Valley Stream 2023 District Science Symposium

On April 26, 2023, the Valley Stream Central High School District hosted its yearly science symposium. It was held at South High School, with last year’s being held at Central and next year’s at North, following a cycle that goes through all three schools with the Science Research programs. At the symposium, North had the largest number of students participating in the program. How did our Science Research program grow so big, and what happened at the symposium? 

The science research program was picked up by Mr. Michael Frazer in 1999, after former North science teacher Ed Gruber started it in 1996. Mr. Frazer is the head of the program. Since then, it has grown to be the largest science research program of the Valley Stream Central High School District, with fourteen seniors who completed this challenging program in the 2022 - 2023 school year. A very successful course we have at North! However, it is very challenging, and takes much hard work to succeed, since it involves doing research and writing a full scientific paper in three years. 

The symposium had all sophomores, juniors, and seniors display their poster board of their research, with guests viewing them and with the students explaining their research to them. Every board was unique and informative, showing the best of our program and the hard work of our students. After the poster board presentation, Mr. Frazer and North Science Department Chair Mr. Pandolfi gave awards to the fourteen seniors who completed this three-year course to recognize all the hard work they have done and their dedication to their research, with a quick speech made by the head of each school’s program about each senior on South’s stage. 

After the award ceremony concluded, the seniors had an opportunity to present their research process and results in the South Library. All the presentations were interesting and educational and were fantastic to culminate their three years of hard work, research, and dedication. Here are last year’s fourteen seniors and their general topic of focus. 

• Samantha Altieri – Political science 

• Morgan Buly – Audiovisual science 

• Valentina Castillo – Marine biology (with Christina DePippo) 

• Christina DePippo – Marine biology (with Valentina Castillo) 

• Naila Hashimi – Environmental science 

• Sukhpreet Kaur – Urban science 

• Zara Khan – Plant biology (with Jessica Sehjal) 

• Joseph Marrone – Sport science 

• Gabriela Mensah – Sport science 

• Janine Olivencia – Medical science 

• Ariel Reyes – Medical science 

• Jessica Sehjal – Plant biology (with Zara Khan) 

• Kira Sherman – Plant biology 

• Neha Singh – Dietary science 

Congratulations to all of them for their success in this challenging but rewarding course over the past three years! And the sophomores and juniors should continue to work hard – North can’t wait to see what the program has in store for us this year!