When my teacher told my class that we were to build a working prosthetic arm that could pick up multiple cups with different diameters, I thought it was crazy to ask a few high school students to take on the challenge but I was up for it. The group I was in was a great group of hardworking students which I learned in order to be successful you have to have a group surrounding you that will support you and want you to succeed. In this project I learned tools to help me become a better leader and to become more resilient in my work.

My group in building the project was all very indecisive on how to start the project and when which forced me to come out of my comfort zone and take on the role of being a leader. This small leadership role taught me that communication is a major factor in a successful groups, as well as the importance of being able to have control over the situation without being a controlling person because the line is very thin and can easily be crossed. Building this prosthetic arm defiantly taught me how to be resilient because my group failed many times before we succeed. The most difficult part was building a hand that had the right angles, right amount of grip and the right amount of force to grab the cup. Our group went through many different hand prototypes and multiple different materials to make our hand out of and in the end we ended up going with a cardboard base which straws to a grip.

This project was extremely important to me because it taught me so much about the design process by actually experiencing it rather than just learning it but, it also taught me about the importance of being resilient even when you think a project just is not going to work.  Building a prosthetic arm caused me to understand the difficulties that come with trying to build a prosthetic arm and the factors you have to consider when designing it like look, comfort and functionality.

This experience brought me way out of my comfort zone not only physically like learning to use power tools but also in a internal discomfort in the fact that I had to come out of my comfort zone and become a leader but also have to gain the mental strength to take on a project that was going to be extremely difficult to complete and was going to have many failed prototypes before creating a successful product. This experience set me apart for others by the fact that it gave me a hands on experience to the design world but also, gives me a background into the world of prosthesis and their importance.