January 31, 2025 by
Across the grades, the STEM department incorporates engineering design into its curriculum, often in order to tackle real world problems. Below, we feature examples:
January 29, 2025 by
On Friday, January 17, family members of our Pre-K class gathered to celebrate their children’s learning. Throughout the morning, students shared what they had learned and done from August through January, from Hebrew and Judaics to general studies. This Chagigat Halomedim, or celebration of learning, largely featured the students’ year-long study of identity. As Pre-K […]
April 30, 2015 by
JPDS-NC is one of several prominent Jewish day schools throughout the United States and Canada chosen by the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) to write Standards and Benchmarks in the Teaching of Rabbinics. This program is designed to improve Rabbinics curricula in Jewish Day Schools throughout North […]
April 29, 2015 by
The Cardboard Box Challenge is a program that takes science, math, economics and especially Earth Day to a new level. Students had the chance to make arcade games out of an endless amount of recycled materials over four Sundays and during special recess periods once a week for thirty-minutes. Third grader Zoe Kaiser-Blueth said, “I […]
April 27, 2015 by
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education is growing and thriving at JPDS-NC. On the evening of April 2, four JPDS-NC sixth graders attended the Grand Award Ceremony of DC STEM Fair 2015 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Esther Feron, Sami Himmelfarb, Noa Schleifer and Beri Gershwind swept the Junior Division with 1st, […]
April 27, 2015 by
Our own Lisa Schopf recently published an article about brain-based learning in ASCD Express, a professional publication that highlights innovative solutions and best practices in education. In her article, “Four Common Sense Tenets of Brain-Based Learning,” Lisa uses classroom examples to explain four central tenets of brain-based learning and show how students often intuitively understand and respond […]
April 23, 2015 by
Over the course of four months, students at JPDS-NC worked with passion and resourcefulness to design and build arcade games out of recycled materials as part of the Cardboard Box Challenge. The program seeks to foster creativity, entrepreneurship, and design thinking in children, as they work together with their parents and with one another to […]
April 23, 2015 by
One of JPDS-NC’s core principals is Ayin L’Tzion, “Looking toward Zion.” At JPDS-NC we strive to foster a deep connection to Israel’s history, people, culture, and language in our students. Central to this mission is our goal to educate independent speakers of the Hebrew language. When we teach the Hebrew language at JPDS-NC, we are […]
April 22, 2015 by
My fifth grade math class held a Math Carnival. Our class decided at the beginning of the year to find a fun way of expressing what we learned. We split into groups and began to think of creative ways to make math-related games. Each group was assigned a different math unit, and we had to […]
April 21, 2015 by
JPDS-NC’s strength is due, in part, to the dedication of a cadre of talented and energetic parent volunteers. To learn first-hand about what motivates and inspires our volunteers, read the interview with parent Abigail Sharon. What is your volunteer role? Abigail: I produced and directed the JPDS-NC film and was privileged to work with the school’s […]
April 16, 2015 by
The concept of teaching STEM is designing curriculum to include science, technology, and engineering in an applied approach. True STEM education provides opportunities for students to practice designing and implementing real-life science experiences at all ages. What does that look like in an elementary school classroom? It involves diving deeper into a topic and spending more […]
April 16, 2015 by
This spring, the fifth grade students in my math class worked to create a math carnival to offer fun challenges in math to their fellow fifth graders. After three months spent planning the project and designing games, the math carnival opened on March 30. It all began when the students suggested preparing a math carnival […]
