Introducing #ExploreElul

To be honest, I hadn’t ever paid much attention to Elul before, but it turns out, it’s a pretty cool time of year! Elul is the 12th month of the Jewish Calendar--the final one before the High Holy Days. Traditionally during Elul, we look inward and reflect on the last year while preparing for the coming year. Jewish themes combined with STEM are a great way to explore during Elul, whether internally about yourself, or externally about the world around you. And, #ExploreElul was born! 

Similar to BlogElul, we will be exploring different themes and topics that allow us to reflect and prepare for the new year.  Each week of #ExploreElul will kick-off with an experiment relating to the week’s theme, and be followed with daily prompts and hot takes about the experiment and theme. With these hands-on activities and more abstract ideas, we can dive into the relationship between Judaism and STEM, seeing how these two big ideas actually go hand-in-hand.

Elul begins this Friday, August 21st, and is 29 days long. The last night is Erev Rosh Hashanah, on September 18. Keep your eye out later this week for our first #ExploreElul post, with some awesome graphics from my good friend and colleague, Brett Lubarsky, Director of the Jewish Teen Initiative. 

Sounds cool? Want to follow along? Or get in on the action? Be sure to follow JEdSTEM on Instagram, test out the experiments at home, tag us and #ExploreElul to show us how you are taking this opportunity to dive deeper into Judaism and STEM as you get ready for 5781. 

This post is part of ExploreElul, from The JEdSTEM Initiative, a month of reflection and exploration of the intersection of Judaism and STEM.