Sometimes the best teaching and learning takes place beyond the classroom walls.
As part of its effort to teach students in a more experiential way, AMIT Shachar Junior and Senior High School in Beit Shemesh recently gave its students some science lessons outside their usual school milieu.
Twelfth-grade girls at the school went on tours at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot to get firsthand experience in the scientific and research realms.
“The tours gave the girls access to the most advanced research centers, scientific methods, and professionals working in clinical labs,” said their teacher Herut Gur Aryeh. “It helped them better understand the material they learn in class.”
At the Weizmann Institute’s Davidson Institute of Science Education, the AMIT Shachar students learned about different ways of diagnosing cancer, including DNA tests on mice and using protein solutions to identify cancerous cells. They viewed cancer cells under a microscope and learned about innovative new ways to treat the disease.
Meanwhile, at the Hebrew University, the students took part in fascinating experiments about genetic engineering.
The students’ trip to the prestigious science and research facilities underscores AMIT’s mission to give all of its students, especially girls who may live on the periphery and not otherwise have the opportunities, exposure to a professional future in the 21st-century STEM-centric fields of science and technology. AMIT schools also value a multi-modal model of teaching, both inside and outside the classroom, including experiential learning exemplified by the tours.
In related news, 9th-grade students from AMIT Shachar are taking part in a special entrepreneurship program on cybersecurity with Cisco. The students are working on creating an archetype related to information security, and also on a project to enable people with hearing and speech limitations to communicate by “translating” sign language videos into speech.
The students toured the Cisco offices in Tel Aviv, where they took part in creative thinking exercises and presented entrepreneurial ideas in front of their fellow classmates.
Talia, one of the students, said the program is “challenging and requires out-of-the-box thinking, collaboration, and other skills. I’m not just having fun; I’m also learning a lot about myself and my ability to contend with challenges.”
