(Courtesy of Ma’ayanot) At Ma’ayanot, STEAM is a two-year core course. The sophomore grade just completed their capstone projects in partnership with The School for Children with Hidden Intelligence (SCHI) in Lakewood, New Jersey. This advanced STEAM course is dedicated to designing, prototyping and creating a customized project for a specific child with visual impairment. After learning essential engineering skills such as design principles, coding, circuitry, Arduino microcontrollers, 3D printing and laser cutting under the tutelage of sophomore STEAM instructors Gillian Cofnas and Reyce Krause, each group of Ma’ayanot STEAM students used those skills to build a life-changing project with the needs of an SCHI student in mind.
Ma’ayanot students consulted with faculty members at SCHI, and with Jennie Jacobson, parent of Layla (’24) and a teacher for the visually impaired, who volunteered and advised the students about helpful features for their projects. Inspired by a picture of the child for whom they were creating the project and a detailed description of his/her strengths and challenges, Ma’ayanot students designed, programmed and created personalized, interactive educational devices. Each project has colors, lights, sounds and textures appropriate for the recipient’s needs—all conceived, programmed and physically constructed by the students. Months of work culminated in the Ma’ayanot STEAM Expo on May 16, and finally in donating each project to the student for whom it was designed. On May 24, the sophomore grade went to deliver the projects in person on a visit to SCHI in Lakewood.
The schoolwide STEAM Expo, which celebrated the projects with students and parents, was designed and led by STEAM Events Coordinator Esther Slomnicki. Ma’ayanot sophomores showcased and explained their projects to their fellow students during the day, with parents joining in the evening.
Jordana Bruschansky, Eliana Shulman and Tamar Zelig created “Light-Up Communication Bears” for Sarah’le, who likes bright colors and has difficulty communicating. When it is hard for her to speak, Sarah’le can push a green button and light up a green bear to indicate yes, and red for no. “We wanted to make more than just a toy,” explained Bruschansky, “but something with colors, lights and textures that can help Sarah’le learn and make her communication easier.”
Sara Mirwis, who also made a multisensory project, added, “I enjoyed this opportunity because we had a chance to be creative and focus on the part of our STEAM training that interested us, while at the same time benefiting someone else!” Ma’ayanot Science Department Chair Gila Stein agreed that “our students are so passionate about their presentations because they utilized all the steps of design thinking to engineer amazing projects that will really help the visually impaired students with whom they partnered.” Freshman Nesya Bayewitz shared the impact of viewing the sophomores’ work: “These projects are really cool, and I am so excited to do this next year!”
The STEAM Expo included two distinguished guest speakers. Vladimir Mariano, instructor of the bestselling Udemy course 3D Designing for 3D Printing with Fusion 360, co-founder and president of the Fairfield County Makers’ Guild, and founder of CT Robotics Academy, whose instructional videos Ma’ayanot students have been using to hone their STEAM skills, presented, as did Dr. Stacey Forsyth, director of Build a Better Book and director of CU Science Discovery at the University of Colorado Boulder. Forsyth praised Ma’ayanot for their outstanding actualization of Build a Better Book’s mission to create accessible books, games and learning experiences for the visually impaired.
The culmination of all this learning took place on May 24, when the sophomore grade traveled to SCHI to donate their projects, and were privileged to watch their partner child actually use their device. In his remarks welcoming the Ma’ayanot students, Rabbi Yisrael Schwab, assistant director of SCHI, said: “We at SCHI are so impressed with the Ma’ayanot students’ hard work, dedication and STEAM skills in designing and creating these awesome personalized devices for our children. We are blown away.”
Sophomore Tovah Judkin said: “Presenting our project to our SCHI partner was a moment I will never forget. Her smile actually was the cutest thing in the whole world and I’m so grateful I got the opportunity to meet her and give it to her.” Mia Polonetsky added: “It was so cool to learn more about the students’ learning process and all the hard work that goes into it. It was so fulfilling to see our SCHI partner learn how to use our device, and how our hard work was able to impact these students’ lives.” Concluded Aviva Kurz: “The smiles on these adorable students’ faces and the appreciation and amazement of the faculty, administrators and family brought me so much simcha and satisfaction. The people at SCHI were incredibly welcoming and so grateful, yet I think that we Ma’ayanot students are the ones who should be thankful for this extraordinary experience.”
