Teacher Spotlight: Successful DonorsChoose campaign electrifies Mrs. Kielma’s classroom
Last year, we were introduced to a number of teachers who wanted to fund their classroom through DonorsChoose–check out our previous blog post about it! Mrs. Kielma is a biology and biotechnical engineering teacher at an urban school, and her DonorsChoose campaign was for a Human-Human Interface to explore biomedical engineering and neuroprosthetics. In her words, “One of the most fascinating things we’re researching is neuroscience and motor function – how an amputee can have a device attached to a limb that will respond to commands using only their THOUGHTS!”
On her DonorsChoose fundraiser page, Mrs. Kielma had this to say about her project goals:
My Project
I want to bring neuroscience and engineering to my students to help them understand how an amputee can control a prosthetic arm or hand using only their brain and existing neurons! With this amazing equipment, my students can experiment with the nervous system and their own muscles/responses as we discuss prosthetics in our biomedical unit. With your help, we can experiment with this tool in various ways to spark an interest in this amazing field and help students understand how they can be biomedical engineers or neuroscientists and better the world!
“As you can see from the photos, my students had so much fun “mind controlling” each other. They were amazed how powerful the electrical impulses are when stimulating muscles. I think they were surprised to learn their bodies were electrical! This really helped them to understand how people who lose limbs can still use their nerves (electrical impulses) to stimulate prosthetic appliances. There were so many questions and “what if” scenarios that they were asking. We were able to make some great hypotheses for future experimentation. I cannot wait to incorporate this fully into my biomedical unit!”
Thanks for the peek into your classroom, Mrs. Kielma! We hope your students have enjoyed their admittance into the Neurorevolution!