Student research projects shine at school board meeting

Can green tea serve as a long-term treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? One Seaford School District senior has conducted research on great pond snails to find out.

At the district Board of Education meeting last Wednesday, senior Madison Elias presented her research on how green tea can extend memory for extinction training, or when a new memory is created to override a traumatic memory by exposing the trigger repeatedly until there is no stimulus. The senior showed parents, administrators and board members how she tested if green tea can extend extinction-training memory by using snails, sucrose, potassium chloride and pond water. The senior said the same theory could be applied to humans.

Five other students presented their research at the board meeting. This group of Seaford high schoolers will compete in the second round of the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, slated for March 8. First-place students projects that are selected will then complete in an international competition. Seaford seniors churned out 18 total research projects, all of which were enrolled in the first round of the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair.

At the meeting, another senior presented a project about the cycle of Mars and her study on Mars’ Arabia Terra. Showing pictures she compiled of Mars’ known surface, she explained her theory on the planet’s past and future habitability. The student gathered research by observing the surface of the plant, and she discovered that the planet has 67 features that display water movement.

“Arabia Terra has implications of future habitability of Mars,” she said. “The importance and reasoning of my study is that it is very influential in determining Mars’ history and the history of the Martian surface.”

Superintendent Dr. Adele Pecora said: “I’m amazed at the level of deep research being done at Seaford High School right now in this program.”

Executive Director for Instructional Technology and STEM Thomas Lynch Jr. said at the meeting that the students in the program have worked on their research alongside professors across the country. Some have even performed work alongside researchers at NASA.

“The program is doing some remarkable things for such a small district such as ours,” said Lynch.

Last year – despite the difficulties associated with the Covid-19 pandemic – over 30 students won awards for their projects and earnerd over $3,000 in award money, Lynch said.

Software Programs for New and Faster Working Laptops

Lynch and Fred Kaden, the district’s Director of Technology, later led a presentation on current and upcoming software programs that will enhance student learning in the classrooms.

Seventh and eleventh-grade classrooms may soon have their laptops upgraded. Looking to take district technology “to the next level,” Kaden said, the upgraded classroom laptops will run five times faster, and thus increase student performance in the classroom.

With over 3,000 devices in the district between students and teachers, the updates will allow teachers to control and redirect students on their laptops, an upgrade to a previous system.

The update offers a classroom monitoring system that allows teachers to view student’s laptops, Kaden said, meaning he can review search history on student laptops and report any student’s flagged searches to administration. The laptops also protect users from ransomware.