Using engineering to treat phantom limb pain

Suitable for secondary, high school and college students, this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, school clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 engineering, biology and ICT.

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

• Imagine losing your left arm, but months later you experience pain in your left hand, even though it is no longer there. This is known as phantom limb pain, the painful sensations amputees feel in their missing limbs. Dr Katharine (Katie) Polasek is an associate professor of engineering at Hope College in the US. Katie and her team are using their engineering skills to find innovative ways to relieve phantom limb pain.

• This resource also introduces the field of neural engineering and offers career pathways from school to a career in this field.

• There is an interview with Katie about her career path. If your students (or you) have questions for Katie, you/they can send them to her online. All you need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Katie will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) and activities to prompt students to reflect on Katie’s research.

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).

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