Like most things during the COVID-era, our annual SciMatch classroom “visit” went virtual. One silver lining was that we were paired with a great middle school group based in Mt. Airy, NC, much further away than our normal classroom visits.
We talked about the soft tissues in the knee, why they’re important, and how our lab is trying to improve treatment when they’re damaged. Then we had them “3D print” a meniscus using WikiStix. The next day we gave them all an actual 3D printed meniscus mold that they filled with polyacrylate powder(InstaSnow) to get an idea for how we can use 3D printing in biomedical engineering to make a custom meniscus designed especially for a patient.
The WikiStix menisci
The Scenario: (Why do we want to make a customized meniscus?)
Checking out the kids’ InstaSnow menisci