Area students become hands-on gardeners

Many Long Island students are growing more than just their young minds.

A number of local schools are using outdoor gardens this fall to educate children on the importance of wellness at an early age by teaching them to plant, grow and harvest crops -- and later incorporate the food into their school menus.

In Glen Cove, Katherine A. Deasy Elementary School recently hired upstate-based Teich Garden Systems to create a 16-by-32-foot garden with special soil that is "weed- and irrigation-free," school officials said. The school's 468 students are monitoring the crops -- ranging from lettuce to peas to spinach -- with plans to experience the fruits of their labor during an upcoming "Salad Pizza Day."

"We'll order some pizza and each class will pick toppings from the garden," principal Nomi Rosen said. "Kids usually leave vegetables on their plate, but when they grow it themselves it changes everything."

In Cold Spring Harbor, West Side School started an organic garden last year that was tended over the summer by volunteer families in the district. The school's Garden Club used the tomatoes, herbs and spices last month to make sauce for a school lunch and also canned some tomatoes for future use.

Babylon Memorial Grade School invites local Girl Scouts to earn badges by working in the school's flower garden. The goal is to eventually grow vegetables for local soup kitchens.

"The community has been very vital," said fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Murphy. "Parents have donated the topsoil. People donated and helped lay bricks. Others dug the flowerbeds."

In Centereach, North Coleman Road School recently donated to local families roughly 100 heads of lettuce and spinach that kids grew at nearby Bethel Hobbs Community Farm.

DEER PARK

Laptop initiative grows

This year, the Deer Park school district has expanded its one-to-one student laptop initiative -- launched last school year for fifth-graders -- to include both fifth- and sixth-grade students. About 700 Apple MacBooks were distributed last month for children to explore academic websites and design interactive presentations, among other things.

Students and teachers at the district's John F. Kennedy Intermediate School and Robert Frost Middle School have been trained in the laptop software.

COUNTYWIDE

Peace Day projects

Dozens of local schools celebrated tolerance and understanding last month through a variety of programs and activities held in conjunction with the International Day of Peace.

In Amityville, high schoolers formed a human peace sign on the school's lawn and planted dozens of homemade "pinwheels for peace," which were positioned in the shape of a peace sign. The event was the culmination of the school's "10 Days of Peace" that began earlier in the month with a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In Middle Island, Longwood Junior High School and West Middle Island Elementary School students gathered on their school athletic fields to spell the word "love." The elementary students also read and discussed the peace-themed book "What Does Peace Feel Like?" by Vladimir Radunsky.

In Lindenhurst, William Rall Elementary School students also planted pinwheels outside.

ISLANDWIDE

Math scholars named

Seventy-two Long Island students were named Young Scholars of Mathematics last month by the Institute of Creative Problem Solving for Gifted and Talented Students at SUNY College at Old Westbury. About 700 students competed by submitting an essay and taking a "rigorous entrance exam," college officials said.

Suffolk County scholars are: Bayport: Pat Liu of Bayport-Blue Point High School; Commack: Lauren DiSalvo, Amanda Richman and Chantel Yang of Commack High School; Brianna Delgado, David Li, Mehtaab Sawhney and Matt Weinberg of Commack Middle School; Dix Hills: Brandon Epstein and Connie He of Candlewood Middle School; Rachel Dvoskin, Divya Rao of Half Hollow Hills High School East; Elan Sharony and Joshua Wende of Half Hollow Hills High School West; Ethan Udell of West Hollow Middle School; East Setauket: Don Della Pietra of Gelinas Junior High School; Hauppauge: Jessica Cuzzi and Reah Vasilakopoulos of Hauppauge Middle School; Huntington Station: Grant Berland, Dan Gold and Sophia White of Long Island School for the Gifted; Shoreham: Keyi Chen of Prodell Middle School; Emily Gass of Shoreham-Wading River High School; Smithtown: Stephen Kyranakis of Acompsett Middle School; Nick Colucci and Jill Pesce of Nesaquake Middle School; South Huntington: Sarah Kim of Silas Wood Sixth-Grade Center; Stony Brook: Emily Huang of William Sidney Mount Elementary School.