In a year like this, wouldn’t we all love a chance to escape to the “happiest place on Earth”? Sixth and seventh graders at Manhattan Day School have been studying and experiencing what it is like to be a Disney Imagineer. Disney Imagineers have a unique job where they design and create Disney parks that pride themselves on being immersive experiences for the park guests. During STEAM classes, students learned about the tremendous amount of thought and planning that goes into each of these park experiences, both creatively and logistically. Each group was then challenged to come up with a theme of their own that they would want to create if given the opportunity to build their own land in the Disney empire. They used ride simulators to figure out the duration of their rides, the time it would take to get on and off each ride and how to accommodate a certain number of people on all of the rides throughout the course of the day. “The students have been applying their knowledge of STEAM to create scale models of their vision,” said Elisha Hus, director of Educational Technology and STEAM. “It has been so exciting to see their imaginations come to life!”

In lower school, students in grades one through three are learning the basics of coding, including sequencing, problem solving and best coding practices to meet their goals. To put their knowledge to the test, students are coding their way through different parts of the Purim story ending with collecting mishloach manot to bring home. Using block coding, students created their own solutions to each challenge. They tested their codes and looked for mistakes and ways to improve. Said third grader Olga Cohen, “I loved coding about the Purim story.” Third grader Miriam Sack added, “It was fun to work toward a specific goal, like getting Haman, Achashverosh and Esther to the party.” Through upcoming STEAM activities, the students will continue to develop their critical thinking, coding and problem solving skills to become the innovators of tomorrow.