Suffolk School Notebook: All-female Elwood team wins Medical Marvels
A team from Elwood-John H. Glenn High School took first place in this year's Medical Marvels competition. From left are team adviser Arnold Kamhi and team members Alexandra Haddad, Trinity Hausch, Jordan Alabrandi, May Luyster, Adiya Rehman and Shayna Purow. Credit: Elwood School District
A team from Elwood-John H. Glenn High School was the winner of a local science competition that challenged students to develop a strategy to increase immunization rates amid a hypothetical measles outbreak.
The all-female team of sophomores — Jordan Alibrandi, Alexandra Haddad, Trinity Hausch, Mary Luyster, Shayna Purow and Adiya Rehman — took the top spot in this year's Medical Marvels competition hosted by the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Northwell Health's Center for Workplace Readiness. It was held Feb. 28.
The team's proposal included the development of an organization, called ProVax, that would decrease vaccine hesitancy through public outreach using social media. The organization would also partner with prominent leaders and physicians, use speakers and celebrities, and add vaccine information to educational curricula.
For winning, Elwood received $1,800 on behalf of Northwell Health. They also won a $300 presentation award, along with teams from Lawrence and Massapequa high schools.
"I am very proud of these girls," said Elwood's adviser, Arnold Kamhi. "They worked hard on this and the hard work paid off."
This year's competition consisted of more than 130 students from 29 schools across Long Island, as well from Queens and Staten Island. Proposals were evaluated by a panel of scientists, clinicians and health care administrators.
Second- and third-place honors went to teams from Chaminade High School in Mineola and Commack High School, respectively.
West Islip High School juniors enrolled in the school's International Baccalaureate Biology program participated in three advanced experiments on IB DNA Day, including inserting green fluorescent protein genes from jellyfish into a bacteria to see if its genotype could be changed. Credit: West Islip School District
NORTHPORT
St. Baldrick's Day
The Northport-East Northport School District raised more than $71,000 last month for childhood cancer research and treatment through an annual head-shaving event that benefited the St. Baldrick's Foundation. The event was heldat Northport High School just before the coronavirus outbreak.
This year's top fundraising team was the East Northport Middle School Bald Tigers, which raised more than $30,000, according to the foundation's website.
Madeline Canonico, a junior at Kings Park High School, was recently honored for her community service efforts with a President's Volunteer Service Award and a Certificate of Excellence from the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. She is pictured here with Kings Park School District Superintendent Timothy Eagen and Kings Park High School Principal Jason Huntsman. Credit: Kings Park High School
"The Northport-East Northport community has always demonstrated a philanthropic spirit, and they more than showed up for this event," Northport High School Principal Daniel Danbusky said. "We are humbled at the number of students from every grade level that registered to shave, and even more amazing was that we had almost as many volunteers as we did shavees."
COUNTYWIDE
GeoBee qualifiers
Eight Suffolk County students were among 100 statewide to qualify for this year's National Geographic New York State GeoBee, a geography contest for students in grades 4 to 8. That competition, which was slated for March 27, was canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Qualifiers and their school districts were: Sadiq Shaik, Hauppauge; Marc Lindemann, Miller Place; Matthew Munson, Northport-East Northport; Daniel Davidsen and Joseph Minerva, Smithtown; and John Margulies and Michael Zhang, both of Three Village. Also qualifying for the state competition was Shouryan Dharm Sirsi, a homeschooled student in East Hampton.
In Holbrook, Seneca Middle School recently hosted its third annual Senecon pop-culture event during which established authors, illustrators and performers visited to share their specialties with students. Here students pose with special education teacher Robert Frontino. Credit: Sachem Central School District
To reach the state level, students first competed in school bees, and winners then took a qualifying test, with the top 100 scorers advancing.
ISLANDWIDE
Festivals canceled
The New York State School Music Association has canceled its solo festivals and major ensemble festivals for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year because of the coronavirus outbreak.
"NYSSMA recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic has closed all of our schools and the feasibility of rescheduling almost 150 festivals is no longer possible," NYSSMA president, David M. Brown, said in a statement. "Therefore, we have sadly determined we can no longer move forward with Festival Season 2020."
In addition, Brown said that NYSSMA leadership is exploring options with regard to all-state auditions for its 2020 Winter Conference, which is slated to be held in Rochester on Dec. 3 through 6.
— 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.
