Seaford HS Students Shine in KidWind Challenge

students “blew away” the competition at the regional KidWind 2012 Challenge held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in East Garden City. 

In a clean sweep against numerous Long Island high schools, Seaford students brought home gold, silver and bronze medals by designing and constructing the most functional and efficient wind turbines.

The KidWind Challenge is a contest in which students work over several weeks to research, design and construct highly functional and efficient wind turbines. In the process, students are challenged to think analytically and work collaboratively to complete their projects in a timely manner.

Four teams from Seaford High School competed in the challenge. Members of the Wind Evolution team, Randy Licata and Henry Cheug, were awarded a gold medal for winning the entire competition. Seaford teams that captured silver and bronze medals respectively were the Vikings and The Thinkers.

“We are thrilled that all their hard work, staying after school to design, build, test, redesign, rebuild and retest their wind turbines was recognized as the best in the competition,” said Seaford's School-to-Career Coordinator Lauren Thompsen. “The teams went through many different designs, from simple to complex, and were inspired by toys, aeronautics and nature.”

“The teams incorporated the reuse of many materials and utilized green building concepts, which was a criterion for the competition,” added pre-engineering/technology teacher Nick Isgro.

Students Elena Alberti, Marissa Dunn and Christina Wilson prepared verbal presentations to accompany the team entries. They spoke to the judges and answered questions about their designs, the design evolution and wind power in general.

Members of the Vikings, The Thinkers and The Future teams who assisted in developing the turbines are Sean Olgivie, Joe Buttafuoco, Tom Reid, Kurt Parkhurst, Julia Gliglanic, Emilia Rubio, Elena Alberti, Christina Wilson, Marissa Dunn, MichaelVolpe, Anthony Volpe, Randy Nicholson, Ryan Nagle, Mike Nicola, Patrick Drummond and Tatyanna Soliwoda.