Monash Tech School was a fascinating place, where each day we were discovering knowledge bit by bit. When my class was given the opportunity to go there, I wondered in my head the experiences I would have. As the exciting day arrived, we travelled on a bus, it wasn’t far, though there was quite a lot of traffic. My class entered this beautiful
building - long stairs surrounded the place and rooms filled with delight. We walked in the room seeing a woman, her name was Chava and she introduced us to the tasks we
were going to do throughout the three days - Research, Empathy and Ideation. Besides Chava there was a man called Robbie, who seemed bright and energetic. We were
allocated to be in groups. I was in the “Hand team” and the other groups were the Eye, Kidney, and Heart groups. My team members were Jastina, Jake, Francais, Alexis and
Sathwik. During the introduction part of the day we began to research different patients, who experienced having a wearable, bionic or implant device. Then afterwards, our group was given an assignment to jot down our objective point of view, on what we predict the future looks like and problems that are affecting earth. These task was a lot of fun and it was great learning new things.
The next day at Monash Tech School I was curious to find out what was in store, as when we entered the cold, sizeable room, there were activities prepared. It was empathy day, which is where each team has activities involving their team name. My group, the “Hand team”, were given different objects for the hand. The testing was really fun, to learn about how people felt wearing special types of gloves and to experience the stiffness of their hands when diagnosed with something. Later that day my group and I were told that we had to make a device that helps people with their hands, so we created a simple design. It was called “The Helping Glove”.
The last day was the most exciting and sad day! As we arrived back at Monash Tech School we were allocated to finish our prototype, but unfortunately my team, the hand, were unable to complete the task because we didn’t have enough time to finish the prototype. Our creative prototype was named “The Helping Glove”, and it was specifically designed to help our patient with arthritis. He was a male gardener at the age of 50 years old but he was diagnosed with age-related arthritis in his hands. On cold days his hand starts to flare up, causing him to have difficulties when working so we had to figure out a way to solve his problem. We figured out an excellent design, a glove that can heat up and release a pain relief gel into the joints. Therefore, this device is predicted to help many people, not just our patient. The hours went by, and I thought once I leave this place I will really miss the good times here. The last two hours came, and we had to present our prototype ideas to the class and also the teachers. I was nervous as this was my first time presenting to a new crowd. We explained different difficulties that we had with the project and the ideas that we came up with. It was time to go, but I wished I could have stayed longer. I waved goodbye to the lovely lady at the receptionist’s desk and breathed in the significant memories I had. The three astonishing days were a great opportunity, and as I cherished the moment, I walked out of there smiling.
This was originally published in the 2nd Edition of Wellington Jounal, (News from Wellington Secondary College), and was shared by Shanelle Andrew, Science Curriculum Area Leader.
