HHS Flexes Muscles at Molloy Science Fair

Huntington High School’s science research students continued to flex their collective intellectual muscles with a strong performance in Molloy College’s 11th annual College Science Fair for freshmen and sophomores.

Traveling to Rockville Centre was the Huntington research group consisting of Ben Kaplan, Joe Saginaw, Justin Weigold, Can Toprak, Peter Magerle, Julian Carrollo, Charlotte Levinson, Rachel Boisclair, Carolyn Cimetta, Anna Brosoff, Nina Cartwright, Jason Stickell, Gregory West, Jorge Villela and Oscar Romero.

Competition was highly competitive over the course of the day with 236 projects submitted by students from 30 high schools. “The teams had opportunities to talk to college science professors as well as peers with similar interests in the sciences,” said Lori Kenny, the science teacher who heads Huntington High School’s research program.

Participants enjoyed an exciting day filled with inquiry into various fields ranging from chemistry, physics and ecology to biology and environmental sciences. The Huntington team of Joe Saginaw, Can Toprak and Justin Weigold were among the fair’s award winners. They will be honored during a ceremony at Molloy College on Saturday, April 27.

“In their project, a Piezoresistive sensor was mounted on a robotic arm to detect force and provide consistent feedback in the form of Ohm values,” Mrs. Kenny said about Huntington’s winning team. “A circuit board was attached to a sensor featuring a piezoresitive element that increases the resistance of the current running through the sensor that can be read by the circuit board. The sensor consistently provided Ohm values indirectly proportional to the weight applied, 50, 100 and 200 grams. Their overall goal was to develop an improved robotic arm with more sensory functions.”

Huntington High School’s science research program and research club has attracted dozens of students on every grade level who are engaged in high level academic work.