hulk inspired wheelchair.
In 2019-2020, Mission to Engineer met Hulk’s biggest fan, Zephan. Zephan has Cerebral Palsy and is a wheelchair user. We partnered with him through Magic Wheelchair, an organization designed to provide wheelchair costumes to children. It was Zephan and his family’s hope that he would be able to Trick-or-Treat on Halloween with a costume that would accommodate his chair. Penn Robotics made this dream a reality by transforming Zephan’s wheelchair. With such a large undertaking, we decided to seek the assistance of Penn High School’s sculpture class to shape the body of the Hulk, resulting in an interdisciplinary effort to create a final costume complete with motion, lights and sounds.
After appearing on our local news station, this project garnered attention on a national stage, as CBS and CNN reported on the event. The Hulk’s actor, Mark Ruffalo, also shared the story on his social media, leading over 3.1 million people to learn Zephan’s story and the role Team 135 played through ME. Through this project and media, we were made aware of the often prohibitive costs and availability of wheelchair ready commercial costumes. We have been able to spread this awareness of excessive costs for items others may be able to enjoy at much less expense.
Adapt-a-thon
Table with a large collection of adapted toys on it.
For our 2019 holiday season, Penn Robotics Team 135 partnered with Beacon Health Foundation to run an Adapt-a-Thon event. We gave away free adapted toys to children in need to help them experience the magic of the holidays. The toys consist of stuffed animals that make lights, sounds, or movements when a button is pressed. The premise of this event was adapting electronic toys to become compatible with switches (a sensitive button that is easy to activate), so children with mobility challenges can play with them. We also gave away our custom made switches, which can cost hundreds of dollars, for free. As we approached the holidays, we found that many children with disabilities would not be able to purchase switch adapted toys that they can interact with due to the astronomical prices of toys and switches from vendors.This was a similar situation to the wheelchair ready Halloween costumes. We made these toys to change the lives of many and we gave away lots of adapted toys to children, which gave them and their families a memorable experience.
Robotics Fair
Side-by-side images of the Robotics Fair. Left shows the entrance and right shows a group of people participating in an activity.
In 2020 Penn Robotics hosted an event for families to enjoy: A Robotics Fair! Our goal was to take our annual Adapt-A-Thon event and make it friendly and exciting, alongside offering kids an experience they would not get at a typical fair. So this year, Penn decided to transform their Adapt-A-Thon event into a drive-thru fair, with activities for everyone to participate in!
Families came to the fair throughout the day and enjoyed a variety of events; from tic-tac-toe, to experiencing robotics, to picking out a toy to take home. As kids came to the fair, they were able to pick out a toy, talk to the team, and experience robotics and how it can help improve and develop our community. The remaining toys from the Adapt-A-Thon were donated to local organizations that work with kids with disabilities.
Connecting with Cooper
Cooper sitting in an adult’s lap engaging with the sensory board.
In early February of 2021, our team was introduced to a boy named Cooper New by Joe O’Reilly. Our Mission to Engineer team, at the time, set out to design and build a sensory wall that he could use to help build auditory, sensory, and motor skills. We worked closely with the family to design the board with Cooper’s needs in mind, and we customized it to fit his personality.
The sensory board we made is a 6 ft by 4 ft wooden board that has many different activities on it that he can engage with. The focal point is a soundboard that incorporates images with labels above them and 16 buttons that, when pressed, play a sound associated with the respective image/button pair. This portion of the board was critical as Cooper is enamored with sound and this feature draws his interest to the entire board. This sensory tool also encompasses three different instruments for auditory engagement, puzzle pieces with tactile objects for sensory engagement, and different types of door handles for motor skill improvement. We installed the wall in February of 2022 and were thrilled to see Cooper’s excitement about the wall. His family has reported that Cooper is able to use the sensory wall during his therapy sessions and that it is helping him to engage more fully in therapy. Once Cooper has grown out of the sensory wall, the family will pass on the board to a local Autism center to continue helping individuals for years to come!
Our Mission Statement:
Connecting people in need of assistive technology to those who can help.
We strive to help those in need get in touch with those with means (FIRST Robotics Teams) and resources across the country. If you or someone you know is in need of something to be engineered to assist in daily functions, we'd love to help facilitate this communication to your local FIRST Robotics Team to see if they can help. We have created a Google Form, which you can complete if you would like us to reach out to a FIRST Robotics Competition team on your behalf.
The Nora Project is proud to work with the students and staff at Penn High School as they apply Universal Design principles and work to promote disability inclusion and accessibility. To learn more about how to get your students engaged in advocacy work like this, check out our STEMpathy Club program.
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