Throughout the week of Chanukah, STEM-focused programming was incorporated for JKHA students in all divisions. A highlight for middle school was when they welcomed parents for a Chanukah-themed Moadim L’STEAMCHA parent-child learning. The parents and students studied the different customs of times when people light the menorah. They then learned scientifically why the sun changes color and made boxes to show the progression of the different times of day—from sunlight to sundown to darkness—to illustrate the different customs that people have for their candle lighting. The morning finished with a collation and singing of everyone in unison.

Earlier in the week, middle school students had an in class STEM lesson where they learned about different concepts—gyroscope, air pressure, engineering and design and spacial awareness. They then competed in STEM races where each of the interactive activities related to each of the concepts that they had just learned about. Middle school cheered on classmates and teachers in a dreidel spin off competition where they used dreidels that they designed in tinkercad and were 3D printed in the middle school STEAM lab. All of middle school built and lit a mega Lego menorah together.

JKHA also joined in the Chanukah STEM and answered Chanukah trivia questions with dash robots. In the classrooms, students had a STEM lesson and made working dreidels from polymer. Second grade joined fifth grade and used tangram pieces printed in the new GlowForge printer to decorate and make dreidels and a menorah.