21 LI students advance to international science fair

Twenty-one students are advancing to the international level based on their performance at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair.

This year’s fair included 455 participants from 67 schools in 16 categories ranging from animal sciences to translational medical science. The first round saw students present their work to judges with at least 25% of submissions in each category selected for the second round last month at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, according to fair officials.

Project topics ranged from exploring the optimization of nutrient levels in keratin-based substrates to the adverse effects of hunting on the length of bellows in bison.

“The judges all remarked about the incredibly sophisticated scientific level of the projects,” said the fair’s director, Angela Lukaszewski. “The importance of science, technology, engineering and math education in Long Island schools was most definitely evident.”

Students eligible for the International Science and Engineering Fair in Ohio on May 10-16 and their school districts: Partap Singh Sidhu, Bethpage; Mehek Kaur Sawhney, Commack; Aafia Ahmed, Elmont; Taylor Maguire, Garden City; Erin Wong, Great Neck; Arav Chand and Alexandra Claire D’Alessio, Half Hollow Hills; Sandeep Sawhney, Herricks; Lilly Sarah Horowitz and Sophia Antonina Tarasenko, Jericho; Isabel Rose Gonzalez, Lucienne Keyoung and Emily Zhao, Manhasset; Dora Fields, Northport-East Northport; Chloe Yerin Lee, Plainview-Old Bethpage; Leah Manshu Dong, Port Washington; Natalie Osorio, Sewnahaka; Daanish Bassi, Smithtown; and Gary Han, Grace Chenxin Liu and Winston Zhou, Syosset.

ELWOOD

'Spare a Pair'

Elwood Middle School recently collected more than 500 pairs of socks for the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless through its first-ever “Spare a Pair” Sock Drive, coordinated by the school’s student leadership.

To spread the word, student leaders distributed weekly flyers and organized activities such as a “Socks & Sandals Day” in which children wore socks and sandals to school, according to school officials.

"This sock drive is a powerful reminder of how a community can come together to support a meaningful cause," Jill Locascio, the school’s student leadership co-adviser, said in a statement.

NORTHPORT

Bridge winner

Northport High School senior Mairead Carroll won first place in Brookhaven National Laboratory’s 2025 Bridge Building Competition, which challenged youth to use basswood and glue to make bridges that are tested to see how much weight they can support. This year’s competition included 173 bridges from 13 local high schools.

Bridges were ranked on efficiency scores calculated from "the load the bridge supports divided by the mass of the bridge," according to laboratory officials.

For winning, Carroll and runner-up Vincent D’Angelo, of Commack High School, are eligible for an international competition in Chicago on April 26.

ISLANDWIDE

JV and Middle School Fairs

Thirty-one Long Island students were first-place winners in the Junior Varsity Fair and Middle School Fair held last month as part of this year’s Long Island Science and Engineering Fair (LISEF). 

The Junior Varsity Fair’s winners and their school districts: Seth Zachary Schwartz, Commack; Emma Elise Su and Abigail Anna Thomas, Herricks; Anchita Agrawal and Henry Zhang, Jericho; Nicolas Spencer Keyoung, Belen Vazquez, Krisha Wadhwa and Arjun Wanchoo, Manhasset; Mahiya Vira, North Shore in Glen Head; and Matthew Lin, Roslyn.

The Middle School Fair’s winners and their school districts were: William Morin, Anthony Sierecki and Kaden Weber, Cold Spring Harbor; Lenna Karwowska and Isabella Rufrano, Copiague; Hailey Au, Caitlin Chan, Victoria Huang, Juniper Lee, Nathan Li, Jada Lin, Selena Long, Sabrina Sang, Ryan Tsai, Natalie Wu, Isabelle Yang, Kyle Zheng and Tonya Zhu; Great Neck; and Vaibhavi Hegde and Mihir Sathish Kumar, Hauppauge.

By Michael R. Ebert

[email protected]

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.