Long Beach Places at Island, State Science Competitions

Six Long Beach High School science research students earned awards in the Charles Duggan Long Island Science and Engineering Fair and three were winners in the New York Science and Engineering Fair. The students researched topics that appealed to them as significant areas of study to pursue.

Each year, the entries in LISEF are considered to be among the most advanced high school projects. On the second day of the two-day competition, students must be selected in order to present to judges.

LBHS junior Justin Weissberg took first place in the Animal Science category for his research titled, “Oyster Reef Sustainability, a Piece of the Puzzle: Gamete Viability in Crassostrea virginica; Determining Temporal and Concentration Constraints.” He examined reproduction in oysters to determine optimum fertilization to restore the population. Justin also won the Aileen and Irwin Wissner Environmental Conservation Award, which included prizes of a 350 million-year-old fossil and $100. He will now move on to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in May, and has also qualified for the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering Environment Project Olympiad.

Juniors Alexandra Kapilian and Jonathan Kapilian took third place in Environmental Management for their project, “The Effect of Population Density on Carbon Dioxide Emissions Per Capita.” They collected data from various utilities and calculated the emissions in the seven counties of New York City and Long Island.

Alexandra and Jonathan were also named semifinalists in the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at York College for their research. Sophomores Savannah Kile and Leah Shokrian earned fourth-place recognition in the Environmental category for their study, “Measuring Parasitic Pleurogonius malaclemys Prevalence in Ilynassa obsoleta Populations to Assess Malaclemys terrapin Distribution in the Western Bays.” The pair visited a number of marshes and collected snails, which they observed for parasites. By linking parasitic presence to declining turtle populations, they were able to identify ways to better preserve the turtle species in the Western Bays.

Senior Logan Weitz took fourth place in Medicine for his work titled, “Cancer Prevention: The Extraction of the p53 Cancer gene from Human Organ Cells.” He studied genetically modified human cells and the p53 gene that causes cancer. Logan completed his research over the course of three years at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, where he was mentored by two doctors. His paper will be published in the Cornell Medical Journal, and a doctor plans to purchase his research and apply it to further exploration in the medical field. Logan’s work also earned a third-place distinction in Medicine and Health at the NYSEF event, where seniors Justin Barry and Marc Pittinsky placed second in Microbiology. Their project, entitled, “The Effects of Propolis and Humulus lupulus L. as an Antimicrobial Cream on the Inhibition of Staphylcoccus epidermidis and Micrococcus luteus,” investigated substances for potential to combat infection.

The high school’s science research program is open to all students who wish to participate. It provides freshmen through seniors with opportunities to engage in authentic scientific learning experiences and engage in the same level of work done by professional scientists. Students involved in the program enter competitions such as LISEF each year and continually earn achievements and awards.