A team of Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School students — from left, top row, Jillian Cumsky, Jackie Schlussel, Ari Mendelow, Sam Chosak, and Yehuda Brickman; and, bottom row, Akiva Mattenson, Joey Kotzker, and Eleorah Sandman — snagged a second-place spot at an international invention competition held in Israel.
Photo by Laurie Schlussel
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July 9, 2009
Using a bicycle, a pump, and the principles of reverse osmosis, a team of eighth and ninth graders at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston put together a portable desalination device that runs on green energy.
It helped them snatch top prizes in the Gildor Family Projects and Inventions, an international science competition, including first place in the New York finals and second place in Israel, where they competed against 10 Israeli schools.
It was only the second year that U.S. schools participated. The students were in Israel June 29 through July 2 for the July 2 competition, which was held at the Israel Center for Excellence through Education campus (also known as the Israel Arts and Science Academy, the Center for Excellence’s flagship program) in Jerusalem.
“I learned a huge amount not only in science but about the design process and the work process, and realizing the skills it takes to design something,” said Eleorah Sandman of Springfield, a member of the Kushner team. “To work on something that requires so much time, and then to come out with a fully designed system that really works — that’s a great feeling.”
Gildor began in Israel as a project of the Center for Excellence, and is also open to schools participating in its Excellence 2000 programs, or E2K. The project requires teams of students to research, design, and create a device that solves a specific current issue in Israel. The project changes each year.
Kushner was one of three participating U.S. schools this year. The others were the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth and Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway, Queens.
Team members described how they and the project evolved over the course of the year.
“Working with a team was interesting,” said Joseph Kotzker of Highland Park. “As the year went on, we started working together better. I haven’t been such a good team worker in the past.”
They started with research — both green energy and the mechanics of desalination, and then moved on to brainstorming. But it was after they started building their project that “things got really fun,” according to Ari Mendelow of West Orange.
The biggest challenge was keeping the pump running, according to adviser William Landau, who also serves as cochair of the middle school science program at Kushner. “Pumps of this sort are fickle. The valves become compromised with salt water. Sometimes you think you’ve cleaned it out, but there may be residue,” he said.
All went smoothly during the New York competition, held June 7 at Yeshiva University in Manhattan. But in Israel, things got a little hairy. “Things went all wrong,” said Eleorah. “We got discouraged, but we kept working.”
One parent chaperone was amazed at their persistence.
“The project became a priority for them. Nobody grumbled. No one whined,” said Laurie Schlussel of Edison, whose daughter Jackie participated. “They knew the job they had to get done. That impressed me for a group of 15-year-olds. They just persisted.”
In the end, the pump failed for all but about seven minutes of the presentation. Apparently, however, that was enough to get enough water through and wow the judges, who awarded them second place.
“They not only made the apparatus, they really understood it; they knew the background. They were fantastic. And they persevered even when the project did not work,” said Judy Lebovitz of the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education.
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