Jackson Farmer is a fourth grader at Red Cross Elementary School in Glasgow. Recently, he received a new prosthetic from STEAM teacher Scott Johnson. Photo provided.
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
For one student at Red Cross Elementary, it wasn’t just homework he received from his teachers, but a new hand.
Fourth-grader Jackson Farmer, who was born without a hand on his right arm, received a 3-D printed prosthetic hand from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Teacher Scott Johnson. The design is based on the Phoenix Unlimited V2 and functions based on Jackson’s wrist movements, without electronics or batteries, according to a Barren County Schools press release.
“I met Jackson when he was a kindergartener…when we started doing the 3D printing here at Red Cross. I got to thinking: ‘could I actually make something that had some realness to it, had some functionality to it?,’” Johnson said. “So I got on the internet and started looking…and I found out that yeah if you rig it up right you can 3D print hands, and using fishing lines and stuff like that, you can get it to where it works.”
“I’d never seen him have anything other than those rubber hands, and prosthetics are expensive, so it became my passion project,” Johnson added.
Johnson said this was the culmination of nearly a year of research, design, and development, during which time he received advice from people around the world via E-nable, a community of “teachers, engineers, scientists, medical professionals, tinkerers and parents…who are using their 3D printers to create free 3D printed hands and arms for those in need of an upper limb assistive device.”
“I came across the work of [E-nable]…I saw some dudes on the forums that posted a lot so I just reached out,” Johnson said. “The cool thing was I got two or three different emails and contacts on the [forum] from different people [giving advice]. These are people that don’t know me, like the guy I sent my first draft to is in Denmark.”
The hand, which was printed in sections and assembled by Johnson, is made from an corn-based bioplastic called Polylactic acid plastic, or PLA plastic.
The good thing about this, Johnson said, was that he could resize the prosthetic files so it could grow alongside nine-year-old Jackson.
“He’s going to get bigger,” Johnson said. “His forearm is going to get bigger. I didn’t want it to be outdated by the time he came to fifth grade.”
Johnson added he is currently working on a back-up prosthetic for Jackson, and hopes to have it completed by the end of this week.
Jackson’s mother, Kayla Danielle Kerney, said Johnson has changed her son’s life, adding that Jackson likes his new hand so much he wants to sleep in it.
“I am truly blessed that [Johnson] did this, I mean it has made our family so happy,” she said. “Mr. Johnson is a hometown hero in my heart because he changed my son’s life. He’s all smiles now.”
Johnson said he would use his 3D files to help another child, or teacher who wanted to try the same thing, “in a heartbeat.”
“I would help another kid in a heartbeat,” Johnson said. “We’d help anybody that needed it…if I found out if there was a teacher that wanted to try this, heck I’d send them my files to them. No need to reinvent the wheel.”
Comments