Jul 11, 2017

Yerucham Science Center Leads Robotics Camp at Local JCCs

This week and next, more than 70 campers at Miami’s three Jewish community centers (JCCs) are experiencing a hands-on robotics summer camp, led by the award-winning Israeli Yerucham Science Center. Through the support of Federation’s Miami-Yerucham Partnership, the Michael-Ann Russell JCC and the Miami Beach JCC hosted week-long camps this week, and the Alper JCC will host one next week. By the end of the first day, the enthusiastic campers — a mix of boys and girls — had already completed their robots and began to program them.

A diverse team of counselors from the Yerucham Science Center arrived in Miami last Friday in time for Shabbat with their host families, and then spent the weekend preparing for the camps and enjoying the city. Ido Frommer, head of the Yerucham Science Center, led the camp sessions. He said, “Our goal was to expose the campers to high-tech technologies in an exciting way. The campers are having so much fun and are hungry for more knowledge. I know some of them will become our future leading engineers. Yerucham is proud to share its expertise in technology with our family in Miami.” While some of the campers’ moms had requested robots that would do the dishes or help with the laundry, the robots are actually remote control cars.

The robotics summer camp follows the successful launch of the Miami Jewish Day School Robotics Initiative. Spearheaded by Federation’s subsidiary agency, the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) and the Yerucham Science Center, the program integrated robotics curriculum into 3rd- and 4th-grade classrooms at Hebrew Academy (RASG), Lehrman Community School and Scheck Hillel Community Day School.­­ The Initiative was so popular that a number of leaders, teachers and administrators expressed interest in participating. As a result, this fall, five more Jewish day schools will join the Initiative including, Hochberg Preparatory School, Temple Beth Am, The Gordon School, Yeshiva Toras Emes Toras Chaim and Yeshiva Elementary School.

“The robotics project with both the day schools and JCCs highlights the positive impact the Miami-Yerucham Partnership is having on our community, as well as strengthens the people-to-people relationships between both cities,” shared Stanley Weinstein, Miami-Yerucham Partnership Chair.

For more information on the Miami-Yerucham Partnership, contact Israel and Overseas Director Dahlia Bendavid at [email protected] or 786.866.8445.