LI school teams compete in robotics

A team of nine students from Bayport, Blue Point, East Islip, Sayville and Selden -- called Peaced Together -- took top honors at the Long Island FIRST LEGO League Tournament by taking home the Champion's Award.

In the competition, held earlier this month at Longwood High School in Middle Island, 48 teams used LEGO play materials and Mindstorm, a programmable LEGO toy, to build robots that could traverse an obstacle course in 21/2 minutes. Teams also proposed a solution to a real-life medical problem and gave a five-minute presentation to a panel of judges.

Peaced Together's proposal was a synthetic skin with sensors to restore the sense of touch to those who had had an arm amputated. The team next will compete against 85 teams from around the world at the FIRST LEGO League World Festival in St. Louis April 27-30.

"Young arm amputees coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan want to be able to do everything they used to do -- synthetic skin would make that possible," said Emily Egan, a home-schooled team member.

Other team members were Robert and Matt Sparacio of West Sayville Christian School, Molly McCoy of Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School, Kiersten Varacek of James Wilson Young Middle School in Bayport, and home-schoolers Luke Madden, Samuel Noack and Frank and Jack Egan. The team also won first place in the robot performance category.

First-place teams from Nassau County in various categories were the Congobots of Port Washington for innovative solution, Roboteers of Locust Valley for programming, Contagious of Locust Valley for teamwork, and Think It, Link It of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County for research.

The Auto Bots of Locust Valley won the league's Rookie Award, and Infinite Robotics of East Norwich won the Judge's Award. The School-Business Partnerships of Long Island in Kings Park sponsored the event.

GLEN COVE

Superintendent named

Joseph Laria has been named superintendent of the Glen Cove City School District. He had served as interim superintendent since July, replacing Laurence Aronstein, who retired. Laria previously held the position in the Connetquot, Elwood and South Country districts.

LAWRENCE

Animating with clay

The Brandeis School hosted a "Play-Doh Extravaganza" earlier this month as 250 children made Dr. Seuss characters using the modeling compound. The K-4 students also attended a clay-animation demonstration by representatives of the Manhattan production company Mekanism that included a behind-the-scenes video of its recent Super Bowl commercial for Lipton Brisk, featuring rapper Eminem. The project was designed to kick off the school's new animation unit in which kids will create short clay-animation films using iKITMovie software.

MASSAPEQUA

Jumping with heart

Unqua Elementary School recently raised $30,000 -- the highest amount in the school's history -- through a Jump Rope for Heart event that included a guest appearance by former Mets and Yankees star Daryl Strawberry. In the fundraising for the American Heart Association, K-6 students solicited sponsorships and engaged in various cardiovascular activities.

In other news, the district has approved a $12-million energy-saving contract to replace outdated lighting, insulation and temperature control systems in its buildings. Funding is to come from incentives and rebates from public utilities.

COUNTYWIDE

Art in adult exhibit

Three Nassau County high schoolers -- Melissa Doherty of Roslyn High School, Kylie Mara of Garden City High School and Kristin Neil of Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington -- were the sole students selected to display their art alongside dozens of local artists in "Contemplating Still Life," a juried art exhibit coordinated by The Art Guild of Port Washington.

Artists were asked to submit two-dimensional art of a still life in paint, pastel or mixed media. Works were displayed Feb. 15 to March 20.

ISLANDWIDE

100th day of school

Dozens of Long Island schools marked the 100th day of the school year last month with various activities centered around the number 100.

In Ronkonkoma, Cherokee Street Elementary School students used household items such as buttons and cotton balls to craft their own "100," which was displayed in the school's atrium. They also used markers to color paper crowns featuring the number.

Deasy Elementary School kindergartners in Glen Cove ate a special breakfast: a sausage and two bagel halves laid out to represent the number. In the same district, Gribbin Elementary pupils performed 100 jumping jacks in gym classes.

St. Mary School in East Islip and Aquebogue Elementary in Jamesport collected 100 cans of nonperishable food for local pantries.