School Notebook: Bethpage team wins Long Island Ethics Bowl
A Bethpage High School team has been named the winner of this year's Long Island High School Ethics Bowl. Team members, from left, are Liam O'Connor, Aurrel Bhatia, Muskan Chhabra, Sophia Passaro, Matthew Cusumano along with senior Bernardo Jimenez, who will be competing on the school's team at the national level. Credit: Wendy Way
A Bethpage High School team has been crowned the regional champion of ethics discussions.
The team — Aurrel Bhatia, Muskan Chhabra, Matthew Cusumano, Liam O'Connor and Sophia Passaro — took the top spot last month in this year's Long Island High School Ethics Bowl, which was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams from Farmingdale and Northport high schools placed second and third, respectively.
The competition, which consisted of 23 teams from Long Island and one from Westchester County, challenged participants to analyze real-life ethical issues and judged them on the quality of their contributions to a civil discussion.
For winning, Bethpage will compete against 29 other teams next month at the national level in North Carolina.
"This was a big morale booster after a couple of years that have been challenging," said the team's coach Wendy Way.
This year's bowl topics ranged from whether museums are morally obligated to contextualize artwork for patrons to the ethics of "predictive policing," which refers to the use of analytical techniques to identify potential criminal activity.
The regional bowl was sponsored by the Squire Family Foundation in East Northport.
The jazz band from Harborfields High School in Greenlawn was among the participants last month in the Suffolk County Music Educators' Association's Day of Jazz, which was held at Nesaquake Middle School in St. James. Credit: Harborfields School District
BELLPORT AND DIX HILLS
Art show winners
Ashley Park of Half Hollow Hills High School West and Mathew Guerrero of Bellport High School were the top winners of this year's All-County Art and Senior Scholarship Show, coordinated by the Suffolk County Art Leaders Association. Park received the best-in-show award, while Guerrero won the first-place scholarship of $750.
Other winners, their high schools and categories were: Betsey Castro, Bellport, photography; Lauren Holmes, East Islip, digital media; Dom Nickson, East Islip, mixed media; Sebastian Ramirez, Huntington, video/animation; Olivia Rossi, Lindenhurst, drawing; and Alyssa Spano, Half Hollow Hills West, painting.
Art students in Allisyn Massimo's class at Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School recently participated in a collaborative portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with Riverhead-based East End Arts. Credit: Eastport-South Manor School District
The second- and third-place scholarship winners of $500 and $250 were Francesca Rodriguez of Lindenhurst High School and Lauren De Rosso of Shoreham-Wading River High School, respectively.
GLEN COVE
Excellence in Civic Education
Glen Cove School District has won the inaugural National Civics Day Award for Excellence in Civic Education from Long Island University and the Society of Presidential Descendants. The award, which comes with a $1,000 prize, invited schools to showcase their ongoing civic education programming and how they celebrated National Civics Day in October.
Glen Cove was recognized for promoting a school culture that is "cohesive, open-minded and supportive of all students and reflects the current values and needs of modern society," the university said.
Dylan Caldwell, who's working on the pull-string for Sheriff Woody, of Disney's "Toy Story," was among the students who became caregivers for their stuffed toys last month during a virtual teddy bear clinic with the Stony Brook Trauma Center at Great Neck Road Elementary School in Copiague. Credit: Copiague School District
"The Glen Cove School District has developed an exceptional curriculum that emphasizes citizenship for a strong democracy," said Andy Person, director of Long Island University's Roosevelt School.
ISLANDWIDE
STEM learning
Many schools have been hosting unique projects in recent weeks to teach children the subjects of science, technology, engineering and math — also known as STEM.
In East Islip, the high school's Science Club used household items — including index cards, cotton balls and plastic cups — to build shock-absorbing devices called "lunar landers" that could safely transport two pieces of bubble gum.
In Shoreham, students in Danielle Senneca's research class at Albert G. Prodell Middle School created presentations about the Vietnam War and welcomed veteran Lt. Dan Guida, who shared his experiences in the war. Credit: Shoreham-Wading River School District
Elementary students in Babylon predicted whether a candle would keep burning inside a sealed jar and tested their hypothesis using three different-sized jars as part of an experiment called "Festival of Lights."
In Bellmore, third-graders at Winthrop Avenue Elementary School created an assortment of traps for snowmen — using materials including cardboard, tape and twine — after reading Adam Wallace's children's book "How to Catch a Snowman."
Third-graders in Plainview learned about density and gravity by testing the buoyancy of boats they crafted using pennies, straws and foil paper at Kramer Lane Elementary School in the Bethpage School District.
In Long Beach, students at Lindell Elementary School used recycled materials to make marble runs and fairy tale cities as part of a "Choice Activity Day."
"Giving the students the freedom to choose their project creates a wonderful air of excitement, engagement and inquiry in the classroom," said Lindell STEM teacher Lisa Rundo.
In Merrick, fifth- and sixth-graders at Birch Elementary School learned how to use code patterns to make their drones move. Credit: Merrick School District
In Nesconset, fourth-graders learned about energy transfer in collisions by testing vehicles they designed to carry eggs into a wall at Tackan Elementary School.
"The students were given a choice of materials and a set of parameters to work within," said Tackan teacher Elise Viola.
ISLANDWIDE
Calendar contest
Twelve Long Island students were winners this winter in a 16th Annual Peace Art Calendar Contest, coordinated by the Shanti Fund, a Medford-based organization committed to enlightenment and peace through education. For winning, their artwork appears in the organization's 2022 calendar.
Winners and their schools were: Sudan Belnavis and Keren Dial, Valley Stream South High School; Sydney Flores, Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School; Olivia Georgiou, Vanderbilt Elementary School in Dix Hills; Olivia Lackner, William T. Rogers Middle School in Kings Park; Stellagrace Rathgraber, East Broadway Elementary School in Seaford; Nadja Salome-Diaz, Freeport High School; Faith Tomasello, Fort Salonga Elementary School; Ceclia Santos and Marlowe Williams, Greenport Elementary School; Siting Xiao, MacArthur High School in Levittown; and Katie Zhao, Stratford Elementary School in Garden City.
— 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.
