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Theoretical knowledge is important in all disciplines, but practical knowledge is of utmost importance in many of them, such is the case in engineering, medicine, and architecture. In most of these majors’ instructors focus more on the theoretical area and set aside the practical one. That is why it is important to develop educational tools to improve students’ practice. Medical students at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México were our case of study since we noticed a lack of practical knowledge during their second year at University. In this paper, we present a design methodology of a toy for the students of medicine to exercise and improve their manual precise movements and motor sequencing skills, in order to improve their practical abilities by using it. This methodology emphasizes the importance of specific movements that surgeons do while they perform basic surgical procedures, intending to imitate them when they use the toy. Therefore, procedures like cutting, suturing, exposure, among others were performed by a surgeon, recorded, and analyzed. As a result, it was observed that some movements were repeated in most of the procedures. Based on this, a device was designed so that the user may be able to repeat the movements following a series of audiovisual instructions as a game. To validate its efficiency manual precision tests were used to compare the individual students’ improvement before and after using it. Once the device was built as a toy, 12 second-year medical students took the precision tests, the measured variable was the time they used to complete both tests. Furthermore, they practiced with the toy for 10 days, 6 minutes per day. On the last day, after using it, each student performed the precision tests once again to obtain a quantitative value of their improvement. The time spent by each student to perform the first precision tests were compared to the last after using the toy. The results showed that the execution time was reduced by an average of 53.75 seconds in the first precision test and 45 seconds in the second. This indicates that the use of the toy allows students to improve their manual precision skills, affecting the execution time of tasks that require accurate manual precision. Also, it was observed that the methodology developed could be applied and extrapolated to other disciplines such as engineering, in order to develop similar toys or devices that could enhance manual skills. |
