Ramaz Technology, Engineering, and Coding: The Department of the Future
An Introduction to RamTEC
TEC Classes: Grades 9 & 10, and half of 11
I am delighted to share with you the progress of the first few months of the new RamTEC department. TEC is a new mandatory class for all students in grades 9, 10 and 11. In addition, there are three 12th grade TEC electives. Grades 9 and 10 participate in the CIJETech program, a curriculum used in many Jewish day schools and adapted by our incredible faculty (see page 11) to fit our school’s needs and schedule.
By Nicole Hirschkorn ‘22
For the first two years, students learn engineering and coding principles through hands-on experience and labs. The students work on projects in small groups, and problem-solve engineering obstacles through experience-based learning. Many of the skills RamTEC is solidifying for our students are transferable to other classes, like learning to overcome problems on their own and learning to make clear and effective presentations. In 11th grade, half the year is spent on engineering and the other half on coding in Python.
When the class first began, we skimmed the surface of circuitry. The first day of class consisted of an exercise, where we were given two wires, a battery and a lightbulb, and were asked to build a simple circuit to light the bulb. It was a unique hands-on experience that pushed us to think outside of the box and problem-
This newsletter is composed of summaries of the TEC courses and clubs, all written by students. I hope you enjoy reading about what has taken place in the first semester of the year as much as our students have enjoyed participating and learning thus far. On behalf of the TEC faculty and the Upper School administration, we are very excited about the positive feedback we have received and the future growth of RamTEC. Lenore Brachot Science and RamTEC Department Chair
RamTEC is an advanced, hands-on, state-of-theart class. The course has taught us the basics of coding, circuitry and engineering. As the class progressed, we delved deeper into the complexities of technology.
solve. In middle school, most of us had never seen anything like it. As the weeks progressed, we delved deeper into circuitry. We learned complex ideas, such as resistance, Ohm’s Law, voltage and current. We then moved on to building complicated circuits incorporating breadboards, which are experimental models of an electric circuit. The next step was to connect breadboards with Arduino boards. An Arduino board consists of a physical circuit board and software that runs on a computer to write and upload code on to the Continued on pg 2