Students at YBH of Passaic were one of the three winners of the 2017 Fluor Engineering Challenge. Working with limited materials and their imaginations, the students used the engineering design process to create an efficient irrigation design using only cups, tin foil and craft sticks. The winning team won $1,000 from Fluor. The YBH winning team consisting of Nechama Karpel, Orit Blejer, Malka Cohen and Leah Srulovich was one of the 19 teams representing all of the school’s 5G and 5B students who submitted entries into this challenge. Many thanks to teachers Hana Samuels, Robin Kwestel, Jenny Paul and Rabbi Heshy Wieder for inspiring and guiding the students in this exciting endeavor.

The Fluor Engineering Challenge was created to help educators meet the latest standards for science and engineering literacy. This year’s Fluor Engineering Challenge was originally developed by engineers from Fluor’s Manila office, in the Philippines, as part of the global company’s annual employee competition held in celebration of Engineers Week. With the help

of an expert team of scientists and educators from Science Buddies, this employee competition was adapted to provide students with the opportunity to experience how real-life engineers design solutions and to show students first-hand how much fun engineering can be. Mazel tov to the winning team and all the fifth grade students at YBH who enthusiastically took on this STEM challenge.