Schools: William Floyd Mock Trial winner

William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach has been crowned champion of the 2012 Suffolk County Mock Trial Tournament.

The competition -- coordinated by the Suffolk County Bar Association -- required teens to act as prosecution or defense lawyers in a fictional assault case in which a man was struck with a tire iron outside a hip-hop club. William Floyd outlasted 26 teams in four preliminary and four elimination rounds last month at the Alfonse M. D'Amato Federal Courthouse in Central Islip.

Teams were judged based on their knowledge of legal proceedings and strength of cases.

"People don't understand how hard these kids work," said William Floyd coach Bill Hennessy, who said he advises his team not to use notecards and to "act out" as they speak. "We're trying to look and act like a college mock trial team."

William Floyd's team next will vie against Massapequa High School on Wednesday for the Long Island title, which William Floyd has claimed the past two school years.

"This year has been really exciting, with both new members and veterans contributing tremendously," said Emily Vigliotta, the team's co-captain with classmate Erin Engelmann. "The countless hours of practice . . . have a significant impact on the success of our team."

A team from East Islip High School took second place at the Suffolk County mock trial.

EAST HAMPTON

Interim head of school

Gregg Maloberti has been named interim head of Ross School, a private school, for the next two years beginning July 1. He replaces Michele Claeys, who will be the associate head and middle school principal at Norwood School in Maryland.

Maloberti has been dean of admission and financial aid at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey for the past 15 years. He also has been director of admission and house master at Brooks School in Massachusetts, dean of upper school admission and house master at Cranbrook Schools in Michigan, and director of admission at Alexander Dawson School in Colorado.

MEDFORD

Top food donors

Patchogue-Medford High School was recently named first-place winner of Island Harvest's Students Feeding Students Challenge for collecting more than 5,000 pounds of food for local families in need during the fall. This is the second consecutive year the school has won the challenge.

Smithtown High School West's Thespian Troupe 2035 and Leadership Class placed second by collecting 2,725 pounds. In total, Long Island schools collected about 23,000 pounds of food.

COUNTYWIDE

Junior LEGO league

Fourteen Long Island teams participated last month in the fourth annual Junior FIRST LEGO League Expo held at Longwood High School in Middle Island. The event was sponsored by the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island in conjunction with the Longwood Central School District.

FIRST is an acronym for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."

This year's competition consisted of a Snack Attack Challenge in which students, ages 6-9, built a model made of LEGO elements with a motorized moving part, designed to carry out food preparation and storage tasks. Teams also designed a poster presenting their findings.

Suffolk County's winning teams were: Girl Scouts of Suffolk County's Super Scoopers of Nesconset (Team No. 482), Teamwork Award; Girl Scouts of Suffolk County's Extreme LEGO GO GO Boors of Farmingville (Team No. 481), Teamwork Award; Amazing Builders of Melville (Team No. 871), Teamwork Award; Justice League of Huntington Station (Team No. 98), Show Me Poster Award; Fruit Flyers of Commack (Team No. 1232), Team Spirit Award.

ISLANDWIDE

BigFuture

The College Board launched a college planning website last month designed to be an interactive resource with advice for students on how to prepare and pay for college. The website, titled BigFuture (bigfuture.org), includes video advice from college students and experts, a college search tool, and options for customizable action plans.

The project was born out of concerns about the "increasingly complex college admissions process" at the College Board and among educator advocacy groups, the College Board said.

"This new, free resource is different from other websites in that it helps students shape their college plans from A to Z," said Roy Ben-Yoseph, the College Board's executive director for digital products. "It's the only trusted source that takes you from preparing for college, to finding the right college, to learning about ways to pay."