Completed Product

Although I did not meet my goal of completing my product before May 1st, it felt great finishing it a few days early. I finally completed my product on May 8th, and I took pictures of it at the doctor's office on May 9th. The last steps of completing my product included the following: making a model hearing aid, creating my pamphlet, and finishing the inner ear. The hearing aid was by far the easiest component of my product. The model was of an in-the ear hearing aid, which is placed outside of the ear. I used a piece of clay to create it by molding it and making it an exact fit for my outer ear model. The pamphlet was not difficult, but I had a hard time picking out the most important information to include in it. After I baked the models, I made some last changes to my pamphlet, and I was done!

The pictures above show my completed product on display at the Carolina ENT Specialists office. The pamphlet and models are available for patients, as well as doctors to refer to when needed. (If you notice a funny orange shape inside of the outer ear, it's the in-the-ear hearing aid.)

Inner ear

I was getting closer to the end of my project in this picture as I molded and painted a portion of the inner ear. I used different colors so that the different parts of the ear would stand out. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how I could make it. I originally wanted the model to stand up, but I found that it was much easier to make it so that it laid flat. After finishing the inner ear, I baked it in my oven so that it would harden at 275 degrees for about twenty minutes.

Painting

In this picture, my mentor, Shari, and I were painting the outer ear model. This was towards the end of the first third of my product's completion.

In this picture, I was molding a model of the outer ear at Pottery Place Studios across from Concord Mills Mall. Starting out the model was fairly difficult, but once I kept working at it, it all started to come together.