Westtown School students make prosthetic hands for children

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (WPVI) -- What were you doing during the spring of your senior year in high school?

Chances are you weren't making prosthetic hands with a 3D printer for two children born with only one.

But that's exactly what some seniors are doing at the Westtown School in West Chester.

For Steele Songle and Joy Baffone, having one hand hasn't been too much of a barrier.

But there are some childhood basics that have been a challenge,.

"Monkey bars, jumping rope, things like that," Joy's mother Kathleen Baffone said.

Students at the Westtown School are changing that.

In their design engineering class, they've created robotic prosthetic hands for the youngsters.

The idea came from Steele's mom, who works at the school.

When she heard the school was getting a 3D printer, she asked the engineering teacher if he wants to make a hand.

"He thought I was kidding," Ellen Songle said.

But the students enthusiastically took up the project.

They thought it would be a snap; they could just use an existing design they found online.

That's when they learned that science isn't always predictable.

"We thought we'd just be able to print the hand, put it on Steele, and be done," student designer Xan Lorimer said.

Steele couldn't use a wrist-action device, he's getting an electronic version, with electrodes he'll activate with his muscles.

While they were working on Steele's hand, they heard about Joy and decided to make a hand for her, too.

The project has taken more than a year with the team often working into the night to make the hands work as close as possible to a human one.

Today, Joy tried hers for the first time, by picking up a ball.

The final version of Steele's hand needs more work, but his mother said he was amazed with the test model.

"He is just thrilled to be able to hold a golf club with two hands, to tie his shoes, to jump rope," Ellen Songle said.

The designers made the hand for about $200 and they've posted the designs online, so others can build them too.