Mechatronics Students Modify Toys for Kids

Annual Project Benefits Children at Lifescape

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Some elves are helping out Santa ahead of Christmas.

It’s just like Santa’s workshop in this classroom at Southeast Tech.

Mechatronics students and their instructor are hard at work getting toys ready for kids at Lifescape.

“What we do, we take small, battery operated electric toys that have an on/off switch and we are going to modify it and add a remote port so they can hook an external switch to it,” mechatronics instructor Bryan Cox said.

“I always wanted to work with my hands but it’s more technical,” student Dawson Sechser said.

Students are taking the skills they’ve learned in class and applying that knowledge to take apart the toy.

“They’ve learned the soldering skills and then the trouble shooting skills to find out where the switch is and how it works so that we can rewire it so it ties into what they’ve done, a lot of their first year classes they learned a lot of basic electronics,” Cox said.

Originally the bubble blower was activated by an on/off button, now simply by pushing down this switch that is now attached to the toy, it will turn on.

“Children with special needs, if they can operate a button in any kind of way, maybe it’s an oversized button they push or even like a chin switch, we can even hook it up so if they breathe it will be operated that way so that they can turn this toy on and interact and play with it,” Cox said.

The toys will be ready by Christmas Day. And now more holiday cheer will be spread thanks to this partnership.

“It’s easy to find toys that you like but if you can’t play with them I’m sure it’s a bit of a bummer, so it’s nice to modify them so kids can play with them,” Sechser said.

Cox said in the past, students have worked with Lifescape to modify power wheel type cars for kids, by adding things like supports, straps, and relocating the on and off button. He says that’s a little bit more of an in depth project.

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