Woodmere Middle School students major in history

Overall 46 students, including 12 individuals and 11 groups, were named the winners of the annual Woodmere Middle School History Fair on Jan. 29. Judging continued until Jan. 31.
Those students now compete at the Long Island History Fair at Hofstra University on March 10. Long Island winners advance to the state history fair in Cooperstown in April. State winners move on to the national fair at the University of Maryland in June.
Woodmere Middle School students have competed at the national level four out of the past five years. Last year, the students finished in first or second place in every category at the Long Island competition, and two groups of students and 10 individual participants advanced to the nationals.
“We are one of the top schools in the state!,” said Social Studies teacher Vinnie Lospinuso, who serves as the middle school’s history fair advisor. “We give certificates to all of the winners at our Social Studies breakfast in the spring.”
Students receive medals at the other levels and are eligible for scholarships at the national competition, which is sponsored by the History Channel.

This year’s middle school fair had 361 sixth-, seventh- and eight-grade students take part and there were 174 projects. The categories are Historical Paper, Performance, Website, Documentary and Exhibit. All categories can be done as individual or group projects (up to five students).
Lospinuso presents information about the projects to the students, gives them a contest rule book and shows them examples of past projects. He and Social Studies teacher Kathleen Durney oversee the fair. Participation is voluntary. Durney also registers students for the Long Island fair.

2013 WMS History Fair Winners

Historical Papers
Alec Fischthal -The Submarines of Kriegsmarine
Katherine Sossan -Ronald Reagan
Rachel Disler - The Atomic Bomb

Group Performance
Liza Isayeva, Marcelle Angeles, Kristyn Casali, Lindsey Rosen and Casie Marra - The Irish Potato Famine
Layla Elkoulily and Lina Elkoulily - The Triangle Fire

Individual Website
Joseph Carillo - The Sears Roebuck Catalog
Sofia Barone - Wright Brothers
Elizabeth Maday - Rock and Roll

Group Website
Max Kelstein and Kristen DeCicco - Pearl Harbor
Catalina Pugliese, Jonathan Matza, Lori Matza, Nicole Matza and Dannah Allen - The Birth of Cinematography and its Impact on Society
Nathan Roblin, Lenny Khazan, and Matthew Perkins - Apple Changes the Face of Personal Computing

Individual Documentary
Alec Krueger - Space Race
Kalpita Chakote - Title IX
Sapir Riskovich - Television of the 1950s

Group Documentary
Jake Levitz, Wyatt McMahaon, and Coby Applebaum - DNA
Rachel Kreavans and Gillian Polakoff - Levittown
Sophie Cohen, Colette Davies, Kim Levy and Alex Levy- The Triangle Fire

Individual Exhibit
Abby Lamdan - Titanic
Daniel Foster- The Acts of Marcus Garvey
Melanie Carcamo - The Triangle Fire

Group Exhibit
Renee Nakkab, Sophia Lamsifer and Zoe Superville - Levittown
Erin Schechter, Sammy Steinberg and Morgan Kallenos - The Wansee Conference
Dana Slepyan and Valerie Scherzinger- Apollo 11