Exploring Icebergs Around Town With Curious Minds
January 15, 2026
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immexpo-marseille.com – Icebergs usually drift through polar seas, far from city streets, yet Perelman Jewish Day School students recently discovered them around town in surprising ways. Instead of meeting towering ice walls, they met ideas, models, and experiments that turned an abstract science topic into something they could touch, test, and question. Their iceberg adventure brought big concepts down to kid-sized scale, while still honoring real scientific depth.
This local learning journey around town also reflected something larger: a fresh model for Jewish day school education. Teachers blended science, creativity, and Jewish values to show how curiosity can shape community life. By stepping beyond classroom walls, students learned that science lives in everyday spaces, from neighborhood parks to synagogue hallways.
Icebergs Around Town: Science Beyond the Classroom
The project began with a simple question: how can students grasp the hidden structure of icebergs without leaving Philadelphia? Teachers answered by turning the city itself into a learning lab around town. Students visited local spots, compared real bodies of water with models, then returned to school ready to build, test, and debate their own ideas about floating ice. Science stopped feeling like a distant subject from textbooks.
One experiment used clear plastic containers, water, and frozen blocks that represented icebergs. Students watched how most of each block stayed out of sight below the surface. They recorded observations, estimated percentages, then linked those numbers to real-world navigation challenges. Suddenly, the old phrase “tip of the iceberg” moved from language lesson to concrete physical reality.
Observing local ponds or fountains around town, students compared murky water to their clean classroom models. They noticed how leaves or trash collected near edges, then discussed how melting ice in polar regions might carry sediments, pollutants, or nutrients. This early environmental awareness opened space for questions about human responsibility: if a small pond nearby needs care, what about distant oceans?
Jewish Values Meet Polar Science Around Town
As students followed iceberg ideas around town, Jewish learning traveled with them. Teachers framed each visit through familiar values such as bal tashchit, the prohibition against needless waste. When conversations turned to climate change, they did not rely only on graphs or statistics. They asked: what does Jewish tradition suggest about preserving a fragile world already threatened by warming seas and shrinking ice sheets?
Students also explored the concept of arevut, shared responsibility. Icebergs drift far from Philadelphia, yet their fate connects to energy use, consumption choices, and public policy closer to home. Walking through their own neighborhoods around town, learners discussed small actions: reducing single-use plastics, limiting unnecessary car trips, supporting local environmental initiatives. The goal never involved guilt; instead, it centered on empowerment through thoughtful choices.
From my perspective, the most striking aspect lies in how Perelman’s approach refuses to separate spiritual life from scientific curiosity. Many schools treat Torah study and climate data as unrelated subjects. Here, those worlds meet on a park bench or near a storm drain around town. A question about melting ice naturally expands into conversation about stewardship, justice, and the duty to protect vulnerable communities already feeling the impact of rising seas.
Why Learning Around Town Matters
Learning around town changes how children see their own lives. Science shifts from a distant topic about polar explorers to a living story unfolding through every puddle, fountain, and water bottle. Jewish values move from abstract ideals to daily choices made on bus rides, at playgrounds, and during family errands. When a city becomes a classroom, students discover that knowledge does not end when the bell rings. It flows through streets, seeps into conversations at home, then returns to school as new questions. This iceberg project offers a powerful reminder: the world’s biggest challenges may feel remote, yet meaningful change often begins in familiar places we already walk every day. Reflecting on that truth might be the most enduring lesson of all.
