Congratulations to Jared Rothstein, Harris Wekselblatt, Donna Nazarian and Seung min Yi whose group website on The Central Park Five won first place in the New York State National History Day Contest.
This winning website illustrates this year’s contest theme, Rights and Responsibilities, by telling the story of five minority youths wrongly convicted of rape in Central Park in 1989, universally known as The Central Park Five. Congratulations also to Madison D’Ambrosio whose individual website, “The Pentagon Papers, The Effect on the Media, The Government and The Public” took second place in her individual category. As New York State winners, these five Wheatley students will now compete on the national level against other state winners at the University of Maryland at College Park in June.
Congratulations to the following students who also competed in Cooperstown: Bonnie Lerman for her paper “Opposition to Vietnam: Civic Responsibility Redefined” and Anne Yan for her paper “Internment of Japanese Americans: Fear Brings Downfall of Liberty”. A thank you to Secondary Chair for Social Studies Brian McConaghy and information media specialist Jo Beth Roberts for accompanying the students to Cooperstown.
Wheatley senior Jacob Freund who was last year’s New York State National History Contest winner and national level competitor just had his paper on the Homestead Act of 1862 published in a scholarly peer-reviewed journal, Journal of the West. The editor of the quarterly journal commented that it is rare for them to publish college student work, rarer still, a high school student paper.
The English and Social Studies departments, along with other members of the instructional staff, have been working on a continuum of research skills from middle school through high school that will be applied to various research projects including a 10th grade research paper. For an in depth look at this work in progress, that supports one of our 2013-14 instructional goals, please attend our June 4th board of education work session where members of our staff will present information on some of this exciting work.
Art Accolades
Congratulations to Wheatley sophomore Madison Misk, a student in the Studio in Art class, who received an Award of Excellence in the Art in Heart Exhibit for her self-portrait in graphite.
Congratulations to Wheatley juniors Priya Prasad and Danielle Wasserman, students in the Portfolio class, who were accepted into the Art Guild of Port Washington’s High School Art Competition which will be on display at the Tilles Center.
Priya submitted two pieces, a colored pencil portrait titled “neon face in the night” and a self-portrait titled “turn away.” Dani submitted two pieces as well, a graphite portrait and colored pencil drawing titled “mustang.” A formal reception will be held on May 17.
An exciting thing happened while waiting to hear if our art students’ work will be showing at the Annual Gurwin Photo Contest.
Last year’s Best-in-Show runner-up “Self Portrait 1950s” by Wheatley senior Emily Guinta is featured on the website at https://www.gurwin.org/annual-gurwin-photo-contest. Congratulations Emily!
Congratulations as well to the following art students accepted into the 11th Annual 12×12 High School Art Exhibit at LIU/Post:
Alexandra Giordano (10th grader) Untitled Photography
Zach Wolf (12th grader) Dancer Photography
Lauren Frantz (9th grader) Untitled Pen and Ink
Danielle Wasserman (11th grader) Untitled Medium
Priya Prasad (11th grader) Mixed Media
Kayla Bellan (9th grader) Untitled Printmaking
Jolie Katz (9th grader) Untitled Printmaking
Gretchen Keller (9th grader) Untitled Printmaking
Julia Ramos (9th grader) Untitled Printmaking
Carly Brensilber (9th grader) Untitled Printmaking
The pieces will be on display at the Hillwood Student Art League Gallery from May 15 – May 22. A reception will be held on May 22nd.
Putting on the Ritz/Art Show
Congratulations to our student artists who were featured in last Friday’s Art Show in the Wheatley lobby and their art teachers Julia Donovan, Nicole Walsh and Bryon King.
This art show preceded another special event, “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” hosted by the Tri-M Music Honor Society.
During this evening, our invited guests, community senior citizens and empty nesters, were served a delicious dinner by members of Tri-M dressed in 50’s garb and listened to the big band and 50’s music of our Wheatley Jazz Band led by advisor Steven Fitzko and 8th and 9th grade Stage Band led by advisor Mark Meyers.
Special thanks to Wheatley assistant principal Karen Klapper, Wheatley music teacher Angela Luftig, advisor to Tri-M, and Steven Fusco, jazz band advisor, who coordinate this event each year.
I could see how much our senior citizen community appreciated and enjoyed this event. I even watched some of them enjoy a spin on the dance floor and listen to our many talented student – musicians and vocalists for the evening Chelsea Wolgel and Jillian Gothelf.
Raising a Moral Child
From time to time as I come across parenting or education articles that I find interesting, I will pass them along in my newsletter. Recently there was an article in the Sunday Review of the New York Times (April 11, 2014) regarding parents’ questions on how to raise children who are kind, compassionate and helpful.
Interestingly, the article describes research studies that indicate there are distinctly different approaches for raising children to be high achievers and raising them to be kind, compassionate and helpful, with both being important. Research suggests that when parents and teachers praise effort rather than ability, children become motivated to work hard and continue to try.
Dweck’s studies, for example, suggest that if adults tell children they’re “smart” when they are successful on an academic task, that this type of praise actually discourages children from taking academic risks, because they are afraid to be seen as no longer “smart” if they fail at a task.
That is why it is always suggested that attributing success to the effort, as in saying “You must have studied very hard” when a child does well on an exam, or is successful on a project, rather than saying “You are so smart” is the preferred type of praise.
When it comes to children’s character development, the article suggests that complimenting the behavior rather than the person, is not the most effective technique, as it is with academic achievement.
The article highlights research by psychologist Christopher J. Bryan who finds that for moral behaviors, nouns work better than verbs. For example, the article states “To get 3-6-year olds to help with a task, rather than inviting them ‘to help,’ it was 22 to 29 percent more effective to encourage them to ‘be a helper.’”
Cheating was cut in half when instead of “Please don’t cheat,” participants were told “Please don’t be a cheater.” The article suggests that “When our actions become a reflection of our character, we lean more heavily toward the moral and generous choice. Over time it can become part of us.”
To read the complete article Raising a Moral Child by Adam Grant go to https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/opinion/sunday/raising-a-moral-child.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1.
Willets Walk for Veterans
On Friday I joined Willets Road students and staff who held the first annual Walkathon, sponsored by the student government, to raise money for Team Red, White and Blue. Money raised by the students walking around the back field will be donated to Team Red, White and Blue whose mission is to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity. The walkathon took place during the school day. It was a spirited, charitable time … and good exercise too!
Science Research Symposium
What an amazing evening last Wednesday’s Science Research Symposium was. Our science research senior students presented their works:
•Ana Ainechi – “Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization to quantify inhibition efficiencies of 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-5-hydroxy methyl isoxazole and KBr on the corrosion of Cu in a 0.5 M H2SO4 solution”
•Davin Bahk – “Biofluid analysis of the aortic valve”
•Justin Borczuk – “Validation of protein expression of the 8q amplicon in ovarian carcinoma”
•Allison Chowdury – “Functionalization of gold nanoparticles as drug delivery agents for treatment of Cryptococcosis”
•Joseph Jacob – “A multi-scale simulation: enhancing the thermal properties of nanocomposites using carbon nanofillers”
•Aakash Jhaveri – “Non-Diabetic Chronic Kidney Disease and the ongoing story of APOL1: a novel trait and finding”
•Brandon Kim – “The effects of echinacea on several hallmark genes involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease”
•Paul Kim– “Modulation of beta-amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE-1) by garlic extract in human neuroblastoma cells”
•Michael Lituchy [with Jeffrey Poomkudy (10) and Ashwin Reddy (10)] – “The Effects of Ant Number on the Behavior, Foraging Patterns, and Efficiency of Pogonomyrmex Barbatus Sub-Colonies”
•Anum Mitha – “Methamphetamine alters adaptive immune responses after exposure to T-cell dependent or independent antigens”
•Lauren Perry – “Realistic tissue-simulating solid hemoglobin-containing PVA phantoms for optical spectroscopy”
•Tao Zeng – “Evaluation of a lung-lesion algorithm using both quantitative and visual scoring systems”
Our grade 9 – 11 students presented their research projects by way of poster boards in the lobby, before and after the senior presentations.
Two years ago, our Science Research Program moved from an extracurricular activity that took place outside of the school day to a regularly scheduled program within our school schedule. There are two classes that comprise the four year research sequence. Introduction to Science Research is open to first year research students and Intermediate Science Research is open to any student who has completed the first year course and beyond. The intermediate course is often taken by students in each of their tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade years. Both courses meet every other day, for the entire school year.
Students in the Introduction to Science Research class learn the basics of the scientific method and how to apply it to research in the lab setting. Students are exposed to a variety of research papers and spend time analyzing each section of a research paper. At the same time, students are exposed to a variety of lab techniques through numerous labs organized by their teacher. Finally, students select topics they are interested in, perform experiments, write a research paper, prepare a PowerPoint presentation and develop a tri-fold presentation board. Some students at this level compete in local competitions while others find mentors to begin work with during the summer or during their sophomore year. This year there are 30 students in the class.
Sophomore students in Intermediate Science Research begin the task of developing a research topic to study, find a mentor and develop a literature review on their selected topic.
Most of these students begin a formal research experiment either in school or in an outside laboratory setting. Junior and Senior students in this class often complete formal research and either continue their research or revise their research plans.
This is the level where students participate in local, regional, State, and National competitions. This year there are 40 students in this class.
Our students are seeing increasing and impressive levels of success within this program. This year, students competed in the following competitions: Molloy College Science Fair, WAC Lighting Science Fair, Nassau County Science Fair, Long Island Science Congress, Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, New York State Science and Engineering Fair, DuPont Essay Competition, Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, Google Science Fair, iSWEEEP, Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology and the Intel Science Talent Search. Wheatley students have made impressive gains this year and have placed in each of the aforementioned competitions. Nationally, Arjun Kapoor was a regional finalist and Aakash Jhaveri was a regional semifinalist in the Siemens Competition. Lauren Perry was a national semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search Competition.
Although the majority of students in the science research program begin in the ninth grade and continue through to their senior year, students may enter or exit the program at any time during their tenure at Wheatley.
This program is a point of pride at Wheatley and we encourage any student who is interested in the program to contact Mr. Casamento, the Director of Science and Technology or Mr. Van Bell, the Science Research teacher.
Congratulations and Commendations
Two students from Wheatley won first and second place in the Level II category at the annual French Poetry Contest held at The Portledge School.
Wheatley junior Sarah Golden was awarded first prize for her recitation of “Soleils couchants” by Paul Verlaine. Second place was awarded to Wheatley sophomore Jordan Pollack for her recitation of “L’Age des rêves” by Eloi de Grandmont.
Receiving honorable mentions were 8th grader Vani Kumar in Level I for her recitation of “La lune blanche” and junior Bonnie Lerman in Level IV for her interpretation of “Le Désespoir assis sur un banc” by Jacques Prévert.
More than 150 students from Nassau public and private schools participated in this year’s competition, sponsored by the Nassau Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French.
Students’ recitations were evaluated on interpretation, pronunciation, intonation, memorization and poise. Mr. Henley, French teacher at Wheatley, stated, “I am extremely pleased with all of my students’ performances. Placing first and second in the same category is unbelievable.” Mrs. Anderson, chairperson of the Foreign Language Department added, “We are all so proud that our students have met with such success in interscholastic academic competitions year after year. As teachers, we know how strong our students are in our class settings, but it is so important for them, as students, to meet and compete with peers studying French in other schools.”
Other Wheatley participants included:
Alexandra Boubour, Sabrina Lee, Jeffrey Poomkudy, Namita Reddy, Gabriella Schwartz and Nancy Zhang.
Have a Good Weekend
As always, please e-mail me at kanase@ewsdonline.org or call me at 333-3758 with any questions, suggestions, and or any topics you would like to see in this newsletter.
