As part of our focus on curricular integration, Yavneh incorporates STEAM as the backbone of a Yavneh education. Morah Vanina has been a vital component for instituting, teaching, and growing the Yavneh community-wide STEAM initiative for the last eight years. What we have accomplished in that time with Morah Vanina’s leadership and school vision has grabbed the attention of several other initiatives and pioneers in the STEAM teaching community. She’s been asked to contribute to conferences and other gatherings focused on curriculum, pedagogy, Ed Tech tools, Project Based Learning, Design Thinking, Scratch, and so much more. Most recently, Morah Vanina has contributed to “Amplify Learning: A Global Collaborative” book series being released this year!
The series is a collaboration of educators from across the world who have come together and written about their experiences and strategies around integrating research-based instructional strategies with educational technology (EdTech) tools to amplify learning for students.
Morah Vanina’s segment will be featured in the 3rd book being released later this year and specifically mentions Yavneh and our STEAM program several times. We will update everyone on when it is released and any upcoming book talks as well.
Recent STEAM Learning – Week of 2/14/22
Kitah Alef/1st Grade Robotics
Kitah Alef/1st Grade students recently finished their coding classes and moved right into Robotics! They are using Robotics to deeper understand certain math concepts like distance, multiplication, and perimeter (without the students knowing they are actually performing those math operations). The students are using looping instruction to code the robots to complete certain tasks.
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Kitah Bet/2nd Grade Volcano Project
Kitah Bet/2nd Grade is currently studying geology with Mrs. Schiff and Morah Tom. In STEAM, their rock studies were integrated with a volcano project. Students learned about volcanoes and how different areas are affected by them, went to constructing, then learned a bit about chemical reactions, and made some live eruptions happen!
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Kitah Gimel/3rd Grade Sound Experiments
Kitah Gimel/3rd Grade has a milestone coming up that revolves around prayer and song. Integrated with their STEAM curriculum that has been focusing on the human body and space all year, they did some experiments recently testing soundwaves. Students learned about how sound travels through air and water and experimented with being able to see and feel soundwaves through vibrations and watching sugar crystals jump when they talk. Soon they will use their knowledge around soundwaves and they travel to engineer their own instruments using different materials.
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Kitah Hay/5th Grade Tall Boat Races
Kitah Hay/5th Grade has been studying explorers. Students studied the evolution of sailing for a deeper understanding of transatlantic voyages. Each student engineered their own tall ships and tested them in the JCC kiddie pool.
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