Nassau School Notebook: Long Island, Queens teams tie in Ethics Bowl
A team from The Stony Brook School tied for first place at this year's New York-New Jersey Regional High School Ethics Bowl. Credit: Sean Riley
A team from The Stony Brook School tied for first place at this year's New York-New Jersey Regional High School Ethics Bowl, making it the fourth straight year the school has won the regional level.
This year's regional bowl, which included 38 teams from 24 schools, was the largest in the event's history and was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual competition challenged students to analyze real-life ethical issues and judged them on the quality of their contributions to a civil discussion.
The Stony Brook School tied for the top spot with a team from Townsend Harris High School in Queens. Teams from Plainedge and Syosset high schools place second and third, respectively, while teams from Bethpage and Locust Valley high schools were among the bowl's four semifinalists.
Stony Brook's team members are Chimelu Ani, Jackson Petroske, Bobby Reuter, David Song, Andrew Tinaz and David Zhang.
"Their depth of thought, clear communication, intellectual humility and commitment to truth, even when it is hard to discern, impressed the judges and helped them prevail over very tough competition," said Stony Brook's academic dean Sean Riley, the team's coach.
The teams from Stony Brook and Townsend Harris will now advance to the national level on April 10-11.
Seaford Middle School students recently created a "Be The 'I' In Kind" wall by decorating handprints with kind sayings and inspirational messages and artwork that aims to make others smile. The project stemmed from a partnership between the school's Student Services and Art departments. Credit: Seaford School District
The regional bowl was sponsored by the Squire Family Foundation in East Northport.
GARDEN CITY
Pandemic Performance Showcase
Garden City High School's jazz ensemble was one of nine groups statewide — and the only one from Long Island — selected to perform as part of a Pandemic Performance Showcase held earlier this month during the New York State Band Directors Association's Virtual Symposium.
In New Hyde Park, fifth-graders in Jennifer Micalizzi and Julie Croshere's class at Hillside Grade School created square drawings as part of a virtual quilt initiative with the Town of North Hempstead. The students' squares were decorated with positive messages and drawings, as well as notes of thanks to essential workers. Credit: New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District
The ensemble — which was split into two groups because of space limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic — was chosen based on recordings of its fall holiday performance, which included renditions of "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
"I am so proud of all of the band students this year," said the ensemble's director, Daniel DellaMonica. "How they are able to still practice daily, despite all of the restrictions, is nothing short of remarkable."
JERICHO AND STONY BROOK
THINK Scholars Program
Jericho High School senior Evelyn Zhu and The Stony Brook School junior Anne-Sarah Nichitiu were among 15 semifinalists nationwide in MIT's THINK Scholars Program, which encouraged students to submit project proposals that seek to make the world a better place through science, research and innovation. The concepts must also fit within a $1,000 budget.
Zhu's project consisted of a "chess engine" that analyzed games through a remote device to help prevent laptops from overheating, while Nichitiu's project centered around a glove prosthesis and power oar handle for aquatic sports.
This year's contest received more than 400 applications nationwide.
ISLANDWIDE
Regional delegates
Five students have been named regional delegates at this year's Long Island Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, which invited high schoolers to report on the results of their original research in science, technology, engineering and math — also known as STEM. To participate, students submitted research papers for evaluation by a panel of judges with the best selected for presentation at the symposium.
Regional delegates and their school districts are: Chapin Zerner, Commack; Rithika Narayan, Elwood; Brian Lee and Ronald Cheng, Plainview-Old Bethpage; and Kevin Li, Syosset. They will compete virtually this spring at the national symposium.
Long Island's regional finalists and their school districts were: Michelle Serban, Bellmore-Merrick; Zimi Zhang, Great Neck; Kevin Hoxha, Half Hollow Hills; Arushi Bhatia, Plainview-Old Bethpage; and Noah Loewy, Port Washington.
— 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.
