STEM Spotlight An Intercampus Newsletter

HANC - 2019

ABCs at the ECC Our youngest learners are reinforcing letter recognition through ABC Mouse, an interactive digital learning platform. Working in pairs, students practice early literacy skills through matching sounds and letters. Additionally, students practice number sense by filling in number puzzles. Morot are able to track student progress through a teacher dashboard which allows for differentiated instruction.

Notable CodableOur Nursery Bet students challenged themselves by writing code during their visit to the elementary school building. Using code.org, students paired up to take on this digital challenge. At the conclusion of the course, each student received a certificate of completion. We are extremely proud of our youngest learners writing computer code!

Cooperation at the ECCCooperative group skills are reinforced as students work together to input accurate codes. Working with partners, students learn to take turns, share ideas, and support their friends. Additionally, patience is reinforced as students must “de-bug” their programs to find and correct errors. ECC students continue to make strides in understanding the process of programming.

HANC Hack-A-thonUnder the direction of Mr. Art Sedighi, the HANC Hackathon aims to challenge students (Grades 3 - 6) through a series of events on computer programming. Each event begins with a short lesson focusing on a specific coding challenge. Working collaboratively, students are given a set time frame to complete the challenge on a plain coding canvas. Each Hackathon emphasizes a variety of programming concepts, including coding and debugging.

A STEAM ChallengeFourth through Sixth grade began the school year with a STEM challenge. Students created a scribbling marker robot that could turn and draw on a paper. The students had to follow the steps of the Engineering Design Process: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Communicate, Improve to complete their robots. Many of the groups were successful and they created beautiful works of art with robots that spun around on the paper!

Digital CitizenshipEvery October, schools around the country celebrate Digital Citizenship Week. Our students participated in this event by engaging in meaningful conversations about the need to be a good digital citizen. Some of the topics addressed were digital etiquette, online safety and cyberbullying.

Engineering in 4th Grade4th Grade Engineering classes have been working on bridge building. Using the design process, students planned and built bridges. The 4th Graders are very excited to begin testing their bridges to determine how much weight they can hold. Whichever bridge holds the most weight, will win the class competition!

HANC STEM FairThrough a collaborative effort of a team of teachers, students participated in a multi-disciplinary STEM Fair. Working in teams, students submitted proposals depicting aspects of a STEM project. Through teacher mentoring, students completed in depth research and began compiling information into a cohesive research report. Then, using Google Slides, students created a visual presentation with colorful images and eye-catching animation. Finally, at the STEM Fair, each team demonstrated their project to families and friends.

6th Grade Robotics The 6th Graders have completed working on the Lego Robotics introductory course as they build Milo the Space Rover. Milo demonstrates how robots can be sent to areas that are not safe for humans, such as Mars or even to war. Students have added sensors onto Milo, including the motion sensor and tilt sensor, so they can compare what they built to the different sensors around us. The students are having a blast with Lego Robotics!

Techn -OWL-ogyThird Graders recently dissected owl pellets as a part of their exploration of vertebrates. The children first studied the human skeletal system, created a candy and pasta spine, and designed a mechanical arm with an elbow joint. They learned about owls and their eating habits before completing this hands-on discovery of owl pellets. As they removed bones from the pellets, the students had to try to match the bones to a chart of skeletons from common prey of northeastern owl species.

Engineering in EgyptAs a part of their study of Ancient Egypt, Sixth Graders are now learning about how science can be found in Ancient Egypt. Students built Egyptian-style river reed boats using drinking straws, then floated them down a Nile River model. Afterwards, they flooded the Nile River to see how silt spreads to the nearby banks. Later, students will build sugar-cube pyramids, and they will mummify apples using different natural salts and solutions.

Binary Bracelets HANC students were asked to find the first letter of their first name in the Binary ASCII Decoder Key. Students created their very own bracelet representing their first initial. They chose two colored beads to represent 0 and 1. Each student created a bracelet they can wear and share and explain how binary code works.

Catapulting in the HallsOur elementary school engineering classes have been learning about the history of catapults, both the role they played in ancient times as well as how they play a role in today's time. The students were challenged to research different types of catapults and will be having a competition to see which group can launch a marshmallow the farthest. The students will then be taking the activity a step further and will need to launch a marshmallow a far distance and into a box. Let the challenge begin!

STEM-tacular!In their study of measurement, students had to solve multiple measuring challenges that required the use of Blockly coding language and the Dash Robot. Many of the teams joyfully handled the tasks with ease. During the unit on energy, students tested properties of light and created solar power cars to test light energy. They also made popsicle stick kazoos to learn about sound waves and vibrations. They will continue their study of different types of energy for a few more weeks before moving to coding and computer programming.

STEM Fair PreparationsFourth Graders are hard at work on their STEM Fair projects for the spring. Students have written proposals and created guiding questions they would like to answer with their projects. Recently, students began collecting scientific research about their diverse topics.

Video Game Extraordinaire

6th grade students have learned about the history of video games. A lot of improvements and upgrades have been made since the first home console came out in 1972. After learning the backstory, the students began to develop their own games with a story and characters using the incredible Bloxels application. The students have access to boards and blocks that can translate into the app. The creativity and imagination of our students has been incredible! Each unique game has a variety of challenging features. The Innovation Fair ended with a trivia game, where HANC students placed 5th with over 100 teams playing.

Glowing ResultsMiddle School students enjoyed learning about the field of electrical engineering. With a hands-on lab, students created glow sticks, squishy circuits, and tested several conductors using breadboards. Using their prior knowledge, students were given materials and were tasked with constructing their own glow sticks.

A Middle School Nautical Challenge

The 8th Grade engineering class students are currently conducting “A Boat Challenge”. Students are tasked with building a fully functioning boat, while keeping certain specifications and constraints in mind. With a limit of materials, cost, and time, students must construct a boat that holds a specific amount of weight without the boat receiving any water or sinking. Students will brainstorm ideas in their engineering groups and come up with the best possible design solution.

Civil EngineeringStudents in Middle School science classes enjoyed learning about all the structures civil engineers are involved in building. One particular focus was the construction and design of bridges. Students were given several constraints and requirements and were assigned a specific bridge. Through measurement and use of materials students constructed beautiful, stable, and safe bridges for their “residents”.

Invention ConventionThe Middle School engineering class students are being tasked with creating a new invention or bettering a product that already exists. Students must use one of the several ways we’ve learned in class to model their invention and explain the benefits of their invention.

Digital Board Games Working in groups, students in Game Design are designing a strategy board game. The ideas have ranged from a mashup of chess and quidditch, to a real life remake of a popular mobile game 'Head-Soccer'. Using the site draw.io, students use chartering software and digital drawing equipment to create original boards. The goal of the project is to establish that there is a wealth of strategies to utilize to design a board game.

Digging into DigitalizationHANC High School's Computer Science classes continues to be cutting edge in the field of digital technology. After topping the national average on the AP Computer Science Principles exam last year, HANC has moved on to the more rigorous AP Computer Science A - JAVA course. A select number of students are on track to excellence as they tackle OOP (Object-Oriented Programming). The 10th grade Coding class is hard at work learning procedural coding techniques. The unit is coming to a grand conclusion as students are busy coding and building their own Pac-Man simulation. Next, students will engage in an introduction to JAVA, culminating in the basics of phone app development using Android Studio. The 9th grade Digital Technology classes are exploring the basics of Computer Graphics and Animation using the Adobe Design and Web Premium Suite.

STEM TasticStudents in the HANC High School Engineering course create Capstone projects to be featured at the Capstone Competition on May 19th. Working with a wide assortment of materials, students build projects which will ‘improve the quality of life’. HANC students are in the process of designing and constructing a boat which will be used to clean up fresh water sources by dragging a net across the surface of the water to remove plastic bottles.

Innovation Competition Engineering students from HANC participated in the Center for Initiative for Jewish Education (CIJE) Innovation Fair. Throughout this school year, the Engineering students completed the CIJE engineering curriculum and and created Capstone projects. At the CIJE Innovation Fair, HANC students presented their engineering projects designed to improve quality of life. Gabriel Livi and Issac Khalili created a prototype to make Wacky Mac for busy clients. Rena Max and Shanya Greenburg solved the issue of inconvenient recycling through a Smart Garbage can. Moshe Wieder and Sasha Isler developed a prototype to quickly print restaurant orders for busy staff members. Lastly, Jonah Seiden presented his team's tree of life to extinguish forest fires. The Innovation Fair ended with a trivia game, where HANC students placed 5th with over 100 teams playing.

STEM-Tastic!Partnering with CIJE (Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education), HANC High School held a ribbon cutting ceremony officially opening its new state of the art STEM Lab. This cutting edge space will certainly foster creative thinking and ingenuity in HANC students for years to come!

Robotics Club CompetitionOn March 6th, the Robotics Club hosted a robot competition for Club Day, organized by Robotics Club Presidents, Josh Vilkas and Elan Moscowitz. The students created robots using Lego Mindstorms Education EV3. The 14 HANC students, ranging from 9th grade to 12th grade, attended the competition Four teams competed in the game: each team's robot must score a goal by moving a ball into respective team's designed area. The opponent team can block and or steal the ball to score their goal. Congratulations to all of the competitors!