HANC & YKLI, rockets and robots

Two local yeshivas celebrate science wins

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Local yeshiva students have been making their mark in the fields of science and technology this past year.

At the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, students spent months building a robot for the Gildor Family Projects and Inventions competition, an Israeli science and technology contest for high school students. HANC was one of only two American teams present at the finals, which took place on June 30 in Israel.

Back in May, HANC had been victorious at the Gildor semi-finals in New Jersey. The team demonstrated a robot that was capable of performing various tasks, such as avoiding barriers, sensing direction, and following another vehicle at a specified distance.

The students’ trip to Israel was enjoyable as well as educational. In addition to touring the country, the team also met a lot of Israeli students who shared their love for technology. Though HANC did not win the finals, the students had a meaningful and fun experience.

 “We did really well and I’m proud of everything we did,” said student Daniel Albert.

Albert says that in addition to learning about robotics and electricity, Gildor taught something even more important—teamwork.

“Without the build team and the programming team or anyone else, we would never have gotten any of this completed,” he said.

The Gildor competition inspired a new love of science and technology in HANC students. Next September, HANC will be one of five Yeshiva High Schools in the United States to implement a new CIJE [Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education] Scientific Engineering course for high school students. In this program, tenth grade students will begin a three-year sequence in Scientific and Biotechnology engineering, which will be taught by Gildor coach Matthew Breig. 

Assistant coach Shoshana Sigal, a graduating senior, had been fascinated by engineering for a long time. Her experience with Gildor only strengthened her interest. She will be attending Michlalah seminary next year, and after she returns, she plans on studying chemical engineering at The Cooper Union.

“[Gildor] opened up my mind to the whole spectrum of engineering, and to different things that are out there,” said Sigal.

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