We had a very special guest on Tuesday afternoon. His name was Richard and he is actually Mrs Taylor's husband.
He is special for another reason and that is because he is the first person to have this style of bionic hand in Christchurch. Isn't that incredible?! We had never met anyone with a bionic hand before.
Richard took time to explain to us how he had lost his hand in a horse feeder when he was 17 and since then has had a hook (His nickname is Hooky!). Some of us had seen that hand and we thought it was interesting but a bionic hand kinda blew our minds. He explained to us how it works, how it moves, the different settings, how it has bluetooth!, how it has to be charged at night and how he almost squashed Mrs Taylor's finger when he was first learning to use it.
His thumb is like a joystick. He also showed us how it comes off from the arm part and we spent some time asking questions. We found out that it was designed by a New Zealander and it cost between $80,000 to $85,000 to make. This blew our minds. It is also waterproof so you can get it wet. And Richard is thrilled to be able to peel potatoes now.
It was pretty cool. Everyone really wanted to have a go touching it (though some of us were a bit nervous and just watched). Check us out having a great time shaking Richard's hand.
Caption this!
Thanks so much Richard for coming in. It was super awesome to check it out.
Blogger world - We wonder what you would find the most difficult if you had a bionic hand?
Well a bionic hand lucky wish I had a bionoc hand lucky
ReplyDeleteHi Rimu Class, this is really cool, I really like that you told the interesting but tragic story. I would like to meet him sometime and his nickname "Hooky" is funny.
ReplyDeleteRegards - King From Pt England School
Hello rimu class. Wow this is incredible! I really liked reading about how a bionic hand works. How much did it cost him to buy that hand? Maybe next time you can add more writing and less pictures, but still good job.
ReplyDeleteKind Regards
Caleb, Pt England School
Hey Rimu Class, the caption for the third to last picture is: The World's Scariest Handshake
ReplyDeleteRegards - King From Pt England School
hey Rimu class, I really like your caption and it is really cool to I wish we could do that.
ReplyDeletebye from Terangimarie
Hi Rimu I really like your work keep up your good work
ReplyDeleteLucy
Kia ora Rimu and Richard,
ReplyDeleteHow fantastic that you finally have 'Hooky' - Yay!
What a great ambassador for people who have another level of difficulty to deal with in life - you are a real HERO! Really impressed that you are the first person to have one of these amazing bionic hands in Christchurch!
I bet Mrs Taylor loves that you can do more chores now! We are glad that you did not really squash her finger.
What are you looking forward to doing or trying, the most now Richard?
Bye,
Te Kākano
Hi Rimu Class,
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing to read about all the different features of Richard's hand. We were fascinated that it had bluetooth! We thought the expression on her face was funny! We think she might be thinking, "Is he going to squash my fingers?"
We were wondering, can you play music through your hand?
Things we would find the most difficult: eating with your utensils, trying to drink water with a glass cup, using NZSL, using a computer, writing - what hand do you write with? Driving - how do you grip the steering wheel when you drive? How do you use an axe to chop wood and do you still feed horses? What type of horse feeder was it? (11 students in Room 4 have horses, so we are very interested in how it happened.)
Thanks for sharing,
Room 4 @ Lochiel School
Kia Ora Rimu, My name is Denise and I am a year 6 from St Bernadette’s School, Ruma Rima. It looked really cool that your teacher’s husband (Richard) has a bionic hand. I really like how it was waterproof and it can get wet.
ReplyDeleteDoes he use it all the time? Can he do anything with it?
Sincerely,
Denise
Kia Ora Rimu Class, I’m Mark From St. Bernadette’s School. I really like how you wrote the information about Richard’s bionic hand and it also blew my mind when I saw the title: Bionic Hands. This reminded me of the Lego Bionic Hands on Youtube. The guy made it himself with no hands. He made it so he can have a hand.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and it’s so awesome that you have good posts because it’s so interesting.
Kind regards,
Mark
ReplyDeleteMy name is Siale and I am one of the students from Rūma Rima.
I thought that Richard’s bionic hand was amazing and I thought that you were very lucky to have a teacher whose husband has a bionic hand!
It was funny how Richard nearly squashed Mrs Taylor’s hand while he was learning to use it! I love the way you introduced this very enthusiastically and I thought that it was funny how some people were scared to touch Richard’s bionic hand.
To answer your question, if I had a bionic hand for a day the most difficult thing probably for me would be being able to go to the toilet.
Does Richard still have any difficulties with his bionic hand?
Kind regards,
Siale
ReplyDeleteAloha Rimu Class. My name is Shelby, I am one of the students from Rūma Rima.
I like your enthusiastic skills and how creative you are at making your posts.
I thought that you are very lucky that your teacher’s husband had a bionic hand, and I find it very interesting - especially since it has bluetooth!!
I look forward to seeing more of your work throughout the year.
Yours Sincerely,
Shelby
Kia Ora Rimu Class,
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the Title A Bionic hand I was filled with excitement. Then I saw the pictures that you put on your blog post. I was amazed to see them. I never knew that Richard was the first person in Christchurch to have that Bionic hand. I wish I could meet him in real life - it would be amazing to touch. The bionic hand is probably pretty strong going from the story Richard told your class. I hope he can tell more about it. Would you guys like to have a Bionic hand? Because I would.
Sincerely,
Kylie
Hello Rimu class,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Petelo from St Bernadette’s school and I really like Richard’s Bionic hand. This hand really reminds me of a robot. Do you know anyone else with a bionic arm?
Kind Regards,
Petelo
Kia Ora Rimu Class, my name is Talia.
ReplyDeleteI like your post about Mrs Taylor’s husband’s hand. It looks really cool. I wish I was there to see.
It looks very interesting.
How did he afford it? Does he have to keep it on all the time?
Kind Regards,
Talia
Kia ora Rimu class
ReplyDeleteThat bionic hand is really cool! How did you lose your hand on the first place and can you connect that to computers or phones? Is your hand a speaker, too? It reminds me of the doctor from the Amazing Spiderman.
See you soon.
Sincerely
Max
Hello my name is Tyler and I am a student from St Bernadette’s school, Room 5.
ReplyDeleteI like your blog post, I like that you know someone with a robot hand.
I wish I had a robot had.
How did he get his hand stuck in the horse feeder?
I’m so excited to look at more of your posts.
From Tyler
Hi Tyler thanks for commenting on Rimus blog this is how he lost his hand. He got his hand stuck in a horse feeder his sleeve got corte in it he the horse feeder was cutting hay and it caught his sleeve jacket and pulled his arm in. and he lost it to just below he elbow. Why do you want a robot hand?
Deletefrom briar
Kia Ora Rimu,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Manuk Im from St Bernadette’s school.
I wish I had a Bionic hand. You guys are so lucky that your teacher’s husband has a Bionic hand. It’s so interesting - how do you connect the bionic hand to bluetooth? Can you play videogames on it? How much can the bionic hand go in the water?
Yours sincerely,
Manuk
Kia Ora, Rimu Class! I’ve never seen anyone with a bionic hand too! It’s incredible! But it’s sad how he lost his hand. And I can’t believe he almost squashed his wife’s finger when he was learning to use it! Also it’s really cool how it’s waterproof!.
ReplyDeleteDo you like using your bionic hand?
Kind regards,
Fria.
Kia ora Rimu class, I really enjoyed your post about the bionic hand. It is so cool you were able to see the first man in Christchurch with a bionic hand. I like how the hand had bluetooth and it was very fancy. You used a lot of description about the hand and I really liked that. Do you think you would like a bionic hand rather then a normal hand?
ReplyDeleteYours sincerely,
Greer.
Annyong Rimu,
ReplyDeleteI am Tweeny from St Bernadette’s School (STB for short.) I loved reading about Mrs Taylor’s husband’s bionic hand. I couldn’t believe that it has bluetooth on his hand and that his thumb is a joystick.
Does it have to be charged and if yes how?
Can’t wait to hear more about your class!
From Tweeny.
Hi Tweeny,I'm Abby and I wanted to say thank you for commenting on our class blog. I'm glad you liked reading this blog post. I found shaking his hand felt weird. Thank you for reading this comment again. Yes it does have to be charged on his arm not his hand. Also was it a spelling mistake that you spelt Annyong, Did you mean to say something else?
DeleteThanks again,
Abby.