iSTEAM is the flagship program of the Israel Sci-Tech Schools Network and aims to prepare graduates for the challenges of the 21st century. The program is highly regarded internationally and is licensed to schools in the European Union, USA, Russian Federation, Azerbaijan and The Philippines. The program is based on students building multidisciplinary projects (including science, engineering, technology and art) and through which they acquire skills required in our changing world such as teamwork, critical thinking, innovative design and entrepreneurship.
iSTEAM OpenValley is a joint venture between Israel Sci-Tech Schools Network and OpenValley whose goal is to connect the worlds of innovation and start-ups to Israel Sci-Tech schools around the country. The programs take place at OpenValley ‘s innovation centers, providing designated study and training complexes for student and teacher entrepreneurs and student-led clubs in the field of innovation and the promotion of change processes and creative thinking.
The STUDIO and MAKERS curriculum aims to develop and strengthen the skills, competencies and abilities required of students at a time when the main challenges depend on abilities of flexibility and adaptability to changing situations and less on knowledge. The curriculum aims to leverage the MAKERS ‘mental and social skills for the benefit of pedagogical educational goals such as creation, iteration, sharing and autonomous learning. The program also seeks to impart “hands-on wisdom” to each student, required to create a creative and physical project. The program contents focus on skills that combine spatial thinking, initiative, design, documentation and technical skills that combine wood, metal, plastic, textile work, Arduino and Micro: bit and 3D controllers, and skills dealing with open challenges, and abilities of teamwork and multidisciplinary integration.
R&D incubator for the development of teachers investing in innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Incubator for Teacher Development for Innovation and Technological, Engineering-Scientific Entrepreneurship is a cushion for developing products, systems and solutions to promote the school’s start-up culture, while interacting with start-up and high-tech companies, and promoting the schools’ start-up culture.
The R&D incubator operates in three channels:
- HUB Educational – Track for Educational Initiatives: Accompanying a team of leading teachers and principals from around the network for an annual development process of technological-engineering solutions in the PBL approach at a high level of Design Thinking
- Capsule for pedagogical innovation: on a variety of relevant topics while hosting and accompanying professionals and mentors as needed.
- Workshop and Curriculum MAKERS: The workshop will be an example of a compact but properly equipped school workshop, with the aim of producing a clear standard for workshops. Any teacher who has been trained to be a workshop operator will be able to enter any other workshop and run it relatively easily. The workshop will prepare teachers for the maintenance and operation of the workshops, and as an example of a school workshop, all the equipment in the workshop will be done with a view to maximizing low budgets and a mechanism of establishment in stages.
The workshop is accompanied by a program for learning the basics of middle school making that will allow learning a kind of Montosuri space only when all the activities stored on the shelves are activities from the world of making, packed in a closed standard structure, in various fields – arduino, mechanics, programming, 3D design, laser cutting, sewing, and at different levels.
