Project-Based learning: pilot programs - drone technology and 3D Printing

Students learn best when they hardly know they are learning at all! If they’re engaged in a project for pure enjoyment and interest, and if it’s a project featuring a robust curriculum, students will learn and grow!

Students in this innovative pilot program benefitted from creative thinkers - grad students from UCLA - and a team of ARK Invest analysts who volunteered their time to develop engaging curriculum for the program, and were involved as volunteer coaches and mentors to our students.

In our first guided, long-term project in 2020, the coaches/mentors lead lessons on ‘drone technology’ to create opportunities for students to learn reading comprehension, math, science, critical thinking, problem solving, financial literacy and more.

In this exciting new model, top-performing students received their own drone during the course of the program, and all students had the opportunity to receive small drones, with adequate funding.

The second pilot program, in summer of 2021, featured a problem-solving project involving COVID safety measures, where students used 3D printing to create models of their solutions.

Our partnership with Innovation Foundation, started by ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood in 2021, will continue, with Jericho as the northeast hub for IF and new curriculum being piloted with our students.