Calavera Hills Middle School (Carlsbad) has a Design and Modeling class, lead by Mr. Aaron Sottile. The class emphasizes the design process using principles of project-based learning. They recently completed their first project. They had to design an Ankle Foot Orthotic (AFO) brace for a child with cerebral palsy. They were not allowed to see what a real AFO brace looked like. The students stepped up to the challenge and they got creative. They made one out of pool noodles, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, elastic bands, glue guns Etc.
Melissa Haider, MPT with Haider Pediatric
Physical Therapy, spoke to the class about what Cerebral Palsy is and why people with it may need a brace. Part of the emphasis of this class is to design and create with empathy
in mind. To help students with this, Melissa Haider collaborated with their teacher Mr. Sottile and held an Ability Awareness which included participation from OT, PT, AT, and APE.
