Innovation Starts with Curious Minds!

How are muscle forces measured? What is motion capture technology? These were just a few questions explored by eager first graders from the University of Denver Ricks Center for Gifted Children when they visited the Ritchie School Human Dynamics Laboratory to celebrate National Biomechanics Day.

National Biomechanics Day, officially on April 9th, 2025, is a worldwide event where biomechanics experts teach young people about biomechanics and its impact on society. The students from Ricks Center were excited to visit the laboratory to expand on their “Under the Skin” unit and learn about musculoskeletal modeling. The students explored hands-on research stations to understand the tools researchers use to create musculoskeletal models.

The students kicked off their learning journey with graduate student Cameron Dahman, who showed them how muscle forces are measured with EMG sensors placed over the muscles. Next, the students learned about motion capture with postdoctoral researcher Dr. Julia Dunn. And their adventure didn’t stop there! They learned to combine human movement and muscle activity to explore musculoskeletal modeling with graduate student Brendan Curran. 

DU researchers had fun sharing their knowledge with the first graders on National Biomechanics Day. Innovation starts with curious minds!