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Submitted by Leah Nussbaum, music educator 

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Our Just Imagine grant enabled the school to purchase a keyboard, xylophones, rhythm instruments, recorders, and staff paper whiteboards. The students from pre-K through 6th grade all benefited tremendously from the opportunity to grow in reading and writing notation, playing, and singing. We are so grateful for these building blocks for all students; they had a lot of fun, and learned so much!

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Name - School - Grade - Subject

Project description

Budget/source of materials

Prep time

Student feedback

Lessons learned and impact

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We used our grant from Just Imagine to subsidize a trip for the 7th and 8th grades to the Edward Kennedy Institute for the US Senate.  The grant paid for our admission and buses.
In both grades the students learn about the US government and how each branch functions.  The purpose of the trip was to understand how bills are proposed and passed.  We partook in a mock debate on voting rights and learned about many things that impact voting such as gerrymandering and access to polling places. The Institute is hands on and we were able to reference a lot of what we learned and experinced at the Institute throughout the year when we were discussing US government.

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The purpose of this Padlet board is for teachers to report on their 2022-23 Just Imagine projects and share them with each other.

To create a Padlet, click on the plus sign in the lower right corner. You can add your Project Title in the Subject (at the top) and add your name, school, and grade. You can describe your project where it says “Write something beautiful…” In the middle, where there are colored hexagons, you can upload photos, add links, make a short movie, etc. to enhance your Padlet. Feel free to play around with it! But don't feel obligated to add photos, etc. if that is difficult or not applicable. When you are ready, click on Publish in the top right corner. If you want to edit it, hover over the three dots in the top right corner, then click on edit.

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Shaloh House Day School in Brighton, MA  

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Shaloh House Day School in Brighton, MA  

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Thank you very much to the grand from Just Imagine for helping Shaloh House Preschool & K students to purchase sound equipment.
Our school among many academic areas promotes and encourages public speaking, theater, music and art.
With a new sound system such as microphones, and professional sound speakers our children were able to present end of the year musicals, and practice public speech during poetry Jam, and more.

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MWJDS Middle School Science - Mike Vogt

The Just Imagine Grant gave students at Metrowest Jewish Day School opportunities to engage in chemistry based experiments, enjoy hands-on projects involving motors and integrate their math curriculum with science.

Over the course of the year, 6th - 8th grade students learned how to use motors, created models of our solar system and applied laws of physics to cars they built. One of their favorite activities was using the motion sensors and matching their position and velocity to a given graph using the Pasco software.

Students have greatly enjoyed using the hot plates to combine mixtures and make careful observations about their solutions. For many students, this is their first time performing chemistry based experiments, and the new set of graduated cylinders, beakers and test tubes make them feel like real chemists!

These new tools will be useful for the future as we continue to build our middle school curriculum.

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I got to learn the incredibly important skill of youth life coaching. The particular method I learned is very much concerned with empowering young people to consider their own solutions to the challenges they face.

While the kinds of problems addressed by the coaching problem tend to extend well beyond academic concerns, the material was in fact applicable to the work we do at Gann.

I have had great success applying these skills in "micro-coaching" scenarios to help students navigate challenges in the classroom and without.

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At JCDS, our Gan Nitzan (K class) received a grant for Social Emotional Puppets. These puppets were used regularly and often throughout the school year. During morning meetings and classroom learning, our puppets have helped our Nitzanim understand the importance of one's tone of voice and the power of using specific and meaningful words.

Every child has a puppet, and we use these puppets during Hebrew lessons in order to motivate the kids to speak more in Hebrew . . . AND IT WORKS! Enabling the students to speak through these puppets drops barriers such as shyness. Our students' Hebrew proficiency has blossomed. Thank you, Beker Foundation!

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Submitted by Debbie Ellenbogen, k/1 teacher at Striar Hebrew Academy of Sharon

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Throughout the year there are many opportunities for integrating dramatic play that reflects themes from Jewish holidays and parshat ha shavua.   Because our kindergarten classroom does not have space for a traditional dramatic play area, this Just Imagine grant allowed us to purchase materials for prop boxes that students could use around the classroom.  In the fall, we had a birthday box that allowed students to celebrate pretend birthdays, along with the birthday of the world.   As we learned about Rivka and her kindness to animals, our classroom transformed into a veterinary clinic.  Before Pesach, our shelves were filled with kosher for Passover food boxes, shopping baskets and grocery lists.  If you were in our school this past week, you would have been able to visit our ice cream shop in preparation for Shavuot (when dairy foods are customarily eaten).  The materials, books and storage containers that we were able to purchase this year will be used and supplemented as future classes continue to enjoy meaningful and developmentally appropriate ways to experience literacy, math, science and Judaic Studies concepts through dramatic play.

It has been really wonderful to read about the many and varied ways that my colleagues throughout the greater Boston area, across such a wide spectrum of schools and grades, have been able to wisely and creatively use their Just Imagine Grants! Kol ha Kavod to all of the dedicated and innovative educators!

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LEARNING MADE FUN WITH RE-WRITE TABLETS!

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LEARNING MADE FUN WITH RE-WRITE TABLETS!

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New England Hebrew Academy -
Tova Rabinowitz
2 -3 Grade

The grant made possible through the Just Imagine, has enhanced our lessons so much more. Now we have the use of the "Re-Write™ Max Kids Writing Tablet".  These reusable tablets do not use markers which are messy and always get lost.
The children are so excited each day to get their tablets for our math lessons. They are all eager to show me their work and are disappointed if we do not use them. We also use the tablet to practice our cursive writing.
We are so grateful to Just Imagine for giving us this opportunity of giving the children another means by which to learn with each day and adding to the joy of learning!

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Heather Budd- Grades 4/5 Team Lead/Learning Specialist- Schechter Boston

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Community Building with Hale Reservation

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Community Building with Hale Reservation

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In the fall, thanks to a Just Imagine grant, our 4th and 5th grade students had the opportunity to experience a full day of outdoor, experiential learning and team building with skillful educators from Hale Education. Activities included large-group icebreakers, as well as small group initiatives in which students worked in mixed 4th and 5th grade teams.This allowed the students to befriend children from another grade, and for all the kids to build trust, cooperation, and appreciation for each other. We had beautiful weather and ended in a division wide reflection circle on the field. It was a memorable day for all!

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Pre-K, Kindergarten, First and Second Field Trips

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Pre-K, Kindergarten, First and Second Field Trips

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MetroWest Jewish Day School ,Framingham ,Ma

Prek - Second grade.

We greatly appreciate the Beker Foundation for enabling us to go on four school field trips. We combined both of our Just Imagine Grants which allowed us to go on four wonderful field trips.

The field trips the students attended were the Matzah Factory, New England Aquarium, SouthWick Zoo and Tower Hill Botanic Gardens. Students enjoyed participating in hands-on activities that allowed them to touch  animals and explore their environments. It's hard to put into words how enriching it was to watch  students experience what they are learning about in the classroom live.   We believe all of the knowledge they gained from these hands-on experiences will follow them for years.

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Here at Striar Hebrew Academy we used the Just Imagine Grant to purchase an Art Cart & accessories for the art program.  The 21/22 school year was my (Morah Meredith) first year at Striar and the students first year with an art program, and one of the challenges we had was having enough storage for quality supplies, but also easy access for all teachers and students since I travel from class to class each day.

This cart not only acts as a mobile storage unit holding everything from pencils to stencils, but also acts as a mobile classroom where I can write on my board lessons of the day or where students can access art books during down time.  We have two separate buildings at SHAS, but having this cart allows our back building (housing NPK-1st grade) to access the same curriculum and materials the older students have as well.  It has given our students a sense of ownership over their art and how they create by having the ability to access materials in an efficient way. It helps me as a teacher not have to run back and forth if I leave things behind because everything comes with me in my cart, it has helped me become more efficient as a teacher.  Since we share our space the cart keeps everything tucked away in a corner where it is not a distraction or hindrance to other teachers or community members.

We have fully enjoyed working from theArt Cart this year and look forward to finding new ways to help students utilize the materials inside next year!

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New England Hebrew Academy - Rabbi Ilan Meyers - 5th grade boys

We are so grateful to the Beker Foundation for enabling us to invest our Just Imagine Grant into two wonderful school enhancements!

Part of our funds we used towards the purchase of indoor recess equipment to be used by students on those New England winter days when it is too cold to go outside but students need to release energy through games such as ping pong, table soccer, and other movement games.  Equipment was mostly purchased from Amazon.

Secondly, we used funding to purchase a Judaics library of Jewish books.  In addition to the wonderful resource of new and engaging Jewish books for students to read, older boys had the opportunity to learn the skills and management needed to run a library while being courteous and responsible librarians!  Bookcase was ordered on Amazon and books were purchased from Eichlers.com.

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At Maimonides School we used the Just Imagine grant to purchase all of the Fishtank Curriculum read alouds for Kindergarten. All of the units, lessons and assessments are already scripted and pre-made, so prep time is minimal. It is user friendly for teachers and extremely rich learning for students.

The Kindergarten ELA curriculum is made up of a combination of Literature, Science and Social Studies units. The units build students' knowledge and understanding of the world, and support mastery of all the literature, informational, writing, speaking and listening and language standards.

The students explore and learn about the world around them by reading a variety of culturally relevant and diverse texts that are strategically placed into thematic units to help students build a deeper understanding of an idea or concept. There are two main goals of the Kindergarten reading program: to instill a love of reading within all students by introducing engaging texts and authors and helping students discover the different purposes for reading, and to help students understand the world around them—particularly how the changing seasons influence weather, animals, and plants.

The Kindergartener's at Maimo have engaged in rich conversation, used high level vocabulary, made connections between reading and writing and have had the opportunity to build a diverse background of knowledge that will follow them for years to come.

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Kindergarten English Language Arts | Fishtank Learning

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Students build their understanding of the world around them—particularly how the changing seasons influence weather, animals, and plants—through a variety of engaging texts and authors.

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Our Just Imagine grant enabled JCDS to purchase bluetooth heart monitors and exercise equipment such as jump ropes and box jumps, to teach our 4th grade students about the connection between exercise and its impact on our heart and other organs. These purchases supported our integrated teaching between our science, gym, and math departments.

In their math classes, students learned about collecting data, charting the data through graphing, and interpreting the data. These same students, in their science class, put on the bluetooth heart monitors and collected data on their heart rates before engaging in exercise. Then, these students went outside and engaged in various exercises – jump ropes, box jumps, etc. They again collected data while doing the various exercises, and again following completion of these exercises.

In their science classes, the students took all the data that they collected – before, during, and after exercising. Tasked with graphing their heart rates, we then talked about terms such as graph spikes (What were you doing when your heart rate spiked? What does it mean for your heart when your heart rate spikes? What other organs are affected by these spikes?). Other terms we explored were outliers (Were there any outliers in our class? Why do you think they were outliers?), median vs mean values, and more.

During this unit, our students dealt with technical challenges (such as what to do if the heart monitor failed to register one’s heart rate because the student’s wrist was too small), and finding a solution (moving the monitor to the upper arm). Our budding scientists problem solved through creativity

We are so thankful to the Beker Foundation for approving our grant, without which we could not have brought these lessons to fruition. These lessons beautifully brought to life the real world impact of wellness – good sleep habits, healthy eating, and exercise. Our students were excited by these lessons, and were very engaged in comparing their data with each other. We look forward to Just Imagine other ways to pair our teaching with real life experiences! Thank you for this grant opportunity.

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Schechter Boston students built these 2 tables and this shtender

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At Schechter Boston, we used our grant to buy wood, brackets,  screws, and prototyping materials for a design and build project. Two groups of middle school students designed and built work tables for our Maker Lab. The third group built a shtender for the school's library. The process was as follows:
1. Make an isometric drawing of the idea.
2. Build a cardboard model.
3. Build a scale model out of 1/8" plywood.
4. Build the table/shtender.
The 2 prototyping stages were invaluable in helping the students visualize their designs and in helping them anticipate what the challenges would be in the actual building process. The students simplified their designs significantly after each prototyping stage.
The building process went relatively smoothly despite the fact that many students had never worked with shop tools before. We had strict safety rules for the power tools, and everyone followed them.
We displayed the projects in the school's lobby (photo above) before moving the two tables to the Maker Lab and the shtender to the library. The display included the scale models and a tri-fold poster of the building process.
With the money that remained in the grant, we purchased several Root coding robots to use during the next school year.

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Students from grades 1-8 enjoying and benefitting from our beautiful, fully equipped school counselor's office

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Here at Torah Academy we are so grateful for the Just Imagine grant. Our entire elementary and middle school  (grades 1-8) have benefitted from this wonderful gift.

Using the grant, we were able to create a therapy room for our students filled with a variety of therapeutic toys, fun fidgets, behavioral books, awesome art supplies, and great games.

If you ask our students, this is probably the most popular room in the school! The comfortable chairs, beautiful artwork on the walls, and the amazing gel floor create such a positive vibe and our students cherish their safe place which has been  made possible through the Just Imagine grant.

With a budget of  $1064.60 our items were primarily purchased through Amazon retailers.

Our students are so grateful and having this safe and welcoming place has truly changed the entire school environment.

Thank you Just Imagine.

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The Rashi School used a Just Imagine grant to buy licenses for two class sets of Minecraft, Education Edition.  So far we have used these sets to bring engineering and STEAM to the Jewish Studies classroom and we hope to expand its use to include more subjects/ disciplines in the future.

The 6th grade used Minecraft to build sukkot and create a project explaining the Mishnaic requirements required for a sukkah to be considered kosher.  Students enjoyed having the creative freedom to construct their sukkot and many found it as a useful tool to visualize some of the non-kosher examples listed in the Mishna.

The 5th grade used Minecraft to translate the specifications for the Tabernacle listed in Shemot into a 3D model. Through trial and error they were able to create various schematics on what it might have looked like using only the "materials and dimensions" listed in the Torah.

Both of these projects allowed student to bring the text to life and make sense of what are often hard to visualize descriptions in ancient Jewish literature. Students really enjoyed being able to use this software in class and there have been several requests by students to utilize Minecraft as a medium for individual projects in other classes because of its flexibility and ease of use.

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Sari Korman - JCDS

The Just Imagine grant enabled us to bring artists and special art projects to our students in Grades K-8. Four local artists joined our budding artists in art projects that integrated Judaics with art.

Josh Meyer worked with Grades K-1 students in the fall on a Creation of the World (בראש׳ת), or Genesis project, in which our youngest artists turned chaos into beauty. The children were given a variety of materials to toss onto a large and sticky roll of plastic wrap. With free rein, the students were fully engaged and energized, and were awed by their creation. The end product measures 1’ x 6’, and was displayed in a hallway outside the lower school before being moved to a wall outside the Head of School’s office. Our students were amazed to learn that while planning and care are important traits, sometimes, beautiful creations come out of “chaos” and impulsivity. Noni Armony worked with Grades 1, 7, & 8 over several weeks on paper making and ceramics project in advance of our celebrations of the “Holiday of the Trees, or Tu B’shvat”  (טו בשבט) and Hanukkah (חנוכה). For Tu B’shvat, 8th Graders used the paper to make artistic renditions of trees. For Hanukkah, the 7th Graders made menorahs out of clay while the 1st Graders used the paper they made to make a menorah (חנוכיה) to be displayed at our all-school Hanukkah celebration. The students especially loved the paper making project, and expressed awe at the process. Carol Krentzman worked with Grades 2, 3, & 6 on a gorgeous colored glass mosaic of a challah. The mosaic project took three weeks to complete, and absorbed our artists from the beginning. It required planning, placing and rearranging the colored glass, and a healthy dose of patience. This project also incorporated a portion of the blessing over bread (המוציא לחם מן הארץ) “the one who brings forth bread from the earth”. Today, this large mosaic challah hangs prominently on the wall of our cafeteria (חדר אוכל). Shirah Rubin worked with Grades 4 & 5 over several weeks on a ceramic butterfly (פרפרים) project inspired by the Monarch butterfly. Students learned about Monarch butterflies and their importance to the ecosystem and that they’re now endangered species. They studied the wing patterns of these butterflies and then created their own wing designs and made their own butterflies out of ceramics. The butterflies were then attached to fishing lines and suspended from the ceiling in our Mercaz (center) of the school, just outside the Siffriyah (library).

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Our Just Imagine Grant allowed Metrowest Jewish Day School to purchase wireless sensors to connect to student computers allowing them to mature and graph data. The grant also allowed us to purchase materials for a project-based unit on wind generators.

Over the course of the year, students have been exploring measurement and learning about its scientific importance. This exploration has ranged from using low tech measuring devices to higher tech  sensors that can measure things that can’t otherwise be matured, or even seen: carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations in the air for example, as well as speed and sound. We used Pasco sensors, and the software allowed students to graph results over time, and compare multiple variables. The sensors are being used in a number of 3rd, 4th and 5th grade units, including examining the connection between burning fossil fuels and global climate change, and energy transformations. They have also been used by the middle school, including working with speed and acceleration graphs.

For the wind power unit, we purchased simple generators, hubs and spokes to allow students to build their own small wind turbines (Vernier Scientific). Students began with research into types of wind generators, and then set out in teams to design their own. We used volt meters to test output at different wind speeds, and students are using an iterative process to test their designs, identify variables that can be changed, modify their design and re-test to see the impact on electrical output.

We anticipate this versatile lab equipment will be useful for many years, and will be incorporated into many different areas of investigation.

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Ilana Bercuson -Torah Academy - PreK - Judaics

Our grant money was used to purchase a variety of different supplies to enhance the dramatic play experience of our class.  We purchased dress up costumes, felt story board pieces of Tanach/holiday, Jewish play figures, and toy ritual objects and foods.  These were purchased at a variety of online retails Amazon and some Jewish stores.  Once the research was done for purchasing, the preparation time was minimal as we added the objects into play or lessons as needed to enhance the learning environment.  Some were part of centers such as in our house area for Chanukah we put in a menorah, Pesach there was a seder plate and matzah.  When the children learned about the parsha or holidays the teachers used props such as a Pharaoh's hat or crowns to bring the lesson to life.  Before Sukkos we had a pop-up sukkah and plush lulav and esrog set. The children practiced what they had learned in school and were about to do on the holiday with their family.  For some parshas, when relevant we had a tent or a costume of the Kohen Gadol.  The children loved the various objects which enhanced our classroom this year.  They are excited when each new item is introduced.  The children ask for the "menchies" to come out wherever there are blocks so they can add people to their play. They make their own weddings and other life cycle events they are familiar with.  The dramatic play supplies we received through the Just Imagine grant helped to enhance our students' experience this year and we look forward to continuing to use them for the years to come.

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This year, the Just Imagine Grant allowed us at MWJDS to further build out our K-8 Design & Build Curriculum.  The grant helped extend our workshop to include laser cutting, 3D printing, engineering and electronic wiring, sewing, and woodwork. Our students applied the engineering design process and skills for assignments in every class, furthering their hands on and creative thinking.

The engineering design process has become a fundamental component of our approach in the Atid Middle school. In addition, our students create “Be The Change” projects where they identify a component of our school they seek to improve and build/create the necessary changes. This has included new interactive construction for recess time, step stools for access, and furniture.

Our curriculum has now opened to include design challenges and use of the equipment in every class.

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Gann Academy Students Diagnosing a "Patient"

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Gann Academy Students in Anatomy and Physiology visit Harvard Medical School

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Gann Academy Students in Anatomy and Physiology visit Harvard Medical School

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Thanks to the Just Imagine Grant, over 50 Anatomy and Physiology students from Gann Academy were able to participate in Case Studies using live models, medical and test results. Doctors, nurses, EMT's and Paramedics helped the students in small groups use differential diagnosis techniques to collaboratively determine a diagnosis.  Students also had the chance to learn specific skills such as intubation and IV placement.

Participating in hands-on activities with the pace and intensity of an actual Emergency Room visit was a chance to apply learning and to deepen understanding about the systems we studied.

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With the Just Imagine grant, the 5th grade students at Maimonides School were able to enhance their social studies curriculum with additional field trips. The students studied immigration to the U.S. through Ellis Island in the fall and visited the Tsongas Industrial Center in Lowell to see the boardinghouse and mills that were studied in class. The curriculum then moved on to the American Revolution. The students had the opportunity to visit the Commonwealth Museum to participate in a reenactment of the Boston Massacre Trial. In May we will be going to the Concord Museum and the Old North Bridge. This grant has truly brought history to life for the students and they are fortunate to live in a part of the country where so many of the events and battles of the Revolution took place. We are hoping to squeeze in one more trip to the Boston Tea Party Museum or the Hancock-Clarke house in Lexington before the end of the year.

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Jessie Winkler, Upper school math teacher at Epstein Hillel School

Through this grant, I was able to attend the Atrium School Summer Institute. I attended the middle school strand, which focussed on fostering student collaboration in the classroom. The institute lasted for 3 days in July 2022 and the Just Imagine grant paid my attendance fee. During this professional development, I worked with other middle school math teachers and gained many resources to use with my students. As the only math teacher at my school, I always appreciate the opportunity to meet with and collaborate with math teachers from other schools. Over these three days, I participated in sessions both with other middle school math teachers and with teachers from other grades and subjects. We participated in various problem-solving activities, both in the student role and the teacher role, and discussed guidelines for activities that foster student collaboration.

In addition to specific activities and procedures that I took away from this professional development opportunity, one of my favorite things that I have incorporated into my classroom are vertical white boards for group work. At the beginning of the school year, my school purchased reusable Wipebook whiteboard sheets for me to use in my classroom. My students have loved more opportunities to work together and continued to gain skills necessary for productive collaboration throughout the year. Using the whiteboards, I have found that students are less hesitant to get started on a task knowing that they can easily correct any mistakes. Having the whiteboard sheets around the classroom also provides an opportunity for students to easily see the work of other groups and share their strategies for problem solving.

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Digital Microscopes for Middle School Science 

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Digital Microscopes for Middle School Science 

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Ferris Unni - 6th/8th Grade Science Teacher/ STEM Team Lead
School - Schechter Boston

Microscopes help students become scientists. They help us study microorganisms, cells, and molecular structure. They support our understanding of our natural and manufactured environments, allowing us to identify and understand important patterns and trends embedded in the world around us. Additionally, the use and care of compound microscopes is an essential first step in developing good laboratory practices and habits. Microscopes are an essential tool in the science classroom, and are a pivotal component of a strong STEAM curriculum.

Thanks to our Just Imagine Grant, Schechter Boston was able to update our labs by adding 7 digtial microscopes!

The microscopes have become a resource that greatly strengthens our curriculum. They actually help us to use our prep and assessment time more efficently! They are easier for students and instructors to use than our older compound models. Additionally, they allow students to take pictures of thier lab work and submit them with their labs, helping them to better demonstrate thier understanding and lab skills.

When applying for a Just Imagine Grant, we wanted to request funding for a project that would provide us with lab tools that would support teachers and students not only this year, but for years to come. We are very excited to conintuing using our microscopes and finding more places in the curriculum where they can be used. Additionally, we would love to add a few more to our lab, which would allow students more time with the tool.

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The Rashi School

Through this grant we created a robust electronics station for our students. From the most basic components (bulbs, wires, and batteries), to more advanced circuitry (breadboards, sensors, etc), students learned about basic circuitry. The learning began in K with exploration of conductivity, related to their study of material science. Grade 1 learned about complete circuits and created Chanukah cards for their families. Grade 3 learned about static electricity and the movement of electrons. Older graders worked independently to learn how to create different types of circuits, switches, and use circuits to enhance other projects.

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PocketLab sensors for Middle School Science

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PocketLab sensors for Middle School Science

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The PocketLab sensors are an invaluable addition to our science lab because they have enabled students to easily investigate and analyze a number of interesting phenomena. Since each PocketLab sensor is equipped to measure over a dozen different types of data, they are useful across all grades and curriculum. For example, in our Middle School study of Forces and Motion students used the PocketLab sensors to measure the acceleration of a model car in a collision, and then designed prototypes of crash cushions that would minimize the dangerous deceleration in a car crash. The sensors provided students with real-time data in graphical forms that made the car's motion easy to understand.

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Digital Microscopes for our Younger Scientists

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Digital Microscopes for our Younger Scientists

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Lower School Teachers
The Rashi School

Thanks to the Just Imagine grant, we purchased a set of digital microscopes for the lower school. Until now, we had borrowed microscopes from the Middle School, but they were difficult to use. From the moment these digital ones arrived, students as young as 4 got the thrill of viewing objects magnified. The lessons involving microscopes were suddenly more accessible and less frustrating for our students. As an added bonus, the images could be saved digitally and used for future lessons.

While the microscopes were used for many curricular lessons throughout the whole school, some of the best learning moments came from less structured discovery with our PreK and K students. We looked at our fingerprints under the microscopes and we gathered items from nature to explore. Unlike with the more advanced microscopes, the students were able to play around with the settings on their microscopes and explore how magnification changes what we see and learn.

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The STEAM Educators
PreK-8
The Rashi School

We received a grant to buy tools to outfit our Kol-lab: Rashi's STEAM Lab that opened in August 2022. Students from Kindergarten through Grade 8 learned about basic, age-appropriate woodworking techniques. Using the design thinking process, students in Grades 6-8 used these tools to create adaptive wooden games to meet the needs of the residents in the memory care unit at NewBridge.

Outside of projects that were specifically designed to teach these skills, students used many of these tools to enhance other projects. For example, a group of students in Grade 3 wanted to test different angles for a wheelchair ramp. In order to do this, they needs to create a large ramp whose angle could be adjusted. They used drills and impact drivers and other hardware and safety items purchased with this grant to set up their experiment. Once students learned what tools were available, their thinking and imagining was broadened in many different exciting ways.

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At Rashi we've also been able to incorporate the PocketLab sensors into our elementary science curriculum. Students used the sensors during independent studies since they are easy to set up and manipulate. For example our 4th graders used the sensors to measure the results of their independent STEM projects by graphing how different tent materials maintained warmth in cold conditions. They were fascinated to discover how mycelium (the root structure of a fungus) was an effective insulator for their tents!

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Just Imagine Cicurit Scribe class set    Merlyn Carey Torah Academy

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Just Imagine Cicurit Scribe class set    Merlyn Carey Torah Academy

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Thanks to the Just Imagine Grant, we were able to bring in a class set of Circuit scribe materials to help blend STEM and ELA. The "scribe" part of Circuit scribe are pens with metallic ink that are used to draw out the circuits. And, of course, the circuits are the easy connection to STEM. The pens will wear out/dry up over time, but the rest of the materials will continue to be reused for years. The pens are a minor expense and extremely easy to replace at need.

The Prep time was embedded into class we spent a block exploring the resources together and seeing what was included before we started any of the included projects. Once we were familiar with the projects, we started "revising" and explored what other materials/equipment we could use with the kits and created our projects.

Not only was this a terrific way to include more hands-on
STEM into our days, but it also let us make stronger connections between subjects and each other.

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Rabbi Benmergui - Torah Academy of Boston - Middle School - Woodworking elective

- We used a lathe and other tools to carve wood in order to make a pen
- All materials were purchased using the grant. The materials came from Woodcraft and other woodworking stores
- The prep time was minimal. I had to test it out on my own to see how long it would take to carve, sand, polish and assemble one pen but other than that it was easy to get in and out of for the elective
- Students loved it. The students had something beautiful and useful to take home after completion.
- Students have a hard time waiting their turn for the lathe (we only bought one). there is a sense of urgency to complete it as fast as possible. That being said the students had to learn patience and care in order to come out with the final product. It was also very powerful for students to hold their handiwork instead of seeing scores on computer games which is intangible.