Sisters HS class em-barks on project to create prosthetic leg for teacher’s dog
(Update: Adding video, comment from teacher, students, prosthetist)
SISTERS, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A class at Sisters High School is taking on a unique final project: Building a prosthetic leg for their teacher's dog.
“This is Ralston Franco Chinchen, also known as Rally,” Jason Chinchen, the classes’ teacher said Monday as he introduced the dog. “I rescued him from the Yakima pound about four years ago.”
Rally is a calm and fairly affectionate pound dog, with one defining trait.
“Apparently, he was running wild and he got hit by a car, and the people tied him up, so he chewed his foot off,” Chinchen told NewsChannel 21.
Rally can get around a room, but he’s obviously limited. So Chinchen, an career technical education teacher at Sisters High School, is asking his students to help him.
“When I started teaching this engineering class, it just dawned on me that it might be a really fun project, and the kids might be able to use their engineering and design skills that they’ve been learning all semester,” he said.
So the class's project will be to design, prototype and build a prosthetic leg for Rally.
Junior Elana Mansfield said, “I just thought it was a really great opportunity, and something we could do for the school, and do for other people and other dogs. And bringing back some of his mobility is just a nice plus.”
The class brought in certified prosthetist/orthotist Matt Keirstead from Summit Medical to help guide them.
“Potentially, we could take advantage of any flare, for lack of a better term, above where the socket goes,” Keirstead said during his presentation.
And the students are thrilled for the real-world experience.
Freshman Cooper Merrill said, “It’s important to have a real application, where we are actually going to change something in the world.”
Fellow first-year Stepan Myagkov added, “It’s awesome to have a dog around, play around with it, check all of the measurements. Now we’re putting together the mold.”
There’s only two weeks left in the class, but Chinchen wants to keep the momentum going.
“We’re hoping we can make this a thing we do in the future, with all of my design and engineering classes,” he said.
Next up: Chinchen's other three-legged dog, Charlie.
