Yerucham team with Hershkowitz
Yerucham team with HershkowitzYoav Ari Davidkavitz

Six 14-year-old yeshiva students from the city of Yerucham in southern Israel have won an international prize. The six took one of two runner-up awards in the First Lego League (FLL) Global Innovation competition.

Team members Eitam Aharon, Ilan Ben-Hamo, Naftali Deutsch, Tidhar Gavar, Dvir Cohen and Yedidya Froyndlich of Tzvia Yeshiva beat 250 other teams to become the first Israeli team to place in an FLL competition. They won a $5,000 grant to continue their research.

The team’s winning development was the FreezeStick, a device to help with food storage. The stick contains chemicals, and can be manually folded to set off a chemical reaction that renews the freezing of ice in a cooler, giving another 10 hours of cold storage.

The device could also be used to help in the transport of medicines that must be stored at a low temperature.

Teams had to field questions from experts and discuss their research. The FLL finalist teams were honored at a ceremony at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The team from Yerucham met with Science Minister Daniel Hershkowitz (Jewish Home) upon its return to Israel. The young inventors showed Hershkowitz their product.

“Your achievement shows that thinking outside the box can lead to a wonderful, simple invention, that it’s amazing wasn’t created earlier,” Hershkowitz said. He noted that since entering office he has increased the budget for teaching science in northern and southern Israel. “We see the wonderful result before our eyes, proving that the investment paid off,” he said.