Nassau School Notebook: LI teams named regional winners in ExploraVision
A Commack High School team is among 22 regional winners nationwide - including four from Long Island - in the 29th Annual ExploraVision Competition. From left are Commack's director of science Jill Johanson, science research teacher Nicole Fuchs, team members Ishaan Singh, Mitchel Ghermezian and Amantej Rana, Principal Leslie Boritz and science research mentor Jeanette Collette. Credit: Commack School District
Four Long Island teams are regional winners for imagining technologies that might exist two decades from now.
Teams from Jericho High School, Commack High School, Jericho Middle School and John H. West Elementary School in Bethpage are among 22 regional winners nationwide in this year's ExploraVision Competition. They were selected in the grades 10 to 12, 7 to 9, 4 to 6 and kindergarten to 3 divisions, respectively.
The regional winners are now competing in the national phase, which asks teams to build webpages and short videos, with national winners to be announced on May 4. First-place teams in each division win $10,000, while second-place teams win $5,000.
"Winners must be innovative and forward-thinking, astute at research, and practical," Commack's director of science Jill Johanson said. "We are so proud of our students; they are among the best at these essential 21st century skills."
Jericho High School's project proposed a low-cost system that uses deep neural networks to generate novel lysin amino acid sequences to target specific human pathogens, while Commack's project strives to improve prosthetic fingers by creating a machine-learning program that can predict which supporting nerves activate during specific arm, hand and finger movement.
Jericho Middle School's project focuses on a futuristic treatment for Alzheimer's disease that employs endonasal endoscopic machinery and nanomotors, and John H. West's project is an affordable mosquito trap for communities dealing with excessive populations of the flying pests.
The 29th annual competition was coordinated by the National Science Teaching Association and Toshiba.
In Valley Stream, Memorial Junior High School students celebrated "The Power of Yet" as part of the school's Power of Positivity Week. From left are students Jayden Smith, Jasmeen Kaur and Marilyn Sanchez-Zepeda. Credit: Valley Stream Central High School District
HEMPSTEAD
Dream Job Essay
Richard Henriquez, a seventh-grader at Evergreen Charter School, is one of three winners nationwide in Virtual Enterprises' Junior Venture Dream Job Essay Competition, which asked students to describe their dream job and why they would be a good candidate for it. The competition received nearly 1,500 submissions.
Richard, who aspires to be an aerospace engineer, received a $75 Amazon gift card and an opportunity to meet someone from the aerospace engineering field.
First-graders at Munsey Park Elementary School recently collaborated with students from other classes to work on their writing skills while enjoying the spring weather. Credit: Manhasset School District
Long Island students who received honorable mentions were Bryanna Rothwell and Shreeya Vashistha of Robert M. Finley Middle School in Glen Cove, Aleeza Dhillon of Valley Stream North High School, and Saahirah Mohsin of Valley Stream Memorial Junior High School.
GREAT NECK
Community Closet
The Great Neck School District recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil a "community closet" that will provide clothing for the district's students in need. It is located at Great Neck South Middle School.
The new facility will work collaboratively with the clothing pantry at the district's Saddle Rock Elementary School that opened in 2019. Both will be accessible to the district's social work team upon request from a teacher, administrator or parent.
"Being able to provide our students with needed clothing will help them feel more comfortable and confident in school and, in turn, support their academic success," Great Neck Superintendent Teresa Prendergast said.
ISLANDWIDE
'Go APE' winners
Seven Long Island high schoolers won Awards of Excellence in the Art League of Long Island's 14th Annual "Go APE" Advanced Placement Student Exhibition, which featured the artwork of 124 students from 37 schools. It ran virtually through April 9.
Award winners and their high schools were: Aleena Abraham, Hicksville; Jordan Brand, Baldwin; Keren Dial, Valley Stream South; Sarah Hauk, Sayville; Emma Romano, Oceanside; Kathryn Yi, Jericho; and Kristine Zhou, Syosset.
"The last year pokes its way into this show as a whole, and certainly into the pieces of our winners," said the league's program manager Andrea Lawl Manning. "Ideas about life, loneliness and isolation, cultural and social issues weave into these works."
— MICHAEL R. EBERT
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
