The Davidson Institute for Science Education, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, recently celebrated five years since its establishment, at a conference entitled "Science education for the general population and education for tomorrow's scientists: two links in one chain"
From the right: Dr. Zehava Shertz, Dr. Yehuda Ben-Hur and Dr. Oved Kedem
The Davidson Institute for Science Education, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, recently celebrated five years since its establishment, at a conference entitled "Science education for the entire population and education for the scientists of tomorrow: two links in one chain", with the participation of the heads of the education system, academics, science education and teaching, and recipients decisions. Prof. Haim Harari, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Davidson Institute, briefly reviewed the scientific education enterprises associated with the Weizmann Institute, and thanked Bill Davidson of Detroit, whose generosity and vision made possible the establishment of the Davidson Institute, which already plays a key role in shaping the future of the State of Israel, through education the scientific
In the first session of the conference, the variety of activities of the Davidson Institute, intended for different audiences and populations, was presented, starting with the Chase Studio for outstanding students in science, and ending with a special program for youth who have fallen out of the formal educational framework. Other activities presented are
The Tomato Computer Project, a systemic experiment in which the Davidson Institute provides a laptop computer to all students and teachers in a number of classrooms in Israel; "News from the front of science", series of popular science courses for the general public; as well as advanced laboratories in science intended for students from all over the country; Diverse programs for the professional development of teachers in mathematics, science and technology, and frameworks for international seminars for leading science teachers.
At the end, there was a debate that referred to the meaning, importance and role of education in the age of science and technology. The discussion, moderated by Prof. Haim Harari, was attended by the president of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Prof. Daniel Zeifman, the chairman of the Pedagogical Secretariat of the Ministry of Education, Prof. Anat Zohar, and the CEO of the "Al-Op" company, Haim Russo, who also serves as chairman The Educational Committee of the Association of Manufacturers.
The Great Vaults Tournament
About 50 teams from Canada, the USA, Moldova, Russia, and schools across the country participated this year in the physics tournament named after Shalvet Friar, which was held for the 12th time at the Young Science Unit (JSMD) of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The tournament, which lasts two days, is the culmination of a process lasting several months, during which the students go all the way from inventing an idea for an original physical mechanism capable of locking a safe, to building the safe itself. In this way, they experience all the stages of scientific development - from the theoretical idea to the practical realization, and along the way gain in-depth, independent and experiential learning.
The products of the development process, about 50 sophisticated and impressive safes, reached the final stage of the tournament. The president of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Prof. Daniel Zeifman, gave the signal to open the competition, and emphasized the similarities between the challenge the high school students faced and the scientific research process of the "mature scientist": the freedom to ask questions, identify problems, and seek solutions. The tournament began with the evaluation of the various safes by a team of judges from the Faculty of Physics, and also by the participating students. Afterwards, there was a safe-breaking competition, in which the teams tried to decipher the physical mechanisms, and thus open the safes - within a limited time. All the solutions, answers and explanations were presented the next day, at the safes exhibition, which attracted a large crowd of students, teachers, parents, friends and the curious.
Half of the teams, who reached the highest achievements, received a score of one hundred in the physics laboratory exam.
A commendation was given to the outstanding burglary team, to the "crowd favorite" vault chosen by the students, as well as to three teams that demonstrated exceptional originality and investment.
Cmd tournaments
Following the success and response to the physics tournament, the unit for young people in science initiated two additional tournaments, intended for teams of high school students from around the country.
About thirty teams participated in the math tournament, from Be'er Sheva in the south to the agricultural school "Khudori" in the north, who competed in solving mathematical problems in various fields. The first prize was won by a team from Be'er Sheva, members of the "Mathematical Club in the South". In second place came the students of the school next to the University in Jerusalem, and in third place was won by a combined team that included students from Rehovot, Tel Aviv, Ra'anana and the "Einat Jordan" school.
In another new competition, the competitors were required to crack a chemical problem: each team created a mixture containing three different substances, and were required to identify the components of the competing mixtures, using diverse chemical methods. The students used reactions familiar to them from school, such as sedimentation, contradiction, color reactions, burning, oxidation and more. At a special seminar held at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the participants were instructed in the use of sophisticated and advanced methods, such as chromatography, mass spectrography, and identification through nuclear magnetic resonance. They were also helped by a variety of advice, ideas, and explanations provided by the organizers of the competition. The girls of the winning team, from the school
"Rogozin" in Kiryat Ata, enjoyed the intensive, practical and experiential learning experience, and also scored a hundred in the chemistry lab exam. The chemistry teacher at "Rogozin" high school, who sent five teams to the competition, noted favorably the close supervision, the professional guidance, and the technical help, which she received from the team of the unit for young people in science at the institute.
The bright side of the moon
Benjamin Newman, Deputy Director of the Office of Advanced Capabilities at the American Space Agency, NASA, was recently a guest at the Young Science Unit (JSU) at the Weizmann Institute, and gave a lecture on "The role of technology and robotic missions in the vision of space exploration". In the lecture, held in collaboration with the Israel Space Agency, and the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, the challenges and goals in space exploration were reviewed, focusing on the efforts
Those invested in sending spaceships and astronauts to the moon. Newman, who as a child in the 60s watched with excitement the first landing of American astronauts on the moon, currently coordinates the field of lunar research at the American space agency, with the aim of preparing for a prolonged stay of scientists on the moon. According to him, the motivations for exploring the moon are not limited only to acquiring knowledge and scientific data, or training astronauts for longer missions, but are also related to human curiosity and the human need to explore
Worlds away, and in the excitement that this research arouses among children of all ages. y
young chemists
Two high school students, graduates of the "Hats" (young researcher) project of the Young Science Unit (JSMD) at the Weizmann Institute of Science, received awards for outstanding theses at the recent conference of the Israeli Society of Chemistry.
The students' research works, Doron
Moskovitz from the C Comprehensive School in Ashdod, and May Aboud from the Catholic Episcopal School in Shafaram, who were involved in the production and characterization of organometallic compounds, were made under the guidance of students
The research is by Yam Salem and Michael Montag,
In the laboratory of Prof. David Milstein, in the department of organic chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
The "Arrow" project is intended for talented high school students who are interested in science, and as part of it, a series of meetings is held, which allows the youth to take a look at the forefront of contemporary science.
The world of elementary particles, advanced methods in brain research, evolution, bio-
Informatics and quantum theory - these are only some of the topics presented to the participants, both as lectures, and during visits to the Weizmann Institute laboratories, and in the experiments that the students perform themselves. Project participants are also invited
for a summer camp, during which they carry out research work in the institute's laboratories, under their guidance
of research students from the Feinberg Seminary. The two winning students, like other outstanding participants in the "Hats" project, expanded their research into a dissertation submitted to the Ministry of Education, earning them points in the science matriculation exams.
The 72nd conference of the Israeli Chemical Society was organized this year by the Faculty of Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science. It was attended by more than 850 members of academia and industry, as well as teachers and representatives of the forensics department of the Israel Police, who deal with various applications of chemistry.
In the poster competition, which was held as part of the conference, the research students Noam Geblinger won
and Ariel Ishamach, from the group of Dr. Ernesto Yoslevitz from the Department of Materials and Surfaces at the Weizmann Institute of Science, who presented research on curved nanotubes. Another winner is Galit Shostak from the Faculty of Chemistry at the Hebrew University. Seven research students, from the six chemistry faculties in Israel, won an award for an outstanding doctoral thesis, including Yifat Kaplan-Tashiri, from Prof. Rashef Tana's laboratory in the Department of Materials and Surfaces, who studies the mechanical properties of nanotubes made of tungsten disulfide. Dr. Milko van der Boom from the Department of Organic Chemistry won the award for the outstanding young scientist, for his "interdisciplinary program on materials chemistry, which focuses on synthetic and mechanistic studies in the direction of organometallic chemistry".
Prof. David Milstein, from the Department of Organic Chemistry, won the prestigious prize for an outstanding chemist, given by the Israel Chemical Society, "for his important contributions in the field of organometallic chemistry, development of new catalytic processes and methods for activating different carbon, oxygen and nitrogen bonds". He shared the award with Prof. Nimrod Moiseyev, a theoretician from the Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion.
Take it to a desert island
The virtual survival competition, "Kodagoro Extreme", was recently held at the Young Science Unit (JSUD) at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Eight teams participated in the final, competing for control of a virtual "deserted island". For this purpose, the competitors created "survival" computer programs, which use sophisticated tactics to attack the other programs and destroy them, and at the same time - to evade the opponents' attacks. The programs also had to deal with challenges implanted by the creators of the competition: "smart bombs" and "zombies" that roamed the arena.
The "Kodagoro Extreme" competition is a joint initiative of the Weizmann Institute of Science's Young Science Unit, the high-tech companies "Aladdin" and IBM, the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, the Association of Veterans of Unit 8200 of the Intelligence Corps, the Intelligence Division of the IDF, the Ministry of The government and the Ministry of Education. In the competition, the ability to think mathematically, deal with problems, originality, creativity and flexibility are tested. It is carried out in several rounds, so that the participants are given the opportunity to learn the weaknesses and strengths of the competitors, and improve their software accordingly.
At the end of the close final battle, which took place at the Davidson Institute for Science Education, the "Hot-Hots" team of XNUMXth grade students from the XNUMXth comprehensive high school in Rishon Lezion won. To the winners, Nir Solomon,
Hadar Itzikovitz, Elad Alfandari and Tal Zalmanovitz were awarded scholarships amounting to half the tuition fee for a bachelor's degree in computer science at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and a financial grant, a gift from the General Security Service. The "Ninja" team from the Reali School in Haifa, which won second place, and the "Asimov" team from the Ostrovsky School in Ra'anana, which won third place, were awarded cash prizes.
Dr. Zvi Peltiel, head of the unit for young people in science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, congratulated the participating teams and the winners for their impressive achievements, and emphasized that the competition is indeed over - but for the participants it is also the beginning of a successful career in computer science.
