Schools Notebook: Mepham wins in Physics

June 1, 2011

Nearly 100 Long Island students can say they have competed in the Olympics -- the Physics Olympics.

Sixteen local high school teams recently went head to head in the 27th Annual Long Island Physics Olympics, a science-themed competition at Farmingdale State College that tests students' knowledge of physics through "Jeopardy!"- style questions and team challenges.

Wellington C. Mepham High School in North Bellmore took first place overall. Northport and Smithtown West finished second and third, respectively.

"The kids always have a great time with this," said Mepham coach and physics teacher Bill Leacock, who also is vice president of the Long Island Physics Teachers Association, the event's sponsor. "A lot of people get the impression that physics is real drudgery and nothing more than a pile of equations. But physics can also be fun, without a doubt."

One challenge, titled "Bridge to Nowhere," required teams to use their understanding of physics to create the longest extension off the edge of a table using seven Popsicle sticks and 21 pennies, Leacock said.

Another challenge, "Ballistic Bear," asked students to determine the mass of a stuffed bear on a spring-loaded cart by analyzing the cart's velocity.

"We used the law of conservation of momentum in that case," Mepham junior Josh Haimson said. "We knew momentum before the spring was launched had to be equal to the total momentum after launch."

Other Mepham High School team members were Werda Alam, Mollie Bienstock, Tara Panzarino and Bilal Siddiqui.

Mepham has taken first place at the competition in three of the past four school years.

MASSAPEQUA

Social studies award

Brian Dowd, the K-12 social studies curriculum associate for Massapequa Public Schools, has been named 2010-11 Supervisor of the Year by the Long Island Council for the Social Studies based on peer nominations. Dowd, the council's co-president, has spent his entire 33-year career in the district. He is president of the New York State Social Studies Supervisors Association.

NORTH SHORE

LI Math Fair

The North Shore School District won 28 gold medals -- the most of any Long Island school district -- in the 2011 Long Island Math Fair at Hofstra University. The contest, sponsored by the Nassau and Suffolk math teachers associations, required students in grades 7-12 to submit a three-page essay on a math topic of their choice and give a 10-minute presentation.

Herricks School District followed with 16 gold medalists, while Roslyn and Syosset school districts each had 15.

The Commack School District had eight gold medals to lead Suffolk.

PORT WASHINGTON

Doodle 4 Google

Hannah Ericsson of Carrie Palmer Weber Middle School was one of 10 regional finalists last month in the grades 4-6 category -- and the sole regional finalist from Long Island -- of Doodle 4 Google, a competition in which K-12 students redesign the search engine's homepage logo. The contest, themed "What I'd Like to do Someday," received more than 107,000 nationwide entries.

Elias Pagonis of Stewart School in Garden City was a state finalist in the contest.

ISLANDWIDE

Intel ISEF awards

Long Island teens took home 62 awards last month at the 2011 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles. The science research competition -- coordinated by the Society for Science & the Public -- included more than 1,500 students from 65 countries and saw some 400 awards issued in various categories.

Nassau County winners were: Bellmore: Gregory Manis of John F. Kennedy High School; Bilal Siddiqui of Wellington C. Mepham High School; Great Neck: Samantha Phillips of Great Neck South High School; Herricks: Neil Pathak and Shyam Venkateswaran of Herricks High School; Jericho: Justine Li, Neil Mehta, Sagar Rambhia, Sahir Raoof and Serife Uzun of Jericho High School; Lawrence: Abraham Killanin of Lawrence High School; Nathan Akhavan and Ben Goldman of Rambam Mesivta High School; Long Beach: Arianne Papa and Jane Smyth of Long Beach High School; Lynbrook: Daniel Kramer of Lynbrook High School; Manhasset: Shaunak Bakshi of Manhasset High School; Oceanside: Blake Smith of Oceanside High School; Old Westbury: Alan Czemerinski and Thomas Wang of The Wheatley School; Plainview: Jonathan Goldman of Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School; Rockville Centre: Kelsey