Seaford High School's Kailly Nocera grabs second in Long Island Science and Engineering fair

For the second consecutive year, Seaford High School student Kailly Nocera placed second at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair.

The prestigious fair promotes three science research events per year on Long Island, with 70 schools participating.

The path Nocera, a senior, took to the fair went through the science research program, a course at Seaford. Nocera’s project was based on her study of exoplanets, which exist outside the solar system.

She observed these planets as they passed in front of the stars they orbited. Through several methods and observation, Nocera was able to determine if there were other exoplanets in the solar system.

The competition lasted two rounds: Round One required submitting a video of a PowerPoint presentation and an abstract paper. Nocera was selected to go to Round Two, in which she presented her project to different judges.

Nocera said that some of the difficulties she encountered with the project involved juggling the limited amount of time she had.

“Typically, professionals in the astrophysics field have projects that take years to complete,” she said. “I started over the summer, and I only had one year, so it was a lot squished into a small time frame.”

Nocera received some assistance with her project. Every summer, students from Seaford High School’s science research classes connect with professionals in a variety of scientific fields through college-sponsored programs, internships and other volunteer work.

Science research teachers Janine Cupo and Mary Simons, along with consultant Richard Kurtz, have helped procure these learning experiences, and students found mentors at colleges and universities across the country.

Nocera worked with Cupo, who is her science teacher, and more closely with her mentor, Michael Zeilnhofer, with whom she connected during 10th grade while participating in the exploration of the moon and asteroids by secondary students, or ExMASS, an academic yearlong research program that engages students in the process of science.

“I met with him every week on Zoom, and he gave me suggestions about my project and told me what I could improve or what other aspects I could look at,” Nocera said. “He gave me research papers to look at and other areas in the field that would be interesting so it’s a really good relationship.”

After the two were paired through that program, Nocera asked Zeilnhofer if he would continue to mentor her, and he agreed to do it again this year.

“They took care of all the paperwork and gave me corrections on my paper and my PowerPoint presentation,” Nocera said of Cupo and Zeilnhofer.

Despite the time constraints, Nocera said that she enjoyed going through the process. Nocera added that she has held a passion for science since the fifth grade and has taken the science research program for the past three years. She said she hoped to attend the University of Michigan and to major in aerospace engineering.

Nocera was determined to earn a first-place finish in the competition this year, which would have earned her a trip to the International Science and Engineering Fair, or ISEF, where students can meet the brightest student scientists from all over the world and present their work to more than 1,000 judges.

“I was a little disappointed, but I was also surprised that I even got second because, for the past few years, I’ve been focusing more on planetary science, and astrophysics is a complete switch,” Nocera said. “It’s so much more physics and math and just a whole different type of project. And I didn’t really know how that would go because I’d never done it before. It was good because I didn’t think I would place this high.”

“The program is very young at Seaford so the fact that she got second place is amazing,” Cupo said.