H-ton Soars in LI Physics Olympics
Huntington High School students are reaching new heights in science. For the first time, the school sent a team to compete in the Physics Olympics and the squad captured second place in the final standings.
Sponsored by the Long Island Physical Teachers Association, the competition drew 20 teams from across Suffolk and Nassau to SUNY Farmingdale. The Huntington squad of Ryan Lader, Brian Gilbert, Jonathan Wood, Todd Colvin and Christopher Schoen earned first place in the "pendulum of doom" and third place in the physics bowl contest to finish second overall among all schools.
The H-ton squad was coached by Huntington High School physics teacher Judy Pazienza, who organized the team and worked with them to prepare for the grueling competition.
The Olympics kicked-off with the pendulum competition, which involved precisely calculating the distance a severed pendulum bob would travel. The exercise proved easy for the Huntington team members. The squad grabbed the top spot in the contest by landing only 1 cm from the bull's eye. "This was a great way to start and it increased our confidence," said Mr. Colvin, Huntington's Class of 2013 valedictorian.
Following the "pendulum of doom," teams battled it out in a quiz bowl-type competition centering on physics questions. The Huntington team also picked up placement points in three other Physics Olympics events: A Fermi questions competition that involved answering questions such as "How many Ping-Pong balls would it take to fill Lake Michigan?"; Kilogrammy (a static equilibrium set-upwith an unknown mass) and the Marshmallow Challenge, which was "by far the most fun event," Ms. Pazienza said.
Teams were given 20 pieces of spaghetti for the Marshmallow Challenge, along with some tape and string to assemble the tallest free standing tower they could and top it with a marshmallow. Huntington's tower measured 86 cm, just short of the three top structures, which ranged from 90-100 cm.
Huntington advanced to the finals after finishing in the top four of the first round. The trophy round proved intense. "In this round speed as well as accuracy mattered since the first correct answer would give you an extra point, but a quick wrong answer would cost the team two points," Ms. Pazienza said.
Once the Olympics had wrapped up, Huntington's ecstatic team members returned to the high school's main office to show-off the three trophies they had won. "This was so much fun and it really was a group effort," Mr. Wood said.
"The team spent quite a few days after school preparing for this event," Ms. Pazienza said. "They were relaxed and confident and worked together. I was very proud to be their advisor."
Huntington Science Department Chair Rae Montesano offered "a special thank you to the entire department for nurturing these students along the road to this success."