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.”