Engineering Prosthetics to Help Injured Animals Thrive
Rescue and Design is a wildlife engineering challenge where students investigate how injuries affect an animal’s ability to move, then design a prosthetic solution to restore mobility. Using diagnostic charts and X-rays, students explore the relationship between structure and function in marine animals, such as how fins and flippers support steering, balance, and forward motion. This scientific foundation helps students understand why an injured animal may swim in circles or struggle to propel itself.
Students then act as biomedical engineers tasked with creating a prosthetic for an injured animal in a rescue center. Working within time, budget, and material constraints, teams brainstorm, sketch, build, and test prototypes on a model animal. Their goal is to design a durable prosthetic that allows the animal to swim in a straight line while minimizing additional harm. Students iterate on their designs based on performance and conclude by reflecting on what worked, what didn’t, and how engineering can support wildlife rehabilitation.
In this design challenge, students will act as engineers to build and test cranes that can lift and move payloads at a port. By applying Newton's Three Laws of Motion, students will explore how balance, force, and motion work together to create stable and efficient cranes.
In this design challenge, students will take on the role of environmental engineers to design an innovative bubble curtain system that reduces underwater construction noise at the Port of LU.
Students will develop questions about the industry while looking at a photo of shark fins removed from living sharks, and eventually come to understand the environmental effects of shark finning.
