Suffolk School Notebook: Mount Sinai team wins Bay Scallop Bowl
A team from Mount Sinai High School won first place in this year's Bay Scallop Bowl. The winning team was, from left in back row, coach Andy Matthew, Katherine Fedotov, Aaron Angress, Arielle Mule and Matthew Miller and assistant coach Glynis Nau-Ritter, and front row, right, Jonathon Jacobson. A member of Mount Sinai's B team, Jake DeBlasio, is on the left in the front row. Credit: Joseph Dlhopolsky
A Mount Sinai High School team was recently crowned champion of a regional competition that tests knowledge of oceanography, but the team did not compete at the national level last weekend because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The student team of Aaron Angress, Katherine Fedotov, Jonathon Jacobson, Matthew Miller and Arielle Mule beat out 11 other groups to take the top spot in this year's Bay Scallop Bowl, a "Jeopardy!"-style competition held at Stony Brook University. The school has won the bowl for 11 of the past 19 years.
In the final round, Mount Sinai defeated a team from Midwood High School in Brooklyn by a score of 77-49. For winning, each team member received $250 and the team advanced to the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, which was slated for April 16-19 in Mississippi.
That national bowl, which would have featured winning teams from 23 regional competitions, was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Witnessing firsthand their knowledge, understanding and true caring for our oceans and planet leave little doubt that they will go on to choose careers that will help to serve and protect our planet," Bay Scallop Bowl regional coordinator Kim Knoll said of this year's teams.
The local competition featured a morning round-robin format in which teams were separated into divisions to determine seedings based upon overall records and points, while the afternoon session consisted of a double-elimination playoff bracket.
RIVERHEAD
Students in the Northport-East Northport School District recently decorated sidewalks to spread positivity as part of the district's "NENPT Chalkwalk" initiative, which has aimed to help families maintain a sense of community and connectivity during the coronavirus pandemic. Credit: Northport-East Northport School District
Lip sync battle
Roanoke Avenue Elementary School students were treated to a lip sync battle last month between Principal Thomas Payton and fourth-grade teacher James Richardson as a reward for meeting a challenge to read 100,000 minutes during the school's annual Reading Week, March 2 to 6.
Thomas' songs included "Old Town Road," by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus, and Richardson's songs included "Friend Like Me" and "How Far I'll Go," from Disney's "Aladdin” and "Moana" films, respectively.
Payton's previous reading challenges included such rewards as throwing pies at him, pouring slime on him, and duct taping him to a wall.
In Farmingville, third-graders at Lynwood Avenue Elementary School recently led a volunteer effort raising money for Ronald McDonald House of Long Island. The students' efforts included collecting about $500 worth of items for the house and more than $1,800 through the school's annual read-a-thon. Credit: Sachem Central School District
COUNTYWIDE
Quill Awards
Brentwood High School's Pow Wow News and Brentwood student Victoria Lorenzi were among the first-place winners of this year's Quill Awards during Adelphi University's Press Day on Feb. 26. They were Suffolk County's sole first-place winners in any of the awards' 15 categories.
Pow Wow News was awarded best online newspaper, while Lorenzi was awarded best online writing for the story "One Tree at a Time: YouTubers Save the Environment."
Isabella Cain of Kings Park High School and Julia Heming of Hampton Bays High School won second-place honors for best layout and best page one layout, respectively. Cain also received a third-place award for most outstanding reporter.
Special education students in Kim Lazaro's class at the Eastern Suffolk BOCES Brookhaven Learning Center have been learning life skills by preparing and serving lunch to patrons - including administrators, teachers and other staffers - who have made reservations to dine in the school café. Student Miguel Reyes, pictured, pours glasses of water. Credit: Eastern Suffolk BOCES
ISLANDWIDE
Odyssey of the Mind
Nine Long Island teams qualified for the state level after placing among the top teams in a regional tournament for Odyssey of the Mind, a creative problem-solving competition for students in kindergarten through college. The state finals, slated for earlier this month in Binghamton, were canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak.
State-qualifying teams came from Caroline G. Atkinson Intermediate School in Freeport, Freeport High School, John Philip Sousa Elementary School in Port Washington, Locust Valley High School, Long Beach Elementary School, Long Beach Middle School, Remsenburg-Speonk Elementary School, and Saints Philip and James School in St. James. Team HSOM, a group of home-schoolers, from East Islip also qualified.
This year's competition topics ranged from making balsa-wood structures that could pass under limbo bars to creating humorous performances that included a fashion show for insects.
— 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.
