Building a Medical Device

Students design, build, and test a medical device that meets a customer’s needs.

Time: 150 minutes; implemented in one session

Materials:

• Pre-Activity Checklist

• Tell My Story Form

• Challenge Scoring Sheet, 1 per team for the Judge

• Computer with projector, speaker, and Internet access

• PowerPoint: Building a Medical Device

• Video: Laparoscopic Surgery: How it is done (SingJealth Nursing Conference, 2017)

• Student Handout: Building a Medical Device Challenge, 1 per student

• Student Handout: Cost of Goods Form, 1 per team

• 18 mm trocar (a surgical instrument with a three-sided cutting point enclosed in a tube)

• Timing device (mobile phone timer or stopwatch)

• 5-gallon container filled with water

• 12 small balloons filled with water

• Rulers (with mm and cm), 1 per team and 1 for the Judge

• Medical Device Challenge Materials:

  • 10–15 wooden skewers

  • 50 pipe cleaners

  • 1 bag of cotton balls (50–100 count)

  • 50 plastic straws

  • 50 plastic beads (size: 8 mm)

  • 50 wooden beads (size: 8 mm)

  • 75 rubber bands

  • 75 paper clips

  • 6 bottles of glue (e.g., Elmer’s)

  • 12 glue sticks

  • 3 rolls of electrical tape

  • 25 white labels (maximum size 1 in. x 3 in.)

  • 25 color labels (maximum size 1 in. x 3 in.)

  • 50 small stickers (circles and stars)

Cost: US$50 in materials costs when completing this activity with up to 30 students organized into teams of five students.