Srividhya Sundaram is a STEM teacher for grades 6, 8 and 10 and the science department chair at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston, New Jersey. An enthusiastic educator for 15 years, she believes in learning by discovery and enjoys the infinite possibilities brought forth by young minds each day. With a tremendous love of learning, she inspires a passion to discover the world around us by experimenting, by asking questions, and by making connections to relevance in real life. Sundaram designs her learning environment to ignite, to develop, and to sustain creative thinking in her students.
Sundaram has a bachelor’s degree in science and a master’s degree in educational leadership. She later joined NASA’s Endeavor program and was certified by NASA as STEM Teacher Leader.
After school, she enjoys robotics and tinkering as a hobby. She describes her biggest strength as her willingness to collaborate with her peers and to co-learn. She believes in developing a good rapport with her students and helping them find their strengths so that they could believe and value themselves. Sundaram won the Jerry Gottesman Award for Teaching Excellence, Professional Learning, and Community Collaboration in 2017.
Hack A Solar Circuit
Deconstruct an inexpensive solar circuit, then repurpose it to engineer a foldable, lightweight solar-powered device that solves a real human problem.