Only Summer Maker Program for High School in Northern New Jersey
The Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School (RKYHS) is offering a four-week summer intensive science program, the “Maker Experience,” from July 7 to August 5, 2016. The Maker Experience is an extension of the highly successful and innovative RKYHS STEM program which now includes year-long courses in Scientific Engineering, Robotics Engineering, Genetic Engineering, BioMedical Engineering, Computer Science and Coding.
The Maker Experience is designed as an intensive science program to get students excited about science, engineering and robotics and to get them started “learning science by doing science.” The program teaches innovation and invention and focuses on “hands-on” learning and investigation, tasking students with analyzing real-world problems and designing and actually building real-world solutions.
The program focuses on problem-solving and encourages innovation and invention, while teaching substantive science, mathematics and a variety of gateway skills, including electronics, circuitry, programming, genetics, mechanics and data analysis. The program culminates in the presentation of the students’ projects at a program-ending conference, where the students display and explain their original work to their peers, parents and to professionals in the field.
“We teach invention, innovation and problem solving—all in a fun environment,” explained Program Director and RKYHS Science Department Chair Dr. Steven Stein. “When students get excited about their projects, it propels them to investigate the underlying principles and go deeply into the science. It’s really all about asking questions and figuring out how to figure it out.”
The program provides students with the opportunity to go beyond classroom lectures and “get their hands into it,” according to Stein. The Maker Experience begins with a simple project, such as creating a cell phone charger using an AA battery, to get the participants’ creative juices flowing and getting them started in actually building devices. The bulk of the program centers on a particular “problem” identified by each of the students. They search for solutions through experimentation, finally creating a solution and making a functional device as part of their approach.
Past students have created dozens of functional projects including innovative energy sources, such as body motion and heat-powered devices, novel wind-powered generators, biometric analyzers, including heart-rate and ECG monitors and EEG (brain wave) analytic devices, devices to help disabled individuals and, currently, a portable AED (heart defibrillator) and a novel breathalyzer-based test for strep throat. Stein said, “Students come in thinking that certain areas and ideas are ‘off limits’ such as sending a device into the upper atmosphere to look deeply into space or at weather conditions, but they learn that they can expand their imagination because they can learn how to do almost anything. Really, the sky’s the limit.”
A hands-on Open House for students and parents to learn more about the program is scheduled for Tuesday, March 15, 2016, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at RKYHS, 110 South Orange Ave in Livingston.
The Maker Experience summer program will run from July 7 to August 5 and meet daily from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. For more information, please contact Deborah Hunter at [email protected] or visit www.rkyhs.org/makerexperience.
