Following the enormous success of Midreshet Shalhevet’s visit with Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato of the 23rd District last year, Teach NYS reached out once again, asking MSH to showcase its STEM curriculum for Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages of the 22nd District on February 14.
The morning started with a discussion between the assemblywoman, MSH Menahelet Esther Eisenman, STEM coordinator and teacher Aliza Feder and Teach NYS representatives. Estee Lichter, mother of Tamar (MSH ‘13) and 9th grader Naomi, and Sarah Yastrab, mother of Tamar (MSH ‘16) and senior Nava, joined to share insights on their daughters’ experiences, and how well MSH prepared them for college and beyond.
Then the fun started! Sophomores Ayala Terebelo and Emily Weintraub demonstrated the robotic arm they are building in their scholars extracurricular class. Science Olympiad team members senior Becky Haviv, junior Simmy Shafiro, and freshman Sara Sigal exhibited the car they built to run on the energy created by a mouse trap.
Sophomores Shani Roffe and Jenna Shakarchi spooked the assemblywoman with their “cool but creepy” robotic hands. Junior Avigayil Roffe demonstrated the MSH STEM mascot, Gator, which she built at her internship at NYU last summer together with teacher Aliza Feder, seniors Chaya Roffe and Tamar Waronker, and junior Esther Conway.
Juniors Tal Gaon and Avigayil Roffe presented another robot they are building and coding to avoid bumping into obstacles in their STEM II class, and a giant menorah they built from scratch and coded to light up and play a musical Chanukah song any time someone comes into proximity of its optical sensors. Senior Becky Haviv and junior Zahava Ganchrow exhibited coded mini menorahs they had built to light up one light for each night and play a song at the end.
Sophomore Ayala Feder showed the assemblywoman the programs she is working on building: an electronic Mad-Libs, a math assistant program which doubles numbers, and a program to test if a number is even or odd. Freshmen Esther Halpert and Julia Lindner illustrated some of the things the 9th grade coding class has been learning.
Esther Halpert walked the assemblywoman through the front end of the web page she built, and the code behind it. Julia Lindner closed the program with a presentation of the idea for an app she is working on called Foreign, which she hopes will bring together people from different cultures who speak different languages.
The visit was a resounding success! The MSH students wished Assemblywoman Solages luck in the upcoming session in Albany and will visit her in her Albany office in March.
