What if your students could use science, technology, electrical engineering and art to illuminate their thinking? Orly Nadler and Gila Stein, co-directors of STEAM Education & Innovation at Ma’ayanot, led a workshop entitled, “Electrified Paper: Electrical Engineering Meets the Arts” for teachers of grades 7-12 at the National Science Teachers Association STEM Forum & Expo in Orlando last week.

Over 60 attendees learned how to use simple materials like copper tape, Surface Mount LEDs and batteries to teach their students how to make their notebooks light up by creating intricate paper circuitry designs while exploring basic scientific concepts like conductivity, current flow, simple circuit design and mechanical switches. Nadler explained that paper circuitry is the introductory unit for Ma’ayanot’s ninth-grade STEAM curriculum.

“It has an easy threshold, yet can be can be scaled up into highly sophisticated and programmable projects,” she said. Stein expressed that the excitement in the room was palpable as the attendees were thrilled to learn the practical and electrifying applications of paper circuitry.