3 LI teams win in ExploraVision Competition

Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School's team -- Samantha Frucht, Philip Danziger and Grace Smith -- won in the ExploraVision Competition. Credit: Plainview-Old Bethpage School District
Three Nassau County teams are regional winners in a competition challenging students to imagine a technology that might exist 20 years from now.
Teams from Plainview Old-Bethpage JFK High School, Locust Valley Intermediate School, and Bayville Intermediate School are each among groups of six regional winners in the grades 10-12, 4-6 and K-3 categories, respectively, of the 24th Annual ExploraVision Competition. It is coordinated by Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association.
The 24 regional winners will compete later this month in the national phase, where members of the first-place and second-place teams win $10,000 and $5,000 savings bonds, respectively. Regional winners also receive a Toshiba tablet for each team member and a Toshiba laptop for their school.
“We pretty much jumped up and down,” Bayville’s coach Paige Coppola said of the regional win. “The kids put so much time and energy into it.”
Plainview-Old Bethpage’s team — Philip Danziger, Samantha Frucht and Grace Smith — aimed to aid new cell growth for those suffering nerve damage and neurodegenerative disorders using mesh lattice implants designed to be surgically inserted into damaged tissue.
Locust Valley’s team — Oliver Blaise and Leonard Gu — proposed repurposing the Hubble Telescope and using robotic drones to help track and recycle space debris traveling within the Lower Earth Orbit.
Bayville’s team — Olivia Childs Friedman, John Hartnett, Jonah Santoro and Angelica Sheehan — proposed the creation of a device to detect deer ticks on the human body.
GREAT NECK
Chairman’s Award
Great Neck South High School’s robotics team No. 2638 won the Chairman’s Award at the 2016 New York FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Finger Lakes Regional Robotics Competition in Rochester. A total of 49 teams competed.
The award, which honors the team that best embodies the program’s purposes and goals, allows the team to advance to the world championships in St. Louis on April 27-30. The team also placed seventh overall in the Finger Lakes Regional.
The event challenged teams to design and build a custom robot over six weeks using a kit of parts — and then participate in a three-on-three tournament.
COUNTYWIDE
Best music communities
Twenty-four Nassau County school districts are among 476 nationwide named this year’s Best Communities for Music Education by the National Association of Music Merchants. The designation recognizes efforts to ensure access to music learning for every student as part of the school curriculum.
Selected districts were Bellmore, East Meadow, East Rockaway, Farmingdale, Garden City, Glen Cove, Great Neck, Herricks, Hicksville, Island Trees, Jericho, Levittown, Long Beach, Lynbrook, Malverne, Manhasset, Massapequa, Merrick, Mineola, Plainedge, Port Washington, Syosset, Uniondale and Valley Stream Central.
In addition, Floral Park Memorial High School was among 188 schools nationwide to receive the SupportMusic Merit Award for demonstrating strong support for — and commitment to — music education.
ISLANDWIDE
Fab School Labs
The Northrop Grumman Foundation has launched a classroom makeover contest, Fab School Labs, that will make grants of up to $100,000 available to five middle schools. It is designed to drive student interest in science and technology by giving schools a chance to create their dream science or technology lab or classroom.
School officials can enter by visiting FabSchoolLabs.com, where they can submit an application, video and photos. Semifinalists will be chosen and their videos will receive online votes to assist in the selection.
The winning schools team up with the contest’s partner Flinn Scientific Inc. to design a dream lab. The submission window is May 1 until June 17.
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