jews d
in
the
Legos Competition
Hillel Girl Scouts bring home innovation trophy.
Personalized
Learning At
Beth Ahm
School
JILL GUTMANN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
L
PHOTO CREDIT: JILL GUTMANN
egos! I don’t like Legos,” Daria yelled to me
(her mom) as I told her I signed her up for a
Lego robotics team. I knew she would love
building and creating with Legos if she just gave it
a chance.
The Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan were
offering full grants (covering competition costs
and material costs) for teams willing to complete
the First Lego League Junior project. It was such a
wonderful offer, I hoped that other families of the
Hillel Girl Scout Troop 76613 would also jump at
the chance.
A group of five girls — Daria Gutmann of West
Bloomfield, Addison Fleishman of Northville and
Esther Matthies of Farmington Hills, all 6, and
Eliana Mayerson, 7, and Addison’s big sister Elyse
Fleishman, 8, of West Bloomfield decided to par-
ticipate. The team met under the coaching of Rabbi
Brent Gutmann of Temple Kol Ami and Benjamin
Fleishman, an engineer at Ford.
The theme for the 2017-2018 season was the
Aqua Adventure Challenge. The team studied their
water’s journey and created a way to improve the
Team Mayim Menches: Addison Fleishman, Eliana
Mayerson, Daria Gutmann and Elyse Fleishman. Esther
Matthies was unable to attend the event.
May is
Skin Cancer
Awareness Month
journey and model it through building and pro-
gramming a Lego model. The team named them-
selves the “Mayim Menches.”
Coach Ben explored water by walking them
around his house and neighborhood. He showed
them how water entered and left houses, exposed
the girls to the storm drains and sanitary drains,
and discussed where we get our water, how it is
sanitized, utilized and wasted.
The team decided that bathroom sinks in homes
waste lots of water (especially when brushing teeth)
and chose to improve their function. Remembering
that the sinks at Hillel have sensors, they decided to
implement similar sensors in home sinks.
The students built a model that began with the
Detroit River and showed the water’s journey into
a bathroom sink. The key feature of their model
was the bathroom with a large sink. Using the com-
puter program and a sensor, when a Lego person’s
hand moves up, the water (little blue balls) flow;
when the hand is moved away, it stops. All the team
members were Lego and programming novices, so
there was a lot to learn and explore to complete the
project.
On April 27, more than 15,000 students from
across the world gathered at the Cobo Center to
compete in the First Championship. This is the
largest robotics competition in the world and
attracts more than 40,000 attendees. The Mayim
Menches competed with teams in their age group
from places like South Korea, Austria, Venezuela,
Russia, Taiwan and Canada.
The team had the chance to see the challenges
other teams undertook and to interact with the
other kids. The Mayim Menches loved giving out
Hillel Day School pens and collecting buttons and
swag from the other teams. They also enjoyed the
maker fair and watching the high school teams
compete in the First Championship.
They left the championship winning medals and
a Lego trophy for innovative programming. The
Mayim Menches are already discussing competing
in next year’s Lego competition with excitement
and pride in what they were able to accomplish this
year. •
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Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield is enhancing
the way Jewish education is provided. By offering flexibility
in scheduling, the ability to select educational topics and the
opportunity to learn as a family, Beth Ahm’s Natalie & Manny
(z’l) Charach Religious School is addressing the challenges of
traditional Jewish education.
Beginning in the fall, families with children in grades 3-8
will have an individual learning session, choosing the day and
time that is best for them to avoid conflicts with afterschool
activities and transportation challenges and make it easier to
manage the family schedule. The school as a whole will con-
tinue to meet on Shabbat mornings.
Families will be able to choose the curriculum for their
session. Rabbi Steven Rubenstein explains, “The school year
will consist of three to four modules. Families can select the
topics of most interest to them to keep the learning fresh and
exciting.”
Modules include:
• My Jewish Story: in conjunction with Beit Hatfutsot/The
Diaspora Museum that enables students to learn about their
Jewish heritage.
• Living Jewish Values: related to the Jewish values of
identity, family and community that culminates in a social
action project.
• Make Your Own Hagaddah: focused on the steps of the
Passover seder that allows students to create a Haggadah
with traditional text and their commentary and artwork.
Families can choose from additional modules based on
Hebrew language, Israel, Torah and prayer.
Rubenstein says parents will have the opportunity, if they
want, to learn with their children.
“There is tremendous value in families sharing in Jewish
experiences, and Beth Ahm’s program will help families build
Jewish knowledge and identity together. I hope families will
take advantage of this program to share in the mitzvah of
learning.”
Enrollment for the 2018-2019 school year is now open.
To learn more, contact Elissa Berg at (248) 851-6880 or visit
www.cbahm.org/learning/religious-school.•
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May 10 • 2018
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