Local students recognized for scholastic achievements

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of June 5, 2009 / 13 Sivan 5769

DRS sophomores  win science awards

Four boys from HALB’s DRS Yeshiva High School for Boys won awards from Intel’s NYSSEF (New York State Science and Engineering Fair) Nebula Division at a ceremony held May 20 at Deer Park High School.

Shalom Rosenbaum of Woodmere and Shalom Willner of West Hempstead received an award in the Medicine & Health Sciences category for their project entitled “The Effect of Varying Magnetic Flux Intensities on the Cardiac Cycle of Daphnia Magna.” Ilan Portnoy of Lawrence and Meir Schein of Woodmere received an award in the Animal Sciences category for their project involving the effect of gravity on the embryos of brine shrimp.

All of the boys, who are tenth graders, are also participants in the Science Honors Program at DRS. The students’ research was performed under the direction of DRS faculty members, Dr. Robert Winston and Dr. Rosalie Peck.

Haftr students take high honors

Six HAFTR students were awarded at the Long Island Math Fair on May 1

at Hofstra University.

Jessica Lovett and Alana Warhit both won gold medals, Jessica for her research on the cardinality of infinite sets and Alana for her work on Euclidean and hyperbolic tessellations in two and three dimensional space. Jennifer Graber won a silver medal for her PowerPoint presentation on the enigmatic nature of prime numbers.

Rachel Bandler, Benjamin Parnes, and Yael Schein were all awarded bronze medals for their projects. Rachel did research on the use of stochastic matrices, Benjamin on the cardinality of numbers, and Yael in algorithms in game theory.

All six students worked with their mentor, Mr. Neil Bernstein, chairman of the math department at HAFTR.

Central senior recognized for research

Shane Fischman of Woodmere has garnered national attention for her innovative research on body image in the Jewish community.

A senior at Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central), Fischman

spent over a year studying the topic and wrote a research paper entitled “The effects of Parental Pressure and Community Pressure on the Body Image of Adolescent Girls in the Typical Orthodox Jewish Community.”

The comprehensive work earned her an award from the American Psychological Association and led to her being named a finalist in the behavioral and health science category of the New York City Science and Engineering Fair. Fischman also received $1,000 for being named a Young Epidemiologist Scholars finalist.

“Shane is an exceptionally creative student and I applaud her initiative in researching such an important issue affecting young women in the Orthodox Jewish community,” said Ruth Fried of Woodmere, chair of the science department at YUHSG and creator of the YUHSG Science Institute.

“I believe that her research will be used as a springboard to help our girls and their parents deal better with the pressures of the world.”

National honor for Lawrence senior

Yaakov Sebrow of Lawrence has been selected for membership by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS), a group which recognizes top students throughout the country.

Sebrow is graduating from Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA) and plans to begin a year of study in Israel at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh in the fall.

“On behalf of NSHSS, I am honored to recognize the hard work, sacrifice and commitment that Yaakov Sebrow has demonstrated to achieve this exceptional level of academic excellence,” said NSHSS Founder and Chairman Claes Nobel. “Yaakov Sebrow is now a member of the unique community of scholars –– a community that represents our very best hope for the future.”

Membership in NSHSS allows students to enjoy a wide variety of benefits, including scholarship opportunities, academic competitions and educational forums.

Budding scientists at North Shore

A pair of ninth graders from the North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck was recently announced National Winners in the 2009 Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Awards Program.

Bradley Garczynski and Mackenzie Berman, guided by their science coach, Phyllis Serfaty, created “Nanobiosensors: A Lab on a Chip,” a discreet non-invasive, tamper-proof drug detection system designed to curtail the growing problem of the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

The students were one of eight teams, chosen from 4,388 student teams across the U.S. and Canada, to have been named as National Winners in this year’s Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Program. They are now heading to Washington, DC where they will meet Congressional representatives, present their ideas in a special Science Showcase and each receive a savings bond for $5,000.