Sustainability education, robotics, computer science, and smart production and smart consumption of food—all these and more describe the current studies for students at the Hadassah Neurim Youth Aliyah Village located on the Mediterranean Sea near Netanya. The fact that many Israeli high-tech companies and businesses open their doors to our Neurim youth allows them to see how their curriculum relates directly to Israel's high-tech companies as well as to their everyday life.
The highlights below, featured in the Passover edition of Neurim's newsletter, give a taste of the amazing scope and variety of activities offered to the teens who live at Neurim:
- The Hadassah Neurim robotics team XO7039 and two other teams they worked with won first place in the first district competition for the season. In the National Championship held in Jerusalem on March 23, the team came in 12th out of 59 teams.
- Digitalized classes in Neurim's advanced technology center were inaugurated thanks to the Red Association, which equipped three classes with 28 advanced and powerful computers.
- Salesforce and the Venatata Association collaborated in a beautiful Tu B'shvat ceremony at Neurim, where over 200 volunteers took part in an activity promoting sustainability education. The volunteers planted new gardens, renovated outdoor furniture, planted trees, and painted and decorated the village.
- At the beginning of the year, Neurim hosted Rhoda Smolow, Hadassah president, and Ron Aloni, Hadassah CFO and COO, along with Susie Patt Benvenisti, executive director of Hadassah's Israel Offices. During the visit, Neurim leaders shared village milestones and reflected on the development of the village in recent years.
- Neurim's Student Council is promoting a platform supporting the well-being of the school's students by strengthening their sense of belonging to the village and the general morale. Activity breaks during the year encouraged students to participate in different outdoor work areas offering gifts, sweets, artistic makeup, and tattoos.
- Tenth-grade students majoring in Information and Data were invited by the Center for Research and Knowledge of the Tel Aviv Municipality for an educational daylong tour during which researchers explained the type of data the center collects and how their work affects the city and its residents. Some of the students even got help with data collection for their research.
- At Monday, a high-tech company in Tel Aviv, the CEO introduced students to the workspace and facilities there, including a music room, a bedroom, a gym, meeting rooms, a bar and more. He talked about the company and its data analysis work and presented challenging questions to the Neurim visitors.
- Mechatronics students toured the Haifa Science Tech, where they were exposed to the material taught in class in a tangible way. They experienced operating a robot that detects landmines, witnessed a talking and dancing robot, operated and played with the facilities, and concluded with a tour of the museum.
- Six research projects were completed and submitted to the Ministry of Education. Subjects ranged from research on the effectiveness of acetylenes as water pollution filters to the creation of a ping-pong game in augmented reality.
- After the Ministry of Education announced their annual theme, "saving food," 9th-grade students began planning experiments and demonstrations to determine how to extend the shelf life of food products and how to deal with surplus food that normally ends up in the garbage.
- Emphasizing physical fitness throughout the year, students engage in everything from weight trainingand walks on the beach to soccer and volleyball. Individualized training programs and nutritional guidance are also offered. Athletic competitions take place throughout the year.
- In a new immersive classroom at the Neurim Technology Center, students are surrounded by images and sounds and can be taken anywhere without limits of time, size or space. The class can be used for a trip back to biblical times, a visit to Auschwitz or a journey through the digestive system.
- Field trips took students to the Galilee and to an army base. A cycling group toured the southern desert. Workshops on alcohol awareness, sex and sexuality, nutrition and health, and smoking avoidance were also offered. Fifteen students displayed their art at a local art exhibition.
- In cooperation with computer company Dell, students practiced their English with Dell volunteers. In January, students visited company headquarters to meet face-to-face with the volunteers, all while practicing their English-speaking skills.