Prostheses for people: matching the person and their new limb

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Engineering.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of mechanical engineers Professor Laurence Kenney and Dr Alex Dickinson who are working with people in different parts of the world to make prostheses as accessible and useful as possible.
• This resource also contains interviews with Laurence and Alex. If you or your students have a question for them, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. They will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Laurence and Alex’s research, and tasks them to explore the range of roles prosthetics research depends on.
• The animation summarises Laurence and Alex’s research in an engaging and accessible way.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

If you like these free resources – or have suggestions for improvements –, please let us know and leave us some feedback. Thank you!