Mock trial, Martin J. Kelly Writing, ExploraVision and American Rocketry competition winners

Teams from Jericho High School and Ward Melville High School in East Setauket have been crowned this year’s champions of the Nassau and Suffolk County mock trial tournaments.

Jericho bested 47 other teams to place first this spring in Nassau’s tournament, while Ward Melville defeated 30 other teams to place first in Suffolk’s tournament.

Second place went to teams from North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck in Nassau and Huntington High School in Suffolk.

Jericho and Ward Melville both advanced in May to the state finals in Albany, but did not reach the final round.

“Each member of the team has gone above and beyond preparing for each competition,” said Jericho’s coach, Alexa Corben. “No matter which side they were on, prosecution or defense, they worked as a team to provide feedback and get better.”

Ward Melville’s coach, Douglas Elliott, said: “Our team has a strong cooperative bond, and to see that pay off brought great satisfaction to coaches and teammates alike. It is the most cohesive group I have ever coached.”

This year’s fictional case involved a defendant accused of setting a fire that destroyed his business to collect the insurance. Teams acted as the defense or prosecution to demonstrate knowledge of law and courtroom procedures, with local attorneys and judges evaluating them on preparation, performance and professionalism.

The Nassau and Suffolk county bar associations coordinated the tournaments.

GARDEN CITY

Writing winners

Nine Nassau County high schoolers won first prize in the 2024 Martin J. Kelly Writing Contest, coordinated by the Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area. This year’s contest, which included 363 entrants from 13 schools, asked participants to describe how their family’s books, food, music and home décor help inform their ethnic identity.

Winners were announced in May, and each received $100: Kaylee White, Wellington C. Mepham in Bellmore; Michaela Catalano, Floral Park; Paul Siegel, Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Levittown; Madison Bruck, Manhasset; Kate Hannan, Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead; Shawana Mayo, Sewanhaka in Floral Park; and Damien Crowley, Gavin Diegnan and Kendell Hoppe, Wantagh.

SOUTH HUNTINGTON

ExploraVision winners

Two St. Anthony’s High School students were among the 24 regional winners nationwide in this year’s ExploraVision Competition, which challenged students to imagine technologies that might exist two decades from now.

Delaney Bartling and Vincent Chen proposed an injection-based therapy that focuses on using nanorobots and stem cells to repair the damaged myelin sheaths (the insulating layer around nerves) of people with diseases such as multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.

The competition was coordinated by the National Science Teaching Association and Toshiba.

STONY BROOK

Rocketry finalist

A team from The Stony Brook School placed 10th nationwide in May in the 2024 American Rocketry Challenge, an annual competition that requires participants to design, build and fly rockets that meet specific parameters.

The team — Sebastian Guadalupe-Peña, David Guo, Justin Hu, Stasiu Sack, David Zhang, Vincent Zhao and Roger Zhou — won $1,500, while the school received $500.

The competition, which this year included a record 922 teams from 45 states, challenged participants to launch rockets that could safely carry one raw egg, with a target flight duration of 43-46 seconds and an altitude of 820 feet.

The contest was sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

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.