Gracie's Bike Riding Prosthetic

Gracie Marvin is a 7 year old girl at Willis D. Shaw Elementary who was born without part of her arm. She is a regular girl and can do all most anything, but one thing was always a struggle: Riding her bike.

Students in the EAST program, Environmental and Spacial Technology, at Gracie's school and at The Don Tyson School of Innovation came together to make this girl's dream come to life by designing her a 3-d printed attachment that would slide onto her bike so she can balance and steer without training wheels.

Leah Marvin, a 5th grader and Gracie's cousin, was a big part of this project. She recognized that Gracie was having a hard time riding her bike. She and Steicy Lopez, a 9th grader at School of Innovation worked on designs and made measurements.

The students designed the final attachment on Fusion 360 which is a program that professionals use in the industry. The first design was hand drawn on paper than brought to Tinker Cad a website for 3-d design. On Fusion 360 they created to designs. The first one fit Gracie's arm perfectly, but wasn't sturdy enough and easily broke. The next design was very comfortable and was strong enough to hold up Gracie's weight.

Students have came across many problems, but it paid off. Gracie recently received her bike riding arm along with a new bike.