Clarke Middle School students qualify for state science contest

Eighth-graders Ankit Sayed, left, June Yeup Seong, Mark McMahon, Deeti Patel, Sherin Davis, Ana Pinto, Fardeena Yousuf and Arianna Fracchioni qualified to compete in the state competition; Carol Simowitz, a science teacher at W.T. Clarke Middle School, far right, congratulated them for their achievement.

Courtesy East Meadow School District

Several W.T. Clarke Middle School students will participate in a prestigious New York science contest this weekend, East Meadow School District officials said.

Three teams comprised of eight eighth-graders have qualified for the state-level competition of the Long Island Science Congress Junior Division. The event will be held in Buffalo on Saturday.

Sponsored by the Science Teachers Association of New York State, the Long Island Science Congress exhibits the research projects of middle, junior high and senior high school students in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Projects encompass the fields of behavioral science, biology, chemistry, earth, energy, space, ecology and physics.

To qualify for states, district leaders said the East Meadow teams conducted original research in chemistry and ecology, along with a three-month experiment. They presented their work at the Long Island Science Congress Junior Division, held at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington on April 12. The regional competition required them to deliver an eight-minute presentation on their experiments, followed by a question and answer session.

Sherin Davis and Deeti Patel placed first in chemistry with their experiment, “What is the Effect of Varied Acidic Fertilizers on the Metal Intake of the Filter?” Placing second in the same section were Mark McMahon, Ankit Sayed and June Yeup Seong, with their project, “What is the Effect of Temperature on the Efficiency of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell?”

Arianna Fracchioni, Ana Pinto and Fardeena Yousuf also took home to top prize in the ecology category with their research project, “What is the Effect of Filter Type on the Hardness and Clarity of Contaminated Water?”

East Meadow administrators said they wish all three teams the best of luck at the contest this weekend. More information about the competition is available at www.liscicong.org