Valley Streamers celebrate education

The four school districts in Valley Stream got together on April 29 for the 49th annual Lights on for Education, a celebration and showcase of its students’ successes and achievements from the elementary to high school level.

Some of the presentations included a performance by North High School’s choir, an art and academic display by District 13, a concert by District 24’s orchestra and band, and demonstrations by the high school district’s occupational education students, including its auto, culinary and cosmetology departments.

Valley Stream South eighth grader Jamie Winter showed off her project from her technology class with teacher Ed Fare. Winter created a small vehicle out of cardboard, old cereal boxes and Q-Tips that had magnets strapped to the bottom of it. A magnetized track was constructed, she said, and students had to maneuver their vehicle down the track with an egg in it. If the vehicle — which she called a magnetic levitation vehicle because the magnets on the track and vehicle repel one another — slides down successfully without breaking the egg, then students got a perfect score. “If you put the vehicle on the track right, it should float down,” Winter said. “This project showed me that recycling comes in handy. You can make anything out of anything.”

Fare, who termed the vehicle a “Mag Lev” said students learned about magnetism, transportation and safety. Winter earned a 95 on her Mag Lev project.

Kaitly Mantel, a fifth-grader at James A. Dever Elementary School, showed off some of the sculptures that she created in a volunteer, after-school sculpting class. Asked why she volunteered, her answer was simple. “I just like making sculptures,” she said.

Her mother, Susan, said she never misses the annual student showcase. “I love coming here and seeing what the kids worked on,” she said. “They put in a lot of hard work.”

Grace Wohlfahrt, Mantel’s teacher at Dever, said her students displayed poems, pictures and Aztec masks that they created over the year. They also participated in a science program that teaches through experimentation. “They drew pictures of what it would be like to live in a microscopic world,” Wohlfahrt said. “This class was the most artistic I’ve ever had. The things they created were outstanding.”

Central High School District Board Trustee Ken Cummings said that the presentations and displays were great, and he loves see how zealous the kids were to showcase their hard work. “It’s going great,” Cummings said of the celebration. “All the kids are so excited to show their stuff around.”