YAKIMA, Wash. — In a building just outside the main Yakama Nation Tribal School, its MESA prosthetics team has turned a classroom into a workshop.
A 3-D printer hides behind a poster board. A clay oven is covered just outside the room. And there are tools everywhere.
Here, one can tell students have been at work on something — in this case, prosthetic arms. The school’s STEM teacher and team supervisor, Bill Razey, takes pride in what they’ve accomplished, calling the four students a “dream team” determined to make something of note, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.
“I think all kids want to get their hands on projects, don’t you?” he said. “They just don’t want to be sitting down and reading.”
Team members Temina Holt, Isiah Strom, Noah Pastrana and Justin Strom, all sophomores, put their hands-on learning to good use by developing from scratch four prosthetic arms along with mastering lessons in science, technology, engineering and math.
The general simplicity of the products could make them affordable options to those needing prosthetics, the team says.
All their hard work — which started earlier this year and included working until midnight some nights — paid off, as the project met critical acclaim. The team took first place at the regional MESA prosthetics challenge in Heritage University.
Team members also recently placed fourth overall in the state competitions, held at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters.
The Yakama Nation Tribal School team came from the smallest school, Isiah Strom noted, as well as being the only Native American group in the competition.
The centerpiece among their four prosthetics — nicknamed “R2-D2” after the Star Wars character — has a rotating claw made of hardwood; the other three do not. The length of the arm is made out of a mailing tube, with holes cut into it to reduce weight.
