Funded by the Jerusalem Foundation and led by the Bloomfield Science Museum, the Make and Learn initiative develops hybrid educational activities that incorporate the museum’s unique resources in online learning activities.
The project seeks to make the museum’s exhibits accessible to all and foster independent “curation”; enable maker-oriented shared learning for parents and their children; expand learning beyond classrooms and regular school hours; and support teachers in enabling their students to be active STEM learners.
The four pillars of Make and Learn promote the expansion of knowledge and understanding of scientific and technological principles, while extending learning beyond the classroom and regular school hours.
Make and Learn features three teaching units for science teachers that offer active, integrative learning in three fields: movement and the human body, air and breathing, and sound.
Teaching Unit: The skeleton and movement
Field: The human body
Target Audience: 4th-5th grades
Instructional Hours: 9
Teaching Unit: Air and breathing
Field: The human body
Target Audience: 4th-5th grades
Instructional Hours: 10
Teaching Unit: Sound, human body, energy, sound physics
Field: Human body, sound physics - energy and acoustics
Target Audience: 6th-7th grades
Instructional Hours: 15
Make and Learn introduces interactive exhibits from the museum, alongside video tutorials for building maker-inspired mini exhibits that demonstrate the same scientific phenomena and principles – a floating ball, a crane, the Pythagoras theorem.
Exhibit: Floating ball
Field: Science and technology (From the curriculum: Properties of matter – chemistry, physics. Subtopic: forces and their effects on objects
Target Audience: Middle school students
Instructional Hours: 2
Exhibit: Crane
Field: Science and technology (From the curriculum: Properties of matter – chemistry, physics. Subtopic: how forces impact society and the environment
Target Audience: Middle school students
Instructional Hours: 2
Exhibit: Pythagoras theorem
Field: Mathematics
Target Audience: Middle school students
Instructional Hours: 2
A maker-inspired after-school program for children (ages 10-15) from the secular, Haredi (ultra-orthodox Jews), and Arab sectors. The program comprises ten meetings, face-to-face and online, synchronous and asynchronous, that allow students to learn at their own pace.
This program focuses on maker-inspired activity. The students learn about the human body (sight, sound, memory, lung capacity, and balance), engage in engineering challenges, and use the knowledge they acquire to apply the appropriate solutions.
Technological challenges that offer a learning continuum between school and the home environment, and encourage the student’s family to take an active part in fascinating educational experiences that use common household products.
Build a Balloon-Powered Car
Make Your Own Harmonica!
Create a Thaumatrope