We are currently working on making a hand model to represent the joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments in the hand. Our progress has actually been pretty great. Last class in the maker space we figured out a clever way to represent muscle with red wire. The red wire is easily moldable and foldable. We managed to wrap muscle around the bones we made as well as putting pipe cleaners in between the bones as cartilage.
The direction our team is trying to go is to make as accurate of a hand model as possible by including the accurate ligaments, tendons and rest of the main muscle. Referencing a picture on the Physical and Occupational Therapy website we decided that using sting to
represent the tendons was the best option because we could then be able to pull the string to represent how the tendons help move the fingers.
When looking at another digram from a shared lecture presentation we managed to create the first dorsal interosseous muscle along with others. With help from the diagram we were able to get a better understand of the ligament going across the hand and decided that using a rubber band to represent that was the best choice at well.
Our end product at the end of class today looks like this:
I thought our progress the first work day was good. Making the bones was a little difficult at first and attaching the needed muscles and cartilage was a little bit of a hassle because the molding clay was so small it would tear, the wire would just go through it or the wire was just too flimsy. It was minor set back when we came back the next day to find out the clay hadn’t dried or become hard so we had to work with torn clay, no available creative resource to attach our different parts and the eyewear that always prevailed in giving us headaches but, none the less we were able to figure out a way to make our muscle stay by using pliers to put nooks in the wire to wrap around each other. This class we nearly finished having all our required elements. It was mostly two people of our group working on the model because we couldn’t have all 8 hands doing things because it wasn’t really necessary but the other members of our group were productive with other blog posts or article readings. So over all I believe The Joint Protection Project is on the road to success (if that road doesn’t include anymore maker space glasses) with our model. We just have to do a few minor touch ups and finalize our information card and we’ll be set.
StarPathDesign 
Wow! The hand model looks incredibly good and to scale, it’s really interesting how you worked with the materials you had to make the fingers and also overcome the clay- tearing problem, can feel the team spirit and resilience. Very innovating to use the wire as muscles and string as tendons. I’m excited to see the team progress. Best of Luck -Priscilla O.
I loved your honesty about the maker space glasses, and I agree with you. Also, it was a great idea to use the red wire at the muscles in the hand because of the flexibility. Your model was amazing and I love the diagram!
Maggie, being able to see your joint model during the gallery walk was amazing, the model looked really scale to a regular hand, and the red wire was a very creative idea. I loved how you could pull a string and one of the fingers bent, showing flexion, which was such a creative idea. I can really tell that you are your group put a lot of effort into the joint, and this article was very well written! The pictures and the diagram’s you put up here are very good. It was cool to hear about what you thought when making the model in the maker space, and you were right when you said that figuring out to use red wire was a great way to progress the project! Great job! – Rinda G.
Your hand joint model is mind blowing, it looks super awesome and I could even say real. I think it was so creative how you guys used the different materials provided to create your model. Just by looking at it I can see the different tissues and structures as you described. Not only that but your blog post itself was intriguing and fun to read, great job. I cant wait to read more about yall’s progress. -Mariana M.
Maggie I really liked that you explained what every thing on the model means with a lot of detail because during the presentations we didn’t have a member from your group so we didn’t really understand what was the purpose of each part such as the pipe cleaners so this really helped us understand how your model works. I also liked that you had multiple diagrams so that we could understand more of what you were talking about. Good Job!
Diana Garcia
OMG! Your model is so amazing it almost looks real. I think it was very creative of y’all to create your hand joint model out of just those materials provided, I could totally identify the different tissues. Not only that but the way you describe the progress you team has made and y’alls challenges was very well put together.
Great Job! -Mariana Monroy
OMG! Your model is so amazing it almost looks real. I think it was very creative of y’all to create your hand joint model out of just those materials provided, I could totally identify the different tissues. Not only that but the way you describe the progress you team has made and y’alls challenges was very well put together.
Great Job! -Mariana Monroy
You’re model is very creative and is still very accurate at the same time. I’m glad you used your critical thinking to solve that whole clay problem. My team had similar problems with the clay too, so I understand your struggle. I also love your honesty in this post, I think we all can relate to the difficulties we had in the maker space. -Julia Mendoza