Students Build Working Paper Hands to Explore Anatomy

During the ESBOCES Summer Enrichment Program held within the Central Islip UFSD, students spent their time focused on academics and fun STEAM activities. Most recently, they constructed paper hands to learn about biomechanics.

Visiting biology teacher Damon Rentz gave a presentation that explained how the hand works and the role of skin, bones and tendons. Every student then used craft supplies to build a working model of a hand with paper depicting the skin, straws representing the bones, and string being used as tendons.

Students folded and creased their paper hands at each joint so they would bend correctly, glued straw segments of various sizes between those joints, and laced string through every straw. They gathered the string together at the wrist and gently pulled the strings to move and flex the fingers.

Said Rentz, “Bone for bone – excluding the wrist – this is an accurate model of a human hand and how it works with its 19 bones. In fact, you can even pull different strings to make the hand perform different gestures, such as the ‘ok’ sign using the thumb and index finger.”