On Tuesday, October 17, Ma’ayanot STEAM students began to draw connections between engineering design thinking and community service. They visited residents at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh and began to build relationships with them. The program’s eventual goal is for students to use their STEAM skills to design technological solutions to the residents’ daily difficulties. Last year, students engineered an LED bracelet that lights up in response to the volume of a speaker. The purpose of the bracelet is to help Parkinson’s patients strengthen their voices by speaking loudly enough to make the bracelet light up, allowing for ongoing speech therapy.

Ma’ayanot’s STEAM program is continuously looking for opportunities for students to use their skills and design thinking to tackle real-world issues. “I was very impressed with my students’ capability to listen to and empathize with the Jewish Home residents,” said Ma’ayanot STEAM teacher, Aryeh Tiefenbrunn. “Some of my students have already begun to plan project ideas that thoughtfully address the interests and challenges of the residents they met.”