Principal Todd Spinner shares a laugh with students as they activate electrical impulses in his arm.
Medical Intervention students at Westerville Central High School have been studying and creating prosthetics as a part of their How to Conquer Cancer unit. Building off information from their previous Principals of Biomedical Science and Human Body Systems courses, they researched how prosthetics work and how amputees control them using electrical impulses from other muscle groups. The unit culminated on April 5 when students hooked themselves up to a Human-to-Human Interface machine. This machine applied the neuroscience basics they had been studying and allowed student A to take over and control student B’s hand. By changing their arm movement and electrical impulses, they were able to vary the intensity of their partner’s hand contractions. Pupils were most excited about getting to take over Principal Todd Spinner’s hand. They described the exercise as “weird, but super cool”.
To see the Human-to-Human Interface in action or to learn more about the technology students were using, check out Greg Gage’s TED talk on the importance of teaching neuroscience at the high school level: https://www.ted.com/talks/greg_gage_how_to_control_someone_else_s_arm_with_your_brain