Silverstein Hebrew Academy Offers STEM-ulating Education

GREAT NECK, N.Y. (February 15, 2017) – Silverstein Hebrew Academy (SHA) in Great Neck recently broke away from the traditional science fair format and held an Interactive Night of S.T.E.M. Family Night. The event featured 10 stations in which students in grades 5-7 led parents and siblings through a series of interactive experiments related to science, technology, engineering and math.

“The feedback from parents who participated in our S.T.E.M. night has been very positive. Not only were the parents favorable of our new format but they enjoyed seeing the depth of the student learning that happens here at SHA,” said Shireen Butman, Head of School at Silverstein Hebrew Academy. “Our curriculum across all grade levels focuses on equipping our students with the knowledge and skills they need to solve problems, evaluate information and come to their own conclusions. STEM allows us to teach them to engage in multiple skills at once, and through our STEM night, parents had the opportunity to participate in the activities and experience how their children learn.”

SHA’s event was a success under the direction of Ms. Gail Meisenburg, SHA’s middle school math and science teacher leader, who helped create grade level appropriate and engaging STEM experiments for the entire family to enjoy and helped the students master each activity. The STEM stations included: Can You Make the Impossible Possible? (Center of Gravity); Table Cloth Magic (Newton’s First Law of Motion, Friction and Inertia); Penny Drop (Cohesion, Adhesion and Surface Tension); Mysteries of Parachutes (Surface Tension and Drag Force); Wacky Words (Stroop effect); Weave It to Believe It (Friction); Sink or Swim (Surface Tension); How We Conduct Ourselves (Electricity, Circuits, Conductors and Insulators); One Ball (Center of Mass); and A Bridge to Engineering (Civil Engineering).

“It was a terrific experience and much more effective for the students to apply their knowledge this way than through a science fair,” said Ms. Meisenburg.

The evening concluded with a presentation from Ms. Hand’s 8th grade Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) Tech students, who presented their bridge designs built as part of their civil engineering unit. Students first learned about forces and loads, and the characteristics of a strong and stable structure before being tasked to build a functional bridge using specific requirements. The bridges were later tested to find out which design could handle the most weight. In addition, the students competed in a school-wide contest in which the student body voted on which design won in multiple categories including aesthetics.

Students will conclude their civil engineering unit with a field trip to the Tappan Zee Bridge, where they will meet with engineers and apply their knowledge and theories outside of the classroom.

For more information on Silverstein Hebrew Academy, call 516.466.8522, or visit www.shagn.org.

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