HHS Senior Advances in
Science Contest
Aron Coraor has marched into the second round of the prestigious Long Island Science and Engineering Fair competition. The Huntington High School senior will vie for special and grand prize awards on March 11 at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.
Joining Mr. Coraor in the first round of the competition were fellow Huntington science research program students Jacob Roday, Victor Tellez and Ricky Hermer-Fried. This year's LISEF attracted entries from 74 schools and featured 426 projects in categories ranging from physics, chemistry to medicine and environmental management, along with a variety of others.
"Each of the students had to present their projects to at least two judges in less than seven minutes," said Lori Pyzocha, a Huntington science teacher who heads the high school's research program. "The tension was high for all students at the fair as they all wanted to impress the scientists with their scientific knowledge."
Mr. Coraor's research project was titled "Spinel-Induced Non-Ideality in Melts of the Mg2SiO4-NaAlSi3O8-CaAl2Si2O8." Messrs. Roday and Hermer-Fried entered a project titled "A Novel Approach to Extirpation of Invasive Artesima vulgaris and A. veratorum." Mr. Tellez and his partner from Walt Whitman High School studied "The Effect of Oxidized Graphene Nanoplatelets on MRC-5 and MCF-7."
About 20 percent of the first round entries were selected to advance in the competition. "It was wonderful to be informed that Aron would be moving on to represent our school in round two where he has the potential to move on to the international fair and win scholarships," said Mrs. Pzyocha, who teaches in the research program along with department colleague Dame Forbes. "I am very proud of how well all of the students represented Huntington's tradition of excellence. The whole research team will be rooting for Aron, who we wish the best of luck."
"The Charles Duggan Long Island Science and Engineering Fair is a competition for the most advanced high school projects," according to the LISEF website. "The participants in this fair have a chance to present to professionals in their subject areas from local universities, scientific institutions and professionals in the field."