Hi, I'm Bianca from Design Squad Global.

We're at the WGBH Studio at the Boston Public Library for an engineering event.

Have you ever had trouble reaching something up high, like a book on a shelf?

Today, my friends and I are going to build something to help solve this problem.

It's called a helping hand.

Helping hands are assistive devices.

An assistive device is a device that makes it easier for you to do something that you would otherwise have trouble doing.

We'll work in groups of two to design and build.

BOY: And also have another piece so it doesn't break while...

BOY: Our helping hands need two things: a long handle and a gripping device that can hold a book without dropping it.

GIRL: We all started with the same basic design for our helping hands.

We laid out the paint stirrers like giant scissors and used metal fasteners to make the paint stirrers into levers.

These levers are straight, stiff bars that turn on points called fulcrums.

Levers make work much easier for us.

When we closed the handle on one end, applying a force, the arms came together on the other end and helped us to move a load, to pick up a book.

All right, it kind of works.

We're going to make rigid hands with these.

So we've made this, but these ends will not be able to grab books by themselves, because they're just wood.

So we'll need something that's kind of rubbery, but also rigid.

So we decided on cardboard hands that are in a shape of, almost like a claw, and they're inside the gloves, and so when they close, it will actually grab, like two hands coming together.

I've never put a fake hand inside a real glove before.

We're planning to attach blades to the ends of each stick.

Right here, it's really, really narrow.

It won't be able to pick up any books.

We're also thinking about putting some tape, like, rolled-up tape, on the front of this, so it'd stick to the book.

BIANCA: Here's our design, the Scissor Snickle, and here is how it works.

BOY: So basically, this string connects to this so that we can pull it over here, clamping down on it.

These two pieces of sandpaper are there for grip.

BIANCA: And this piece of sandpaper is thick and grippy, perfect to take the shape of the book and grab it nice and tight.

Okay, let's do our test.

BIANCA: All right, let's go.

Here we go.

We got the book.

It works!

BOY: It works!

I'm going to put it back.

GIRL: It doesn't work.

No, it's because these blades are mismatched.

BOY: It's fine, I'll do it again.

GIRL: No, it actually doesn't work for a reason-- because these two are very mismatched.

Right here, it's too bendy.

We need more tape.

BOY: We're using an accordion design.

And for the grips, we have balloons right here that are taped on.

Then we have sandpaper that's taped on to kind of grip the book when we pick it up.

GIRL: Whoo!

So this is our design, the Handyman Grabber.

So we started with these cardboard hands that were supposed to have the gloves on them, but we ran into some trouble there because we couldn't actually get the gloves on the hands.

They were too rigid.

GIRL: To make a grip, we cut a glove and put it on some foam, and then put the foam on a paint stick.

You ready to test?

BOY: Yup.

Here we go.

Ta-da!

GIRL: She did it!

I think our design is great, but if we had more time, I think we would try to make these stirrers a little less wobbly.

GIRL: I'd probably use a different material than paint sticks, something that probably wouldn't bend or break.

Many libraries have engineering and maker events just like these.

Check the events calendar at your local public library.

If you want to build a helping hand, check out the Design Squad Global website.

ALL: Design Squad Global!

(cheering and laughing)