Bergen County Technical Schools’ STEM bus travels to different schools bringing a maker space to the students. The STEM bus arrived at Yavneh on Tuesday, March 22, the first of three visits that will enable all of the sixth and seventh graders the opportunity to participate. The students are treated to different maker space activities introduced by the Bergen Tech teachers.

The program began with students learning about the engineering process and how they would be using the process in the maker space. The bus contained a 3-D printer, laser printer, circuit board, drone charging station and solar power collectors. The bus runs on solar energy and contains the storage units for the solar energy collected displayed on the bus.

Students engaged in creating circuits out of different materials. Did you know an onion and model magic are both good conductors? When a circuit was created by the students a musical instrument sound was played. Another station allowed students to use coding to move a robotic hand. The students were able to play a game of rock, paper, scissors with the mechanical hand. They could then adjust the code to make the hand go slower or faster for their game. The last outdoor station was the drone. Students listened and watched as the county teachers explained how the drone works and flew it as high as 400 feet above Yavneh Academy.

Yavneh Academy is privileged to be one of the first school visits for the STEM bus and look forward to their upcoming visits.