A limb from Lego

It's amazing what you can build out of Lego. But … an arm?! This video shows us that anything is possible …

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. You can also read the transcript.

Transcript

David: When I was a kid I always played with Lego. I built cars, planes, motorbikes. But now, I built an arm.

Narrator: Meet David Aguilar.

David: My name is David Aguilar. I am from Andorra, and I'm 18 years old.

Narrator: When David was born, his right arm hadn't fully developed.

David: This is the … my right arm. When I was growing up, it was quite annoying because I received a lot of *commentaries (comments) like, 'Oh, you don't have a hand', or something like that.

Narrator: And while some would see this as a disadvantage, David is just a regular kid. He likes EDM. He goes by the name Hand Solo – get it?! He has an embarrassing dad, he goes to school …

David: This is my school.

Narrator: … and he can open doors with his Lego arm. So cool! Growing up, he was obsessed with Lego. So much so, he wanted to make it a part of him – literally.

David: I built my first prosthetic arm when I was nine years old, and I built it around my hand. It started (off) being a boat.

Narrator: Unfortunately, the Lego bricks weren't strong enough, and it wasn't for another nine years till he would try again.

David: This is MK1. This is Lego Technic. It's like the sophisticated part of Lego. I can do push-ups with this thing, so it's quite strong. When I first built the arm and it was fully functional, I went to the mirror and I was like, 'Uugh, er!'

Narrator: That model, the MK1, only took five days to build. Of course, like any good inventor, he got straight to work on an upgrade.

David: And this is MK2. It has a battery that works like a biceps, and it has this fishing cable that ties up in here. When I fix this to my shoulder, I can do this [demonstrates] and the arm closes. I can stop in the middle and move it by myself.

When I first brought this (into school), they were all really amazed because how can somebody create a hand out of Lego? I was a normal guy, and when I built the arm everyone was like, 'You're awesome, you're really smart.' They told me they are really proud to be my friends. It's amazing.

Task 1

Video zone: A limb from Lego – 1

Task 2

Video zone: A limb from Lego – 2

Discussion

What do you think of David's device? What would you build out of Lego?

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Worksheet109.06 KB

Language level

Upper intermediate: B2

While I'm watching David's story, I understand repeatedly that our most important treasure is health. It looks like very creative and genius. And he also seem to manage this deficiency. I conragulate him. I didnt play so much so with Lego. But always it attracts me. When I have a child, I want to play with him.

I reckon that he is a creatives, genius and smat guy, David´s has the world in his devices.

Genius idea, this kid creates unconsciously a new type of makers " do human lamb yourself " with only lego. Unbelievable !

I think that this person is very intelligent and isn't lazy because he does his arm when he was 9 years is very Amazing

I think that the invention is a fantastic idea: cheap, useful, and can potentially help many people all around the world.

To me David's device is a breed of sophisticated development that's amazing and it's welcome. I would built car out of Lego.

He is amazing. What he has achieved is just fantastic. Not the physical barriers, but the mental barriers are what stopping a person from achieving something. Coming to me, i haven't heard the word Lego in the past. Now, i'll see what can i do with it.

I think that every thing is possible if you had the motivation

David's artificial device is impressive, because, he built it with one hand and it seems very useful and functional. It is obvious that he has obvious creative skills and inventor soul by seeing his excellent device.

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