By Shira Hanovich and Rachel Leo, Heilicher 8th Grade Students
A few Fridays ago, the Heilicher 8th graders took a trip to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis Park. The Pavek museum contains lots of different kinds of old technology, ranging from movie theater speakers to typewriters. The point of the trip was to see and learn about some old communications technology, and to help us dive further into ways Judaic Studies and technology are intertwined. Rabbi Schein blew the shofar at one point and we discussed the ethics of public discourse, and how modern technology has changed the definition of “public.”
One of the coolest things that we got to do was record our own radio shows! We were split into two groups, and everyone had a different job to do. There were sound engineers, program announcers, newscasters, breaking newscasters, and the teachers were our directors. The show was broadcast on the radio, and could be heard up to a block away from Pavek. We also got to play a Jeopardy game which tested our knowledge on what we had learned at the beginning of the field trip, with questions such as, “What is the Greek word for amber?” (elektron), or “What do AM and FM stand for?” (frequency and amplitude modulation).
We all then tried to use a theremin (an electronic musical instrument that is used in broadcasting to denote ‘eerie’ situations), but we were only skilled enough to produce noises that sounded like irritated cats. Overall, we had a really good time on the field trip, and we learned quite a bit about the “shocking” past of communication technology.
Main photo: Gabe K. experiments with old broadcasting equipment at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.
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- 8th Grade
- Field Trip
- STEAM
- Technology
