A little girl born without fingers received the perfect Christmas present from a group of teenagers, reports ABC News.  Harmony Taylor, a 4-year-old from Cedar Springs, was born without any fingers on her right hand.  She had a prosthetic device before, but grew out of it and her insurance would not cover another one.  A robotics class with a 3-D printer stepped in to save the day.

According to Business Insider, the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Center in Michigan helped connect Taylor and her family to the class at West Catholic High School.  Teenagers in the robotics class spent six weeks building the hand using a 3-D printing device that was donated to their school.  Once a week, they spent an extra two hours in the evening working on the device.  Finally, they were able to present the device to Taylor and her mom the week before Christmas.

West Catholic students Tim Liu, 18, and Aimee Kalczuk, 17, presented the device.  Liu explained that it felt good to use their technology to do something that will change her life.  The device is made of a plastic cuff that fits snugly on the girl’s hand, with prosthetic fingers attached.  The class also gave her a gift bag that included pink nail polish.  Taylor was delighted and eager to paint her nails pink.

Michelle Peterman, Taylor’s mom, was elated to see the work from the West Catholic class.  Peterman knows that the robotic arm will give her daughter the ability to do things she has never done before.  Taylor will be able to grab things, catch and throw with that arm, and other tasks that were never possible due to her birth defect or even with her first prosthetic.

Around the country, classrooms are being exposed to the new technology of 3-D printers.  The class at West Catholic clearly has experience with theirs.  Meanwhile, at Glen Grove Elementary School, students are just getting to know their new printer, reports the Chicago Tribune.  Through a grant from the Glenview Education Foundation and a program called the City X Project, these young students are designing prototypes to be printed on the 3-D printer.  To print new objects, the students design the item on a tablet and then make it out of clay.  They vet their design with others to refine it before printing it on the 3-D printer.  A 3-D printer costs about $1,300.