School Notebook: Long Island teams are winners in NASA challenge
A team of students from Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park were among the winners in NASA's inaugural TechRise Student Challenge. Credit: Sewanhaka Central High School District
Three Long Island teams are flying high after their achievement in an inaugural space-themed tech contest.
Teams from Brentwood High School, Connetquot High School in Bohemia and Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park are among 57 winners nationwide in NASA's TechRise Student Challenge, which asked students to create experiments that autonomously operate and collect data from the edge of space aboard a suborbital rocket or high-altitude balloon. The competition received entries from about 600 teams in grades 6 to 12.
Brentwood was a winner in the suborbital rocket category for proposing a microgravity nail-clipper attachment. Sewanhaka and Connetquot were winners in the high-altitude balloon category for proposing an experiment to measure atmospheric pollution at high altitudes and for proposing a device capable of sampling the atmosphere to detect the presence of life, respectively.
Winners were awarded $1,500 to build their experiments, which are now being prepared for a flight test in 2023.
"I can't wait to see these incredible experiments come to life," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "At NASA, we educate and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers."
Entries were evaluated by a slate of nearly 500 volunteer judges, who included NASA personnel and technology subject-matter experts, based on criteria ranging from the experiments' impact on society to the quality of its build plan.
"I'm truly lucky as a teacher to have such bright and motivated students," said Sewanhaka's team adviser, Jack Chen.
Lawrence High School's performing arts students staged a played last month called "Puffs or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic," a satirical retelling of the story of the Harry Potter book series, by J.K. Rowling. Credit: Lawrence School District
BELLPORT
Physical therapy clinic
Eastern Suffolk BOCES held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil a student-operated physical therapy clinic for local residents without insurance or whose insurance doesn't cover the treatment. The facility is in the Gary D. Bixhorn Technical Center in Bellport.
Physical therapy aide students from the ESBOCES Eastern Long Island Academy of Applied Technology help to create written home exercise programs for patients as well as perform tasks ranging from sizing crutches to preparing exercise equipment.
Second-graders at Sea Cliff Elementary School celebrate their writing at a publishing party with third-grade guests. Each second-grader had researched an animal and taught the third-graders about their animal through a book they created using the app Book Creator. Credit: Shelly Newman
"They [students] will earn service hours, work with real patients in a real clinic, and do everything that their job title requires," said the clinic's physical therapy aide teacher Jennifer Nicodemo-Capra.
GREENLAWN
Day of Strings
The Harborfields School District has enhanced the music skills of more than 100 orchestra students as part of workshops held during the district's first-ever Day of Strings.
The inaugural event consisted of three different workshops — each being geared toward different grade levels — and introduced students to "the art of improvisation," school officials said. New York City-based jazz violinist Ben Sutin and Brentwood-born cellist Zach Brown served as clinicians.
In Holtsville, fourth-grader Kaylee Devergilio was among students at Chippewa Elementary School in the Sachem Central School District who created cards with heartfelt messages that were sent to soldiers overseas through the nonprofit Operation Gratitude. Credit: Sachem Central School District
"With so many music activities on the county level being canceled or revamped as virtual events, the communal aspects endemic to making music are lost," said the district's K-12 music department coordinator, Dan Bilawsky. "I'm very pleased that we were able to hold this event and that so many students were eager to take part in it."
SYOSSET
Apprentice Challenge
A nine-student team from Syosset High School recently placed first in Adelphi University's Apprentice Challenge, which asked teens to assemble a strategic marketing plan and present it to a panel of judges. Team members were Aanya Bhatia, Jacob Cheng, Kyle Dapice, Riddhi Parthasarathy, Lauren Rogers, Julietta Roselli, Ali Rosenberg, Brittany Shi and Ivy Xu.
This year's challenge, which attracted 25 teams from across Long Island, presented students with the task of creating a marketing plan for personal care company L'Oréal that incorporated the launch of a new product that aligns with its goals for diversity, equity and inclusion.
A group of students from Kings Park High School was among the winners of a regional business competition through DECA, a nonprofit formerly known as the Distributive Education Clubs of America. Senior James McCormack, second from right in back row, was the school's top performer with a first-place finish in the field of sports marketing. Credit: Kings Park High School
The other top-five finalist teams came from Connetquot High School in Bohemia, Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, Mineola High School, North Shore High School in Glen Head and Syosset High School.
VALLEY STREAM
Aviation Club
Valley Stream Central High School is offering students a chance to earn their wings with a new Aviation Club, which features a flight simulator equipped with a full yoke and throttle as well as the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The club, which meets weekly, tasks students with reading up on the basics of flying before using the simulator. They then learn how to operate planes including a basic single-propeller Cessna 172, Airbus A320 and Boeing 747.
In West Islip, sixth-graders at Udall Road Middle School recently used virtual reality goggles to visit such locations in Egypt as the Sphinx and the Nile River.....Credit: West Islip School District....Zone: S2 (This should be the floater photo in the S2 zone.)....Publication date: Feb. 20, 2022 Credit: West Islip School District
"It's a great way to learn how to fly, and see what the controls are like," said club member Samee Udin, a sophomore at the school.
ISLANDWIDE
'Go APE'
Eight students were winners of Awards of Excellence last month in the Art League of Long Island's 15th Annual Go APE Advanced Placement Student Exhibition, which featured 2D and 3D works by 135 students from 42 high schools across Long Island.
Winners and their high schools were: Zavier Foster, Baldwin; Natalie Hayes, East Rockaway; Sofia Innamorato and Isabel Mongiello, Syosset; Gagandeep Kaur, Floral Park; Jean Park, Sewanhaka; Tierra Thomas, Elmont; and Alisha Zhou, Manhasset.
The Art League of Long Island is a nonprofit visual arts center whose mission is to provide a forum and showcase for artists of all ages and ability levels.
— 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.
