Three new MadaKids kindergartens, designed to inspire the scientific side of Israeli children, were launched in the northern Israeli city of Beit She’an on Tuesday.
The science kindergartens were launched by global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin in partnership with the Education Ministry, as well as with the Beit She’an municipality and Jewish community organizations.
Since the beginning of the MadaKids project in 2015, Lockheed Martin has established seven MadaKids science kindergartens in Beersheba, Kiryat Malachi and the capital Jerusalem.
The new Beit She’an kindergartens are the first located in northern Israel.
For the first time, one of the three kindergartens inaugurated will focus on educating three-year-old children, even younger than other kindergartens in the MadaKids program.
"The new science kindergartens send a huge message to our children," Education Minister Yifat Sasha-Biton said at their inauguration. "They will now be exposed to the fascinating world of STEM studies at a young age and experience this special learning process."
"These kindergartens are a part of the concept we are leading in the education system, focusing on exposing children to the world of science and technology at an early age, as part of their natural educational environment inside the kindergarten," she said.
MadaKids kindergartens "inspire and nurture children as they grow and develop into the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians," Lockheed Martin executive vice president Stephanie C. Hill said.
The company "commends" the Israeli government in its efforts to create a "dynamic learning environment for children and welcoming them into the world of scientific discovery," she said.