Farmingdale team wins 2015 LI Regional High School Science Bowl

A student team from Farmingdale High School has taken the top spot in a prestigious regional science competition.

Clarisse Baes, Jake Chammas, Ramin Chowdhury, Dan Laine and Suraj Muralidharan beat 15 local teams to win Brookhaven National Laboratory's 2015 Long Island Regional High School Science Bowl.

They earned an all-expense-paid trip to compete against teams from 70 regional tournaments that have advanced to the national level in Washington, D.C., from April 30 to May 4. The top 16 teams will receive $1,000 prizes for their schools' science departments.

"I am incredibly proud of the commitment and determination of the team to earn such an amazing result against top teams from all over Long Island," Farmingdale coach Peter Macchia said. "These students worked hard and practiced nearly every school day."

The science bowl is a "Jeopardy!"-style competition with a four-division, round-robin format featuring topics that range from astronomy to physics to biology. The division winners then faced off in a double-elimination series.

In the finals, Farmingdale edged out a team from Great Neck South High School. Ward Melville High School in East Setauket and Longwood High School in Middle Island placed third and fourth, respectively.

FLORAL PARK: Holocaust survivor

Floral Park Memorial High School students heard an account of the horrors of the Holocaust during a visit from survivor Irving Roth of Williston Park, who is director of the Holocaust Resources Center in Manhasset.

Roth, who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1929, spoke about how he survived the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps and eventually was reunited with his parents. He showed teens the serial number tattooed on his left forearm at Auschwitz, to help identify prisoners upon death.

"These are not just dates in history," Roth said. "The students need to understand that what happens in the world does affect people."

VALLEY STREAM: Scoreboard dedication

Valley Stream Central High School unveiled a new gymnasium scoreboard that is dedicated to the memory of John LaBarbera, a student who died from a sudden cardiac arrhythmia during an after-school basketball clinic in 2005.

The LED scoreboard was donated to the high school by the LaBarbera family. John's parents, John and Susan, were on hand during the ceremony.

"[John] was a scholar and an athlete, and we must remember his contribution to this school and community," said Valley Stream Central Principal Joseph Pompilio.

HOLBROOK: Leadership training

Dozens of teens in the Patchogue-Medford and William Floyd school districts learned about the importance of effective communication during a leadership training workshop at Eastern Suffolk BOCES' Instructional Support Center in Holbrook.

The students were members of the schools' Air Force and Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps.

The workshop, which celebrated its 15th year, consisted of team-building and conversational exercises to improve communication skills, ESBOCES said.

"Communication expertise is not just something ambitious students should master," said Molly Licalzi, administrative coordinator for ESBOCES' Educational and Informational Support Services. "It's something that can serve everyone at every point in their careers."

ISLIP: Bookmarks for literacy

Commack Road Elementary School is promoting global literacy by encouraging students to make bookmarks -- part of a literacy challenge coordinated by nonprofits Save the Children, Students Rebuild and Global Nomads Group.

The school's tally of original bookmarks reached 417 in mid-February, at the end of a monthlong collection. A second effort is taking place through March 31. For the first collection, the Seattle-based Bezos Family Foundation donated $2 for each bookmark to Save the Children's Literacy Boost program in Africa, Asia and Latin America. For the second effort, Bezos will donate $1 for each bookmark, officials said.

"Our students are proud to be able to help provide young people with the resources to become successful lifelong learners," said Commack Road ESL teacher Pam Kornhauser.

ISLANDWIDE: 'Souper Bowl' food drives

Several local school districts turned the 2015 Super Bowl into an opportunity to feed the needy by hosting "Souper Bowl" food drives.

In Stony Brook, students and staff at W.S. Mount Elementary School voted for which team they believed would win by placing their cans of food in bins representing the Seattle Seahawks or the New England Patriots. At the end of the two-week drive, the Seahawks beat the Patriots with 297 cans to 254.

In North Massapequa, students at Albany Avenue Elementary School collected more than 750 cans of soup for the food pantry at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Lindenhurst. Robin Cahill's fifth-grade class led the way with 146 cans, and Mary Giunta's first-grade class gathered 126 cans.

In St. James, Mills Pond Elementary School collected nearly 1,400 cans of food for Long Island Cares in Hauppauge through a food drive coordinated by the school's Cares Club.