Your body moves when muscles pull on the bones through ligaments and tendons. Ligaments attach the bones to other bones, and the tendons attach the bones to the muscles.


If you place your relaxed arm on a table, palm-side up, you can get the fingers to move by pushing on the tendons below your wrist. We’re going to make a real working model of your hand, complete with the tendons that move the fingers! Are you ready?


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38 Responses to “Robotic Hand”

  1. I’ll have someone contact you right away, Laurie!

  2. Laurie De Courcy-Bower says:

    Would love access ASAP. This is the first unit we are trying…was hoping to start tomorrow but didn’t realize I don’t have access. Fingers crossed won’t take long to get access. Help please! 🙂

  3. No – you can use any color you like!

  4. Laura Walters says:

    do you need colored straws? thx:)

  5. Melody Konkel says:

    🙂

  6. Melody Konkel says:

    thanks fore showing me it is so cool 🙂

  7. Your muscles, ligaments and tendons actually are along the surfaces of the feet. Inside the bones you have a soft tissue called marrow.

  8. Malcolm Smith says:

    Hi Aurora,
    Are your tendons inside your bones?
    From Briar.

  9. Wow – that’s amazing! 🙂 Nice idea!

  10. Michelle Stevens says:

    Oh, and since I did it with a kid-sized hand, the whole thing fit in a latex glove! It now looks a lot like a prosthetic hand 🙂

  11. Michelle Stevens says:

    I used paracord instead of nylon string, and the hand works really well! I was pleased that it flexed and moved well. Thanks for the experiment, Aurora! 🙂

  12. Crystal Burling says:

    I remember that we made this in my 3rd grade classes of homeschool science class.
    it was fun but I cant remember it. I would like to make it again. thanks for the idea! 🙂

  13. Do you mean supply kits per topic in the e-Science program? If so, the quick answer is no, but the longer answer is sort of. You’ll want to look at the Science Mastery programs for more detail, and also check out the conversion between the two to see what the difference is.

  14. Louise Sullivan says:

    Hi Aurora
    Do you sell topic supply kits?

  15. Theresa Mary says:

    🙂

  16. I’ll have my team connect with you right away!

  17. shonte session says:

    I am interested in having my boys try this robotic hand. Will we have to wait a certain amount of time, before we can access it?

  18. I’ll have my team connect with you right away!

  19. Belma Marshall says:

    Hi Aurora, I just finally got started using the Life Science Unit 16 and noticed that it is meant for older kids. When I tried to access the Life Science through the grade levels for 2nd or 5th grade, I was denied access. Is there a way that I can have access to the life science units for lower elementary instead of the higher levels?

    Thanks,
    Belma

  20. Hmm.. I am not sure. Can you send an image or video so I can make a suggestion?

  21. Michelle Palmer says:

    Hi Aurora,

    This is cool. I tried picking things up with the hand I made but I notice the thumb moves up to meet the index finger. I have all my fingers & thumb going down towards the wrist. I’m wondering how to make it where the thumb can go up towards the fingers to grab things but where the string doesn’t get in the way. Do you have any ideas?

  23. Jodi Schreiber says:

    I think the first sentence needs a little revision, Should it say, “Your body moves when the muscles…” We were a little confused at first.

    What a fun, educational project! Thanks!

  24. Luila Barber says:

    wow this is so cool
    don’t try to pick up anything breakable 😉

    Sophia

  25. You can use yarn or cotton string (I think it was cotton string in the video).

  26. Aar Sumardiono says:

    What kind of string is this?

  27. jennifer lutz says:

    The robotic hand is a vary simple experiment to do very cool

  28. Antonio Macias says:

    I think that the robotic hand is a really cool thing to do. now that you do it you can understand how your hands work!!

  29. Taunya Richards says:

    We tried this today! Couple things we wanted to note for others.

    When Aurora says use a razor, do it! My son was convinced that we could use a pocket knife…ya, not so much.

    We used yarn. I don’t think I’d recommend it. It is tough to pull…and the yarn kept fraying.

    Overall, it was a good lesson for the girls to understand our bones and muscles!

  30. Lorelei Grecian says:

    Thanks.

  31. I think so – try it and see! 🙂 And send me a picture so I can post it to the website!

  32. Lorelei Grecian says:

    I forgot to ask… my pinky on my left hand has four notches instead of three. Will it work if i make four notches?

  33. Lorelei Grecian says:

    So the bigger you make the notches the farther the finger bends? This is such a cool experiment. I want to make it so it can grab things.

  34. Lydia Fancher says:

    I can make the news paper VERY stiff

  35. You’ll want to look at the projects listed under the ‘advanced’ tab – those are first-prize winners if you do them well. 🙂

  36. Sure – try it! Make sure it’s stiff enough to withstand a pull from a rubber band without tearing.

  37. Stephanie Mayo says:

    Hi Aurora,
    I had the advanced e-science which I paid for a whole year, now I have the k-8 but my older kids are doing anatomy and need a science fair project they can do for anatomy do you have any suggestions? I thought the robotic hand might be good but I currently don’t have access to it. Can you please help?
    Thanks,
    Stephanie Mayo

  38. Lydia Fancher says:

    what if I don’t have cardboard? can I glue news paper together?