Science Olympiad Night
Generates Buzz
A large crowd of students and parents turned out for Science Olympiad Night at Huntington High School. A pulsating degree of energy and enthusiasm was evident as a range of competitions unfolded with some surprising results along the way.
Rae Montesano, district director of science and instructional technology, was pleased that 175 students participated in the event, a jump of more than 40 percent compared to last year.
Science teachers Craig McKee, Joe Cohen, Lori Pyzocha Kenny, Tom Masone, Anna Fabela and Dame Forbes helped insure the night's success. "They were great," said Ms. Montesano about the teachers. "They gave up a lot of their free time to organize the events and prepare for them before the actual night."
The categories included Forensics, Mission Possible, Mousetrap Vehicle, Ornithology, Towers, Write It/Do It and Science Bowl.
In Forensics, participants were given a scenario and possible suspects, as well as evidence. They performed scientific tests on the evidence. These test results, along with other information, was used to solve a crime.
In Mission Possible, teams of competitors built a functioning Rube Goldberg apparatus according to rigid specifications.
Participants in the Mousetrap Vehicle competition had to design, build and test a vehicle using one or two snap mousetraps as the sole propulsion energy source to push a plastic cup out a distance and return to a point behind the starting line as quickly as possible.
In the ornithology category, students were asked to identify North American birds based upon morphology, vocalizations, ecology and behavior.
The Towers competition required students to build a tower meeting specific parameters. Participants had to set-up their tower and test it to either maximum load or failure.
Write It/Do It saw teams of two students work collaboratively. One student was asked to write directions for a given 3D design. Their partner then had to follow those directions to build the apparatus.
Two teams of students also participated in Science Bowl practice rounds. The event was a fast paced question based competition similar to the game show "Jeopardy."
The final results included:
Ornithology
- Ari Moskowitz and Rebecca Palladino
- Lauren Bialkowski and Samantha Lai
- Erica Flor and Adelia Witt
Write It/Do It
- Anna Harris and Mike O'Connor
- Brent Filippinni and Andrew Mollitor
- Ryan Bonitz and Beth Coneys
Mission Possible - Rube Goldberg
- Matthew Angeliadis, Amber Lindner and Andrew Mollitor
- Nina Flores, Hannah Lomele and Sibilla Mairelli
- Devin D'Attolico, Alexa Gorczycki and Samantha Verme
Mousetrap Vehicle
- Daniel McQuade
- Matt Angeliadis and Robert Scott
- Brandon May and Travon Seon
Towers
- Jose Jovel, Amilder Pineda Lopez and Wilbert Rivas Cisneros
- Hilario Rosendo Flores
- Matthew Pavelka
Forensics
- Diana Frank and Kevin Venturino
- Ryan Pavelka and Michael Serbanoiu
- Maggie Askerberg and Melissa Cohen