Paper hands, colorful straws, and eager young minds filled the Boys and Girls Club in East Delmore as high school junior Logan Chow brought the wonders of the human body to life.
Representing STEM Inspire, Logan led a 45-minute interactive presentation and model-building session for approximately 30 children, ages 8 to 10, teaching them the mechanics behind how our hands move.
Logan’s passion for the subject is personal; he became interested in physical therapy after breaking his own hand. He channeled that experience into a captivating slideshow, keeping the children highly attentive as they learned fundamental anatomy. The students were thrilled to showcase their existing knowledge, proudly confirming they already knew the human body contains 206 bones.
The highlight of the event was the hands-on activity, where students collaborated to build functional mechanical hands. By tracing and cutting out their own hands on paper, the children created a base. They then used tape to attach straws to the fingers and palm to represent the skeletal structure. Finally, they threaded string through the straws to act as tendons. Logan demonstrated that pulling the strings mimics muscles pulling on tendons, which in turn pulls the bones and bends the fingers.
While the hands-on project was a massive hit, it also provided valuable learning moments for managing future workshops. The building process went slightly over the 45-minute mark, revealing that pre-cutting the straws and strings beforehand will help streamline the activity, though letting the kids cut out their own paper hands worked perfectly. Despite some initial trouble taping the straws, the children collaborated beautifully. By the end of the session, half of the kids had successfully built fully functional mechanical hands.
The event’s success resonated strongly with the Boys and Girls Club staff, who thought the interactive model was a fantastic idea and asked Logan to bring his STEM Inspire presentation to other club locations. Looking ahead, Logan plans to implement better step-by-step instructions, prepare pre-cut materials, and check in with venues on attendance numbers beforehand to ensure every future anatomist gets the personalized guidance they need.
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