Lockheed Martin STEM Activities in Israel
Lockheed Martin believes that the advancement of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education requires close cooperation between industry, educators, policy makers and families. As a market leader, Lockheed Martin, which employs some 56,000tens on thousands of engineers, scientists and IT experts, is committed to working with these groups to develop programs that teach and inspire the scientists and technology professionals of tomorrow.
The future growth of Israel’s economy will require a constant supply of highly-trained, highly-capable technical talent and Lockheed Martin is proud of the collaboration with Israel’s Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Rashi Foundation to promote STEM related programs for kindergarten throughout high school.
Kindergarden
MadaKids, the first Lockheed Martin technology kindergarden was inaugurated in Beer Sheva on October 2015. The goal of this initiative is to develop the children’s scientific and technological literacy and thinking skills and increase their scholastic confidence and serve as a model for technology education in the pre-school years throughout Israel, potentially helping to create a new generation of technologically literate citizen. Lockheed Martin has established ten MadaKids Science Kindergartens together with Rashi Foundation, Ministry of Education, Beit-Yatsiv organization and the Municipalities of Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Beit Shean and Kiryat Malakhi. The MadaKids curriculum includes more than 300 annual study hours, delivered by specially trained kindergarten teachers. The curriculum uses a hands-on, problem-based learning to foster critical thinking skills, bolsters scientific vocabulary and promotes a deeper understanding of opportunities within the STEM community. Many MadaKids Kindergarten graduates continue on to a robotics program that Lockheed Martin recently expanded to assist first through sixth grade MadaKids graduates.
Primary School
Lockheed Martin sponsored the Israel FIRST LEGO JUNIOR LEAGUE finals with the participation of 200 third and fourth graders from primary schools in the Tel Aviv area. In addition, budget have been approved for a continuation program for the pupils that participated in the technology kindergartens in Beer Sheva and in Kiryat Malachi, a Robotics curriculum is currently being prepared by the Rashi Foundation.
Middle School
The Israel Ministry of Education, Rashi Foundation and Lockheed Martin partnered to create a girls only cyber summer camps in Israel. The camps are focused on increasing the number of girls entering and remaining in the Israeli high school cyber programs with the goal to increase the female human capital in the cyber workforce by creating a national female cyber community. The camps were held in August 2015 and 2016, with the participation of over 200 girls transitioning from the 9th to 10th grade.
High School
Lockheed Martin sponsored SkillZ, Israel’s first national high school cyber competition. The competition was created by the Israel Ministry of Education, in partnership with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Cyber Command and the Rashi Foundation, with the objective to increase the number of students pursuing degrees in computer science and cyber. Over 2000 students from seventy high schools across Israel participated at the competition.
