Grant amount
NIS 115,000
Robotics course for excellent students
Robotics Course with Social Applications for 60 Middle School Students of Excellence Classes in Haifa as a Pilot Program for a City-based Out of School Weekly Learning Day
Robotics Course with Social Applications for 60 Middle School Students of Excellence Classes in Haifa as a Pilot Program for a City-based Out of School Weekly Learning Day
The City of Haifa is home to 300,000 residents, of which 20,000 are secondary school students. In 2012, the municipality partnered with the foundation to increase graduation rates of the five units track in mathematics, leading to a growth from 16% in 2013 to 24.5% in 2022. In middle school, the municipality operates 51 excellence classes in 13 schools. Following the pandemic, the municipality decided to try and replace one weekly teaching day in middle school with one day of out of school learning in local centers of expertise (universities, theaters, and museums). This program runs on an experimental basis, with 1,000 students from 12 schools participating in 2022.
One of these centers of expertise is the science museum of Haifa (“MadaTech”), that organized in 2022 an out of school robotics course for 20 middle school students. Now, MadaTech is proposing to prepare an advanced course designated for the excellence class students. The new robotics course will be offered to 60 such students, teaching them how to code software that controls a humanoid robot. The course will include a practical element in which students will be tasked to devise a robot to address social needs of residents of the local community.
For example, the museum anticipates that students will program the robot to assist the elderly in taking their medicine on time or talk to a toddler who faces social problems due to the war. If the program is successful, the municipality committed to secure the necessary funding for the continued operation of the course in the following years. The program is unique since it is a local initiative offering an innovative pedagogic and organizational model of work. It will be evaluated by Dalit Stauber, who is documenting the foundation’s social portfolio, and her findings will be shared with other municipalities that have started or are considering operating out of school courses for excellence class students.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 558