Can We Use Science To Improve It

1. Can We Use Science To Improve It BY CURTIS BAILEY Scientific Concept Ergonomics

2. Scientific Principle: Ergonomics • The Meaning: Ergonomics derives from two Greek words: Ergon, meaning work, and Nomoi, meaning natural laws. Combined they create a word that means the science of work and a person’s relationship to that work. • (Ex): I need crutches at school as do others for injured leg.

3. Concept Question How do crutches work? Function and Causation Questions are Made!!

4. Function

5. Function Questions!!!! 1st line of inquiry Crutches work with people with different needs 5 W(s) in the question 1. How have crutches helped us? 2. How crutches are ergonomically designed? 3. What crutches are made out of? 4. How have crutches changed from How they used to be? 5. What makes crutches comfortable? 6. How do crutches allow you to distribute your weight?

6. 1st Line of Inquiry • Crutches work with different people with different needs

7. 1. How have crutches helped us? • Crutches have helped us heaps. They help you get around when you have an injured leg. Crutches have helped when you can’t put any weight on your foot if you have injured it. It makes it put the weight on the crutches. The crutches have helped keep your balance. If you had only one crutch it would be un even and wouldn’t be as easy as if you had 2.

8. 1. How have crutches helped us? • More than 7 million people in the world use crutches. That means crutches have helped over 7 million people with leg injuries. That’s a lot of people.

9. 2. How crutches are ergonomically designed? • Are designed for comfort for when someone is injured. The ergonomical things of crutches are: • The rubber bit on the top: It makes it more comfy for under your armpits. • The rubber hand bit: Instead of having it bare you have a soft bit for your hands to go. • The different sizes for you: It makes you more comfy when you have them so they fit your size. The shape of the crutches: The shape of the rubber bit is specially designed for you to be comfortable when you walk with them. Also it is tapered at the bottom. Where you put the sizes up and down.

10. 2. How crutches are ergonomically designed? • The balance of it as well. It gets tapered because of the balance. It is also because it has a small width and a tall height. It is only like that because if you had a fat height and a thing width you wouldn’t be able to walk with it. You wouldn’t be able to walk with them. The tapered bit is also for the centre of gravity to help you balance.

11. 3. What are crutches made out of? • There are heaps of different crutches and heaps of materials that make crutches. These are the most common materials crutches are made out of. • Aluminium. Aluminium crutches are the most common crutches these days. • Wood. There are still a lot of crutches made out of wood. These different materials are the most common materials. Today. • There is also rubber on the crutches. The rubber being the underarm part the handgrip and the stopper at the bottom.

12. 4. How have crutches changed from what they used to be? • Crutches have changed a lot from what they used to be. Such as what they are made out of. They used to be made out of wood. But these days they are made out of aluminium. Aluminium is a type of metal. Some are still made out of wood as you know. But aluminium is better and lighter. Some wood crutches don’t have grips on them. But most do and the grip is made out of rubber. Rubber is made out of all different materials.

14. 5. What makes crutches comfortable? • Crutches are not really comfortable. But the height of the crutches is. You can adjust the height to how tall you are. Since crutches aren’t all comfortable I have some ideas that could make them comfy. For instance, you could have some flat pillows on the top of the crutches. Preferably a really thin fleece pillow. You could also wrap a really small blanket around the hand grips for comfyness.

15. 5. What makes crutches comfortable? • You could have rubber on the outside of the crutch. It could cover the whole thing except for the screws or the height adjustment. I think by covering the crutch in rubber it will make it less sore for you to bang into someone or yourself. Or the other option is that you get someone to make a mould for crutches. The you stand next to the device and it will measure and determine what height you need. Or what width you need. You could use memory foam for the moulds.

16. 5. What makes crutches comfortable? • Then you could send that foam to a workshop so they can make a crutch or crutches to sustain what you require. Then if you wanted you could add in some extras to make it more comfy for you. The extras would include. Some special handgrips for people who use them all the time. The handgrips could be made out of a rubber. The top part of the crutch could be made out of a rubber. If you wanted to change the height you could have a flap from that part to change it. Same with changing the hand size.

17. 5. What makes crutches comfortable? • Here is a diagram on both options. Diagram shown on papers. There could also be a pedometer to see how much weight you distribute on your injured leg if you are allowed to. That will be price at $200.99c. If you were to buy the pedometer there would be a feature where it would change colour if you were only aloud to put half weight on or above or less. It would change colour where the top of the height adjustment place where the device would go. There is a key to the diagram. It is a colour coded.

18. Entertainment I need 2 volunteers to do a little test to prove you need the right height if you need crutches.

19. Causation

20. Causation Questions 1. What could improve the crutches weight? 2. How can crutches be easier to store? 3. What will the cushion be made out of 4. How have crutches evolved? 5. How long has man used crutches?

21. 2nd Line of Inquiry!!!! • Crutches are different then how they used to be

22. 1. What could improve the crutches weight? • To improve the weight of a crutch or crutches you need to have different weight materials. You could make a crutch out of plastic. The plastic. The plastic would have to be a thick plastic. Or some of the options are to make there be less aluminium on the crutch. Some could be aluminium and some of the crutch could be plastic. But most f it would be made out of aluminium. Like the inside of the crutch could be plastic and there would be a thin layer of aluminium. The handle where you hand goes could be made out of a pillow to make everything lighter. The screws could also be made out of plastic. I think that this will make the crutch lighter.

23. 2. How can crutches be easier to store? • To make crutches easier to store there could be a contraption. Where you could turn it and the crutch would fold down to about a quarter sizes. It would have to be on 5 ft 10 on any crutches or the tallest your crutches go. It will be very quick to fold it down. Then you could have a case to hold them in if you’re not using them. (If your I a wheelchair). Then there could be this feature where there is a handle on the case. Diagram is shown on papers.

24. 3. How long has man used crutches? • Crutches go all the way back to when caveman were around. Crutches started off when a caveman had a stick to hold onto. They would use that to put weight on the stick. Crutches (walking stick) were patented by Emile Schlick in 1917. The walking stick had a support for the upper arm to rest on. Then she did another version where you can adjust the height.

25. FUNNY

26. 4. How have crutches evolved? • Crutches have evolved heaps over the years. There are 5 different types of crutches. The names are. Forearm crutches, Underarm crutches, Strutters, Platform and the leg support crutches.

27. 4. How have crutches evolved? • Forearm Crutches: Forearm crutches are crutches with a cuff at the top to go around the forearm. That is why they are called Forearm crutches.

28. 4. How have crutches evolved? • Underarm Crutches: Underarm crutches are crutches with grip under the arms and on the handle. They are made out of rubber. They never used to have grip. These crutches are mostly used for temporary injuries. These are the types of crutches I have. PICTURE NEXT PAGE!!

30. 4. How have crutches evolved? • Strutters: These are a variation of underarm crutches with large soles that remain flat on the floor or the ground.

31. 4. How have crutches evolved? • Leg Support: These are non-traditional crutches and are useful for when you have a disability with a lower leg. It straps the leg into a support frame which keeps it off the ground

32. 5. What will the cushion for the diagram be made out of? • There are all different types of pillows that are flat. There is the foam pillow. The good thing about the foam pillows is you can cut them down to size. Feather Pillows: Feather pillows are the softest pillows for the category of pillows. The last type of pillow is the memory foam pillow Memory Foam Pillow: This is the simplest to make and it is quite comfy. The good thing about a memory foam pillow is that you can spray the pillows onto the crutch. That is why I have chosen memory foam pillows for the crutch on the diagram.

33. Bibliography!! • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ergonomics • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crutch • http://www.fitfeet.com/strutter.phtml • http://ergonomics.about.com/od/glossary/g/defergonomics.htm • http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2000360 • www.crutch.com

34. By curtis Bailey THE END!!!!!