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Kennedy squad qualifies for State Science Olympiad

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On March 12, Kennedy High School senior Sara Harris was sticking colored pins into black and yellow tubes that wrapped in a tangle around a long, metal dowel, supported by a square, black base.

Harris, 18, who plans to study biomedical engineering in college, was working fast, with an intense gaze, in Kennedy’s science department office. Her eyes darted back and forth between the protein model she was constructing and a set of arcane codes that served as her blueprint to piece together the protein in three dimensions.

Beside her sat Dylan Levan, 16, who was tinkering with a wooden instrument that he designed and made himself to determine the ratio between three masses using two levers. Levan was playing with the levers, calibrating them incrementally to ensure precise measurements of the masses, which were small metal weights.

“Building takes a lot of patience,” remarked Levan, who hopes to become an engineer. “It teaches you about simple machines and how they can be compounded” –– that is, made bigger and better.

The two were engaged in intense last-minute preparations for Kennedy’s appearance at the New York State Science Olympiad, held at Le Moyne College in Syracuse March 13-14. The Olympiad annually brings together top science students in a series of 25 contests. Some 53 schools from across the state competed in this year’s Olympiad, with Columbia and Fayetteville Manlius declared the overall winners based on their total combined scores. They will now move on to the National Science Olympiad in May.

The competition to reach the State Science Olympiad was fierce. Teams must qualify regionally before moving on to the state competition. In Nassau County, 45 teams from 30 schools vied for seven local slots at the state meet. Kennedy was among the winners. Daniel Jantzen, Alexis Vandergoot and Helmut Schleith are Kennedy’s science club advisers.

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