skip to main content

Current News

Grand Avenue Art Students Embark on Immersive Museum Trip

Faculty speaking to students thumbnail256199

Nicholas Giordano's eight grade classes from Grand Avenue Middle School embarked on a field trip to the Hofstra University Museum of Art to learn about Surrealism at the exhibit "Les Visionnaires, in the Modernist Spirit."

The drawings, prints, books, film and ceramics that the students viewed inspired them to create their own works of Surrealist art in the Museum's creativity lab. The Hofstra Museum's Educators invited the students to explore theavant gardeart movement with hands on activities both in the Museum and in the classroom.

"The students were excited to see real artworkby such famous artists as Dali, Picasso, Ernst, Magritte, Cocteau and Duchamp among others we discussed in class," explained Giordano. "We will use the experience at the museum to create finished projects in the classroom."

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 3/13/2024

Middle, High School Students Place at LISEF

students thumbnail255939
students thumbnail255940

Two Kennedy High School students were named finalists at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair and one is advancing to the international round.

Jayden Simon won third place in Microbiology and a special award from the Office of Naval Research for his project, “The Utilization of Metagenomics to Determine the Effects of Plastic Polymer Types and a Temporal Gradient on Microbial Communities.”

Ava Goldsmith won first place in the Cellular and Biomolecular Sciences category for her research, “Targeting of Epichaperome Downregulates HCFC1 Mediated Transcription of Oncogenes: Implications in Breast Cancer Therapy.”

She will compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, CA May 10-17.

Barbi Frank is their science teacher.

ISEF brings together over 1,500 students from 70 nations to compete for scholarships, tuition grants, internships, scientific field trips and the grand prize: a $75,000 college scholarship.

On Tuesday, March 5, teams from the Grand Avenue Middle School Science Research Program traveled to the Crest Hollow Country Club to compete in the Long Island Science & Engineering Fair (LISEF) Middle School Fair.

At the competition, the team of Anna Kaplun, Mia Tascarella, and Milena Chomicz-Grabowska took home first place with their project, “Will the addition of biostimulants such as Stress RX or Ascophyllium nodosum result in the improved growth of Lactuca sativa as compared to a traditional fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro?”

The team of Patrick Mulvey and Aidan Cheung took third place for their project, “How will a decrease in the pH level of ocean water affect the ability of Uca rapax (fiddler crabs) to find food using olfaction?”

The team of Isabel Ziegler and Anna Schellberg also took third place for their project, “How Will Artificial vs. Natural Sweeteners Affect the Mass, the Gender and Population Size of Drosophila melanogaster?”

“By placing first, Kaplun, Tascarella, and Chomicz-Grabowska have now been nominated to take part in the inaugural Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (previously the BROADCOM Masters), a program of the Society for Science, to be held in Washington, DC later this year,” explained Tami Cruz, their science teacher. “Only students who are named in the top 10 percent of an affiliated science fair are eligible to participate in Thermo Fisher JIC.”

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 3/7/2024

Grand Avenue Crowns Geography Bee Winners

Three geography bee winners thumbnail255831
Throughout February, seventh and eighth grade social studies teachers at Grand

Avenue administered geography quizzes in their classrooms to select class representatives for the Geography Bee.

“Through a full morning of challenging questions testing knowledge of local, state, national, and world geography, we came back in the afternoon to a group of 28 strong finishers,” explained Ann Donaldson, the social studies chairperson at Grand Avenue. “The last round was much more challenging, but many of the contestants held on to field another few questions.”

Winners were: Eric Shi (first place), Lucas Chan (second place) and Dru Das (third place)

To view the Merrick Avenue winners from January, click here.

Date Added: 3/4/2024

GAMS Teacher Uses Immersive Approach to Black History

students and faculty thumbnail255532

Eighth grade students in Kristin Fusaro’s Past, Present and Future class at Grand Avenue Middle School are taking a unique approach to learning about Black History Month.

Students researched notable figures and craft biographies, followed with a collaborative poster project.Once the unit was nearly completed, students attempted an escape room planned that highlights the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Migration, which was part of the students’ eighth grade social studies curriculum.

Utilizing Breakout EDU kits, Fusaro generated an escape room using reading passages, photos and poems as content for clues. Students worked in teams to decode and decipher information to unlock a series of padlocks.

Fusaro noted that students would not only be graded on the quickest time completed, but also “by your work ethic, by your teamwork and by your effort.”

The kits can be utilized for any subject matter and teachers can work with school library media specialists to create engaging games.

“The Breakout EDU kits are a great way to facilitate group work and collaboration as well as revisiting content learned,” explained Principal Carlo Conte, who sat in on the activity and monitored finish times for teams.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 2/26/2024

 

 

Our Schools