The Tangram program is a program for excellence in math for middle school students run by the Davidson Institute of Science Education of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rechovot. Once a year they have a one-day competition with the participation of all the schools across Israel that are in the Tangram program.
This year’s 7th-grade competition was held via zoom. The students had to solve math problems, geometry puzzles, and logic questions. After two hours of competition, the team from Yeshivat AMIT Eliraz in Petach Tikva, led by their teacher Tzvika Leibovitch, won first place!
Lior Amitzur, part of the team that won, exclaimed, “This competition forced us to think out of the box and work together and was a lot of fun.” Rabbi Ofer Eran, the principal, added, “The students had to deal with math challenges that required thinking creatively and out of the box, worked together as a group and, of course, enjoyed the special atmosphere. We are proud of our students who won first place from among all the other schools that participated in the competition. We send our blessings to the students and the teacher of our Excellence Program, Tzvika Leibovitch, for their persistence, determination, and great spirit that they bring with them.”
AMIT continues to rule over the skies – and space
AMIT Be’er Tuvia, a recent addition to the AMIT network and one of the biggest schools in the network, won another SpaceLab competition run by the Ramon Foundation in conjunction with the Air Force’s satellite unit.
Outstanding students in 7th and 8th grade across Israel participated in the program. The students were given a scientific challenge related to satellites that is called “the Brown Challenge”. The students had to decipher and analyze satellite pictures, to find and process information from different sources and come up with insights of what the pictures studied.
AMIT Be’er Tuvia’s team won and the prize is a personal meeting with representatives from the Air Force’s satellite unit, who will also come to the school and will tell the students about some of their exciting work.
Negev Bakar, a student on the team, said, “Two months ago they sent us a presentation with tasks related to satellites and they told us that the winners would get a visit to the IDF’s satellite unit. While we were doing the tasks, I felt like it was fun because it was like a game of challenging and interesting riddles and this is one of the good things about the program. When I found out we won, I felt great satisfaction and joy. The tasks were not easy and it took us a long time. It wasn’t easy compared to other challenges we have.”
Avigdor Weizman, principal, said, “Congratulations to the outstanding students who invested and also reached a great goal. A lot of appreciation goes to the teaching staff for their devotion, initiative, and success. Winning this national competition for outstanding students brings great joy and gratification to the entire school. We will continue to promote excellence and enable our students to reach educational highs and further successes.”
