“I think the competitions were a great opportunity for students to present their research and for them to communicate their findings in a professional setting,” science research teacher Mr. Denara said. (Source by Mr. Denara)
During the 2024-25 school year, students involved in the New Hyde Park Science Research program presented their individual and group experiments at competitions including the Long Island Science Congress, New York State Science & Engineering Fair, Andromeda and the South Asian American Women’s Alliance. These prestigious events were the culmination of students’ year-long experiments, with students presenting their results and conclusions to judges.
Students in the Science Research program began their year with proposing and refining their experiments, either with a personal mentor or teacher. During the course of the school year, experiments were set up and ran to test various hypotheses ranging from topics related to bacterial biofilm to UVB radiation. Afterwards, individual students and groups presented their projects and results to a multitude of judges in which awards would be given to the best projects presented in each competition.
The first competition held was for LISC. This competition, held at the Cradle of Aviation, is especially competitive considering students can compete to enter state-level competitions. Of those who entered, 29 students competed from the junior division and 13 from the senior division.
“LISC was a great experience and allowed me to view other science projects that I wouldn’t have been able to see before,” freshman Ashreet Rajput said. “The competition itself was very competitive which compelled me to do the best I could, and I hope everyone involved in research could experience something like LISC.”
The second competition held was for NYSSEF. This competition was held at John F. Kennedy High School in the Plainview-Old Bethpage school district. Sixteen students competed, consisting of sophomores and juniors.
“It was a great experience and exhibition of high school students’ projects,” junior Rocco Lipari said. “This competition was one of the most competitive research events I’ve been to. I enjoyed it and if anything I feel like its competitive nature only made me want to strive to do even better next year.”
The SAAWA competition, aimed at freshmen and sophomores, took place at Levittown Hall, where 13 students competed. This was the third and final conference of the year.
“The SAAWA conference was held within a gymnasium of a middle school, so I had a slight struggle of adapting to the volume of the room,” sophomore Alphonse Jaison said. ”However, the experience provided to us was still valuable and memorable. Every time we presented our project in front of a judge, it served as a time of personal growth seeing what parts each and every person in the group could improve upon and move forward with, which we tweaked for the next judge. Overall the conference was great and it allowed for an experience to present in front of judges and present the work we’ve conducted throughout this year.”
“I think the competitions were a great opportunity for students to present their research and for them to communicate their findings in a professional setting,” science research teacher Mr. Denara said. “I think certain things could be improved but overall this year’s competition season was great and everyone performed well.”