On Tuesday, March 26, the Yeshiva of Central Queens’ sixth grade students participated in the annual STEM Fair. The winners will move on to the Inter-Yeshiva competition against students from several other schools. Students chose a topic in science, engineering, or technology; then they collected data, researched, and analyzed their information, resulting in an array of well-thought-out, interesting projects that they presented to YCQ faculty and students. Sarah Owadeyah said, “My topic was “Twin Telepathy.” I did it with my twin sister and it was very interesting to learn about telepathy and to see how it works.” The first-place winners, Joshua Noah and Aryeh Rozic, did a project on a robot that can sense color and complete a Rubik’s Cube; Esther Nazarov and Julia Mushayev, second place winners, did their project on “Extracting DNA from a Strawberry.” Esther said, “Learning about strawberry DNA has been a great experience, because I learned facts, and one of them is that strawberries have eight different types of chromosomes.”
Under the guidance of Mrs. Laurie Golubtchik, middle school AP, and Mr. Emmanuel Rayburn, sixth grade science teacher, students displayed their research projects and data that demonstrated the use of the Scientific Method to solve problems. While preparing for this day, the students developed skills in critical thinking, research, and presentation. Grades 3-5 visited the fair and participated in a “scientific scavenger hunt,” learning about scientific process and methods through the sixth graders’ research. Later in the evening, parents, friends, and family visited YCQ’s STEM Fair and the award ceremony. Senator Nili Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows), who is fighting for more STEM funding for our schools, was in attendance at the award ceremony, as well.
Mazal tov to our STEM Fair winners who will move on to the next level at the inter-Yeshiva STEM Fair: First place: Joshua Noah and Aryeh Rozic, Does Sight Affect a Computer Color Sensor?; Tied for second place: Esther Nazarov and Julia Musheyev, Strawberry DNA; and Shira Fisher, Which Household Product Best Prevents Bacteria from Growing?; and tied for third place: Eli Kaykov, How do Hydraulics Work?
and Ben Kochman and Noam Traeger, for their project, The Soap Theory. Congratulations to the students who received “honorable mentions” at the award ceremony. All of the students worked hard and should be very proud of themselves.
By Heidi Birnbaum, grade 6