New Look Nerf Blaster Designed by Waukee APEX Students

Waukee APEX Associates have been working hard all semester on a nerf gun, sounds fun, right?

“As a kid I did play with nerf guns a lot,” says Adi Hazan.

But this Nerf gun is a project in the Engineering Technology and Robotics class and it’s more than just a “normal” Nerf gun.

This is for a non profit, Train to Inspire,” said Hazan. “One of their events is a Nerf battle, so they have all of these Nerf guns and they were looking for more ways to make Nerf guns available for people in wheelchairs.

So the APEX team went to work. They were trying to create a way for everyone to enjoy the toys they did growing up.

“First we started out realizing that if we are going to do this, we are going to have to learn quite a few skills, that we don’t know currently,” says John Wingert.

“We had to learn circuitry so we knew what wires did what,” says Caleb Hollen. “We had to learn a lot about 3D printing design,  so we could print what we wanted out.”

“We had to really think about ergonomics, where we were going to mount this on a wheel chair,” adds Drew Darnell. 

Piece by piece a new look nerf gun started coming together.  Then, just a few days ago, this amazing project was complete.

Right now there is only one prototype in their workroom and yes, they keep a very close eye on it.  They are also thinking about the next step.

“Next we are working on our instructions so we can publish them so people can use the design, print it out, reach as many people as possible,” says Hollen

“It’s nice to know this will help other children experience stuff they haven’t been able to before,” adds Hazan.

Click here to learn more about Train to Inspire.