Five teams of students from throughout the district were recognized as honorable mention award recipients for their projects in the 2019 Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision STEM competition. Open to students in grades K-12, the competition challenges teams of two to four students to test their science and technology skills by designing a technological device for the future. Receiving the honorable mention award placed the projects among the top 10% of all ExploraVision projects submitted to the competition this year.

Two fifth grade teams from Waverly Park Elementary School and their projects, Healthy Teeth Toothbrush Pro (Maha Ajmal, Charlie Horton, Julia Palay) and J Squared Headwear (Jake Giddings, Jake Palay), earned honorable mention in the competition, as well as two fifth grade teams from Marion Street Elementary School and their projects, SphingoDonor (Julian Galo, Colin Linzer, Gianna Mastrande) and TherapyME (Aidan Michaels, Kaden Rogers, Payton Stalter, Thomas Dunne). All students completed the projects with the guidance of teacher Corinne Teichman while in the district’s Voyager Program. Voyager students from West End Elementary School also worked extremely hard and submitted entries into the competition. 

Throughout the project process, the elementary students were mentored by science research students from Lynbrook High School. The high school students offered feedback on the projects and provided advice through the digital note-taking platform, Microsoft OneNote and video conference platform, Skype. 

“The high school mentors gave us a lot of suggestions and spoke with us about what was to come in the future with this project,” said Waverly Park fifth grader Julia Palay. “They also had a base of knowledge about what we were doing so they helped us the best that they could and we really enjoyed their help.” 

In addition, under the direction of science teacher Charles Vessalico, a team of students from Lynbrook High School were also selected as honorable mention award recipients for their entry in the competition. Sophomores Dylan Moreida and Joshua Santoro were recognized for their project “Stroke Detection and Tissue Plasminogen Activator Via an Implantable Device.” 

Congratulations to all the students!