The Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy is moving into science and technology in a big way.

The Livingston yeshiva's lower and upper schools — Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy and Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School — have announced new science, math, and technology initiatives.

They range from a course in robotics taught in cooperation with Kean University, to the installation of "SMARTBoards" and other high-tech items in classrooms.

The goal, say administrators, is to raise the level of science teaching to the quality of the yeshiva's religious studies, in ways that complement both.

The new offerings reflect "our commitment to providing all students at our yeshiva with a challenging and exciting academic program," said principal and rosh yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Rubin in a statement. "Cutting-edge technology and its application support our instructional efforts and encourage our teachers to develop new ways to inspire learning."

Among the new and upgraded offerings are studies of medical and surgical robotics; "mechatronics" and animatronics; as well as carbon footprinting, global warming, fossil fuels, alternative energy, and biomes. Other offerings include otolaryngology, otology, neoplasms, and cardiothoracic surgery.

Educators from Kean University have begun teaching robotics at the high school. Other students attend lectures at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey as part of a pre-med honors program. The school has launched an Environmental Issues club, where students conduct projects about solar and wind energy and meet with environmental scientists and leaders. This month, JKHA seventh-graders will study school lunches to determine whether they meet nutritional requirements.

SMARTBoards have been installed in the high school, middle school, and lower school, allowing the classrooms' "whiteboards" to interact with computer monitors and other devices. Administrators say the SMARTBoards will be as useful for the study of limudei kodesh — Jewish texts — as they are in the science and math classrooms.

The moves at Kushner come amid growing awareness among Jewish day school educators of the importance of offering top-notch science and mathematics instruction. In a May 2007 Brandeis University study that compared Jewish day school graduates with graduates of non-Jewish schools, the authors urged day schools and yeshivot to "do more to improve math and science learning." The study was endorsed by the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, an interdenominational consortium of Jewish day schools.

Philanthropists have taken notice of the push for science education, and Kushner is a beneficiary.

Last year, with a grant from the Gruss Foundation, the school initiated the Mitchell Excellence 2000 Program for sixth- and seventh-graders. The program is an accelerated science program for highly motivated students.

The Gruss Foundation also made possible last year the addition at JKHA of SuccessMaker and Waterford, software-based curriculum enrichment programs.

Video conferencing equipment provided by the Global Learning Initiative, a program of the Institute for Educational Research, Training and Support at Yeshiva University's Azrieli Graduate School, in partnership with the Center for the Jewish Future, will also allow the yeshiva's middle school teachers to participate in a series of professional development seminars with noted educators.