Melanie Krieger, director of research, recently announced that the Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School varsity science olympiad team placed second in Nassau County in a competition of 50 high school teams. To add to the good news, the junior varsity team placed tenth overall. The varsity team will now compete for the Science Olympiad State title on Sunday, March 24 at West Point. The high school Science Olympiad competition is a team science competition for students in grades 9-12. Students work in teams of two to three on various tasks and events, which range from hands-on engineering events such as Robot Ramble and Mission Possible to practical lab events such as Physics Lab and Qualitative Analysis.

Medals went to the following students: Nina Bai, gold for Feathered Frenzy; Jesse Contvasilis, silver, for Write It, Do It; Alex Goldblatt, silver, for Mission Possible and Write It, Do It, and bronze for Robot Ramble; Ken Greenbaum, silver for Scrambler; Brian Hershkowitz, bronze, for Sounds of Music; Janaki Parmeswaran, silver, for Boomilever, bronze for Robot Ramble; Stephanie Pritchard, silver, for Boomilever; Jason Robinson, silver, for Scrambler; Matan Setton, silver for Mission Possible and Mandeep Virdi, gold, for Feathered Frenzy.

The Varsity team members are: Nina Bai, Jesse Contvasilis, Alex Goldblatt, Ken Greenbaum, David Grund, Brian Hershkowitz, Samuel John, Stacey Kallem, Matt Mifsud, Janaki Parmeswaran, Stephanie Pritchard, Jason Robinson, Alan Salas, Matan Setton, Mandeep Virdi.

Junior Varsity: Rachel Davidowtiz, Lindsay Fourman, Omar Ghaznawi, Marisa Goldblatt, Jonathan Katz, Eric Klein, Christopher Lane, Steve Lindell, Melissa Passman, David Sandowski, Allison Shapp, Alex Slade, Naomi So, Theodore Stotis, and Josh Strenger.