STEM INITIATIVE
Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School’s expanding 21st century learning goals are transforming students’ learning experiences and positioning them for success beyond their school years. BT’s school-wide integrated STEM initiative shifts students from knowledge consumers to producers through cooperative, creative, interdisciplinary learning and exploration.
Lower school students and teachers will invent, experiment, design, and discover together in the newly relaunched Innovation Lab, using design thinking and a variety of tools and materials. Students can enhance classroom learning and access online research resources in the adjacent Russel Family Library and Media Center.
Middle schoolers will use their new STEM lab to design and fabricate their own inventions with six Makerbot Sketch 3D printers. BT Director of STEM Education Mr. Vince Bonina is excited about another new technology debuting in the middle school STEM lab. “We have invested in eight Dobots, a multifunctional desktop robotic arm that can be programmed to perform tasks using artificial intelligence,” Bonina explains. As Dobot is age appropriate for a variety of grade levels, BT high school students will learn the platform as well.
Greater technology integration empowers students to explore their environment in new and exciting ways, make data-driven decisions, and communicate their ideas deliberately and accurately. BT students, at all grade levels, are challenged to meet and exceed these goals across the rigorous dual general and Judaic curriculum.
