8th grade students create 3-D printed prosthetic leg for duck

It might be time for Peg the duck to get a new name.

Peg was given the moniker when his owner, Patsy Smith of Mississippi County, Arkansas, found him shortly after he was born. Peg was missing one of his feet, and Smith believes it was probably chewed off by a turtle. Peg struggled with getting around, and Smith put out a call for help, which was answered in September by eighth graders Abby Simmons, Matthew Cook, and Darshan Patel of Armorel High School.

The students are part of Armorel's EAST Lab, and facilitator Alicia Bell told KAIT they were "looking into ways of creating sophisticated creations with our 3-D printer and we saw that we could do just that for a duck. Animals bring everyone together, and this was just a great way to show how work in the classroom can impact real life." It took lots of trial and error, and after 30 attempts, they were able to create a prosthetic that worked for Peg, now eight months old. Peg is able to walk and run like the average duck, and Smith said she is "just so grateful that there are people that truly care and they have gone out of their way to do all they can to make it as comfortable for the duck." Catherine Garcia

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