This fall, Penn State Berks engineering students in the college’s Futures in Engineering: Role-models Can Empower (FiERCE) student organization worked with area high school students and the Berks County Intermediate Unit to make toys more accessible for children with special needs.
Members of FiERCE, a mentorship group, met with high school students to examine the toys they planned to adapt.
The students brainstormed ways to make the toys more accessibly to physically disabled children, focusing on three button-activated toys: a singing chicken, a light-up penguin and the Muppet character Animal, officials said in a release.
“This project…allowed us to extend the idea of the importance of inclusivity and empathy in engineering to not only our students, but to the next generation of students.” Marietta Scanlon, associate teaching professor of engineering, EMET program chair, and faculty adviser for FiERCE, said in a release.
Under the guidance of FiERCE, high school students reverse-engineered the toys’ electronics and developed a second operating control outside of the toy. Accessibility was improved with a larger, easier to use button design.
The college students then created molds to mass-produce the toy parts, and 3D printed some of the parts at the Berks LaunchBox in the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading.
“My favorite part of this project has been interacting with the kids,” said Kira Corrie, a first-year electro-mechanical engineering technology major. “It’s been great to mentor them and help fully actualize their ideas.”
The project was initiated by Katie Kehm, a program administrator at the BCIU who was introduced to the idea when visiting the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit.
“I had seen these students adapting tools for special needs students and I loved the idea,” Kehm explained. “I have a science background, so I brought in some colleagues with special education backgrounds to see what we could do.”
BCIU students also participated in the project. While Penn State Berks students oversaw the high school students’ soldering and assembly work, BCIU students assisted with the testing, sewing, bagging and tagging of the toys to prepare them for distribution.
Once completed, dozens of toys will be gifted to students with special needs in Berks, with the first batch going to Antietam students in light of the region’s catastrophic summer flooding.
Other toys will be gifted to BCIU students as well as students at Twin Valley and Governor Mifflin, the pilot schools for this project.
“We’re helping these high schoolers build their STEM skill sets,” said Lucas Hall, a third-year mechanical engineering student. “I’ve really enjoyed watching them tackle this project.”
Penn State Berks offers baccalaureate degrees in electro-mechanical engineering technology and mechanical engineering. For more information about FiERCE, contact Scanlon at mrs35@psu.edu.
Source: Berkshire mont
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