Hausner's STEM Fair Showcases Dazzling Array of Projects

News from Hausner:

Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School held a STEM Fair on Feb. 11 highlighting students’ impressive work in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) – and the power of learning by doing.

Hausner’s 4th graders have been studying how salt and ice interact. 5th graders have been conducting kitchen chemistry experiments, and middle school students have developed their own amazing original projects, some of which will even advance to the Synopsys Science and Technology Championship in March.

“Our STEM curriculum is a hallmark of our education process which is an interdisciplinary and applied teaching approach that integrates hands-on experience in science, technology, engineering and math for real-world, problem-based learning,” Julie Smith, Head of School, explained. “STEM education is vital to the future of our children. STEM is everywhere and shapes our everyday experiences and our STEM Fair is the culmination of months of our students’ hard work, and we couldn’t be any prouder.”

Hausner eighth graders wowed Fair participants with their visual masterpiece “Hebrew Comes To Light” LED installation.

Students worked collaboratively to design and build boards with Hebrew letters represented by red LEDs. Each letter was then incorporated into a related concept through the use of other non-red LEDs, such as yellow, orange, green, blue, and even bright white and violet.

The Hebrew letter chet for example, was used to represent the back and legs of a cat, while the tail and legs of the cat were represented by green LEDs, the head by orange LEDs, and the eyes by bright blue LEDs.

Each board was controlled by two switches: one to turn on the Hebrew letter and the other to turn on the related concept. The result was a stunning display of 33 pieces of art that involved concept brainstorming, artistic design and layout, learning about soldering and circuitry, including how some electronic components such as diodes and resistors work, and the engineering process, including building, testing and debugging.

There was definitely something to engage each and every 8th grader. Each board was powered by four wires running to a switchboard. Students made, labeled and organized the wire cables, including crimping the ends, to ensure that behind the boards everything functioned correctly. In all, there were 66 switches controlling the entire display!

This project proved to be both educational and fun, and taught students patience, perseverance and resilience.

As the culmination of their study of the animal kingdom, Hausner seventh graders created imaginary animals that have adapted to life in the coral reef. They researched the body forms and adaptations of many types of real coral reef animals and used those ideas to design their own animal. Each group then used iPad tools (including a 3D sculpting app and the Keynote app) to prepare and deliver presentations about their animals to their classmates.

In addition, each group made a short “preview” movie highlighting some of the most interesting features of their animal. At the STEM Fair, these movies were available for everyone to view, and a number of brave 7th grade volunteers delivered their full-length presentations.

Hausner 4th-6th graders presented their STEM Fair projects in the school’s library. The sixth graders created an astounding array of independent or partner projects on topics of their own choosing. The topics ranged from traditional science experiments to product tests to engineering projects. Twelve students plan to submit their projects to the Synopsys Science and Technology Championship in March. 4th and 5th graders studied food science.

The fifth graders worked on a kitchen chemistry project in small groups. Each group changed one ingredient (brown sugar, hot fudge, baking powder, adding sprinkles, etc.) in a set muffin recipe and determined what effect it had when compared to the control batch of muffins. The 4th graders submitted an “all class” project on the effect of mixing different quantities and types of salt (Epsom, table, and rock salt) with ice.

They used their results to determine which mixture provided the best combination to make delicious homemade ice cream.

Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, founded in 1989, is an independent community day school providing an outstanding education for close to 400 students in grades K-8 on a state-of-the-art four-acre campus in Palo Alto.