Kids get a hands-on learning opportunity
Fake limbs are useful teaching tools at program
Janie Lorber, Correspondent for The Durham News
The company is called Helping Hands, a prosthesis start-up specializing in artificial arms. The slogan: Need a hand? Just use our brand.
The entire business plan, from design to investment strategy, is the brainchild of Timothy Casper and Marie Harrell, two Durham middle schoolers eager to put the prototype they built themselves to the test before a panel of potential investors.
Last weekend's Product Design and Marketing Workshop, hosted by Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, gave 24 Triangle middle-school students an inside look at how engineers design and market products for public consumption.
Lessons on hydraulic systems and advertising techniques won't soon replace Friday-night movies every weekend for Timothy and Marie, co-creators of Helping Hands. But the extra time in the classroom hardly felt like school.
"It's way more fun because we are doing hands-on activities," said Timothy, 13, an eighth-grader at Sherwood Githens Middle School.
"In math class all you have is hands on a pencil," added Marie, 12, a seventh-grader at Rogers-Herr Middle School, as the two put the final touches on their model while discussing other students' designs.
Among the other teams -- their competitors -- were Arms B Us ("The legal arms dealer"), Arm Tech ("Are you in good arms?) and Arm Strong.
Students attending the two-day workshop learned how engineers use angle measurements, hydraulics and pneumatic systems to build the mechanisms that power many consumer products. Then, drawing on concepts such as fluid compressibility, the students replicated the movement of an elbow joint using two pieces of balsa wood, a paper clip and a plastic syringe to generate the force that would extend and retract the arm.
Finally, they developed a marketing scheme that would set their product apart from the competition.
"We try to stress that math and science are tools engineers use to solve problems," said Paul Klenk, a Duke research assistant, who coordinated the program along with Gary Ybarra, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. "The idea is to teach them what engineers do so they can decide if they like it. Either way, I don't want them to be afraid of it."
The program is also a response to an increased emphasis among area schools on entrepreneurial skills in early education.
"We want to create awareness of entrepreneurship as a career option," said Betsy DeCampo, who taught the marketing portion of the workshop and directs an entrepreneurship program at Carteret Community College in Morehead City. "Small business is big in North Carolina."
While the program attracted many students who want to be engineers when they grow up, some, like young Marie, said they had other ambitions.
"I plan to go to law school and I love to talk, so what better reason to do that than for justice," said Marie, who put her skills to work as the mastermind behind Helping Hands' marketing strategy. "When you're in the courtroom, you have to talk in front of crowds of people. This is great practice," she said.
Despite the workshop's $150 price tag, students from public and private schools quickly applied for the 24 spots, which were filled on a first-come, first-served basis. The program awarded five need-based scholarships sponsored by the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.
"Businesses are targeting this age group," said Thomas Patterson, Duke Youth Programs director. "I think they need to be able to interpret these messages -- subliminal messages -- that are being pumped into their heads."