Middle School Students Travel to Science Olympiad
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Middle School Science Teacher Christine Gilliand announced that a group of SMS science students had a successful trip to the NY State Science Olympiad tournament in Rochester last weekend.
The team earned its fair share of medals and here are the winners:
- Shock Value (1st) -- Joe Weintraub and Richard Xu
- Simple Machines (1st) -- Richard Xu and Ryan Jacobowitz
- Rotor Egg Drop (5th) -- Ryan Jacobowitz and Sneha Dey
- We placed in the top 10 in:
- Can't Judge a Powder (7th) -- Dan Goldstein and Wolf Cukier
- Metric Mastery (8th) -- Arjun Ravi and Derek Chi
- Road Scholar (9th) -- Arjun Ravi and Shamika Dhuri
- Experimental Design (10) -- Ken Tomita, Sara Hezi and Derek Chi
Overall, the team finished in 17th place out of 37 teams.
We asked SMS Science teacher Christine Gilliand how students prepared for the Olympiad and here is what she shared: "The Scarsdale Middle School Science Olympiad team began working on the events for the competition in October. Students work with the various Science Teacher/Coaches depending on the event they are involved with. Each of the teachers will coach 5 different events. Some of the events are building events where the students have to design, build, test and redesign something, such as a car, a lever, a helicopter, etc. Some of the events are lab events where the students have to learn and practice various skills, such as crime scene investigation, powder testing, identification (rocks, insects, birds, etc.). Some events are strictly testing events where the students study and take a written exam, in subjects such as meteorology, solar system, disease detective and green generations (alternative energy and sustainability issues)."
She continued, "The regional competition for Lower Hudson Valley was held the first weekend in March. SMS entered 3 teams (approximately 40 students) into this competition against other middle school in the region. The competition took place at our middle school, which takes an enormous amount of time and effort from the entire middle school science department, the secretarial staff and the custodians in order for the tournament to run smoothly. The top 4 teams from the regional tournament are then invited to compete at the New York State tournament, which was just held in Rochester this past weekend."
She added, "Just a little history, every year since we began the team in 2001, SMS has placed high enough at the regional tournament to compete at the state level. After the regional tournament we look at all the students and choose the top 15 for our state competing team. In addition to the competing team, we also take up to 10 students as a support team."
Here are the names of those who competed on the team: Anika Agarwal, Derek Chi, Wolf Cukier, Sneha Dey, Shamika Dhuri, Daniel Goldstein, Sara Hezi, Ryan Jacobowitz, Adina Mistry, Megumi Ohara, Arjun Ravi, Jack Silvers, Ken Tomita, Joe Weintraub and Richard Xu.
The supporting team members (these students did not compete, but helped the team in many ways in preparation and the day of the event) were: Sara Bali, Anika Dhuri, Riya Gupta, Padma Narayanan, Conner Raff, Nola Riina, Chloe Schneider, Matthew Shepetin and Gillian Zitrin.
The teachers who have been working with the students during the year and traveled with the team were: Cristine Gilliland, Jay Gandelman, Ken Raff, Laurie Ciccone and Jeff Tuttle. We also had some additional help during the year from Travis Richards and Jeff Williams.
Three Scarsdale Girls Swim to the Eastern Zones
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Three 5th grade girls from Scarsdale, Anya Pabby (Fox Meadow), Julia Gurden (Greenacres), and Joy Jiang (Fox Meadow) were part of the 10 and Under Team at the USA Swimming Eastern Zone Championship Swim Meet in Webster, NY from March 27th - March 29th, 2014. The girls were part of the Metropolitan Swimming LSC (Local Swimming Committee) Zone Team, which includes New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, and Sullivan Counties in New York State. To qualify to swim an event on the Metropolitan Zone Team, a swimmer needed to finish in the top 3 at the Metropolitan LSC Zone Qualifying Swim Meet in February of 2014.
The Eastern Zone Meet is a wonderful opportunity to meet other New York swimmers, and to compete against the best swimmers on the East Coast. The Metropolitan Zone Team won the award for the highest points in the 10 and Under category, and each team member was awarded a special pin.
Joy and Julia swim for the Westchester Aquatic Club Wolverines and thank Carle Fierro, Jonah Montgomery, and all of the coaches. Anya swims for Badger Swim Club and thanks Kip Fierro and the other coaches. Anya and Joy are in the same class at Fox Meadow School, and would like to thank their teacher, Mrs. Berger, for her support. Julia is in Mr. Crasson's class at Greenacres School and she can't thank him enough for his enthusiasm and flexibility throughout the year.
Photo: Left to Right - Anya Pabby, Julia Gurden, and Joy Jiang at the USA Swimming Eastern Zone Championship Swim Meet
Should You Follow the Crowd to Divergent?
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Thrills abound, but the broad brushstrokes could use some finesse.
Beatrice Prior is 16—that's enough drama for a movie right there. But her adolescence is extra-angsty. She lives in post-Apocalyptic Chicago, where high walls shut out the world outside, and rigid social structure keeps order within. Citizens are divided into five so-called Factions—Amity, Erudite, Candor, Dauntless, and Abnegation—whose members embrace their group's named trait. (Yeah, some Factions' names are nouns, and some are adjectives; this movie's main trait may just be Sloppiness.)
Young Beatrice was born into the Abnegation clan. Its members live to serve others (in fact, they run the government), and wear silly, flowing frocks suggestive of community-theater directors; hardly appealing to a teen. Luckily, Beatrice can soon pledge allegiance to a different Faction if she wishes, after taking a test—think psychedelic S.A.T.—to suggest her best fit. Yet the exam (a scary sequence for younger viewers) finds that Beatrice is Divergent, fitting no Faction. She's urged to hide that fact; the Divergent are often hunted down for threatening societal norms.
On Choosing Day, Beatrice opts to become Dauntless, a group charged with the city's defense. Her Prior family literally becomes her prior one, as she renames herself Tris and masters stunts like jumping from a hurtling El train. Can she mask her Divergence and fit into her fierce new family of choice? This coming-of-age struggle is what makes the movie such catnip for teens (and so blatantly reminiscent of The Hunger Games, its superior cousin). Adults may also enjoy Tris's sizzling chemistry with her mentor, a chisel-faced hottie named Four.
Yet grown-ups will also struggle with the plot holes, some large enough to drive an El train straight
through. For example, don't all teens who abandon their born Factions show a Divergent nature? And if the Divergent must hide their identities, why does one character have a huge tattoo about it on his back—why not tattoo a bullseye on your forehead, dude? And how did the city's leaders fail to see that dividing society into Factions would invite rivalries and coups? I mean, have you ever heard the word "factions" without "warring" preceding it?
If you're able to keep those troubling questions at bay for 2 1/2 hours, though, sit back and enjoy the ride—your kids are dragging you to Divergent no matter what.
Rated PG-13. No sex, but violence and startling imagery may make this a tough watch for even Dauntless kids 9 and under.
This review was written by Deborah Skolnik, a Greenacres mother of two and the Content Director for Myron Corporation, a large business-gifts firm in Maywood, New Jersey.
Marijuana: Should it be Legalized for Medicinal Use?
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Though some think that marijuana is just for pot heads, a group of doctors, nurses, medical organizations and patients believe that if legalized, marijuana could be effective in treating symptoms for many seriously ill patients. People suffering from multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease and chronic pain report that marijuana eases their symptoms. The Compassionate Care Act, a bill to legalize the use of marijuana for the treatment of a specified group of illnesses is now being considered by the NYS Assembly. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin held a press conference on Friday March 14 to support the bill and invited those who would benefit from legalized marijuana to tell their stories.
"The medical benefits that can be derived from marijuana are far too great to ignore any longer," Paulin said. "There are so many people suffering from a variety of diseases where medical marijuana would make a huge difference in their quality of life. We need to pass this legislation to help the thousands of patients that need specific strains of marijuana, such as children with Dravet's Syndrome."
According to New York Physicians for Compassionate Care a growing body of scientific evidence has demonstrated that marijuana is effective in controlling chronic pain, alleviating nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, treating wasting syndrome associated with HIV/AIDS, controlling muscle spasms due to multiple sclerosis and managing epilepsy.
Scarsdale's Dalia Kessaci attended the press conference with her 3-year old daughter Mellina to tell the group why she is passionate about the passage of the legislation. Mellina suffers from a severe form of epilepsy that is resistant to conventional drug treatment. She can have as many as 100 seizures a week. The anti-seizure drugs caused a different kind of seizure, severely delaying her development. Dalia learned that parents of children with epilepsy in Colorado have given their kids oil of cannabis to control the seizures and it has proven to be safe, effective and have few side effects.
The Hauser family of Suffern was also on hand with their nine year-old daughter Amanda, who is 
able to go to school and after school activities, but suffers from a seizure disorder called Dravet's syndrome. When asked what it feels like to have a seizure, Amanda replied, "it goes black." Her parents are not willing to purchase drugs illegally and attended the press conference to support the passage of this legislation. Her mother Maryanne said,"My family is faced with a choice no one should have to make – watch our child suffer needlessly or contemplate uprooting our family and moving to one of the 20 states where medical marijuana is legal."
We also met Dawn Carney of Mount Vernon who is living with HIV/AIDS. She showed us pictures of herself before her drugs started to work. She was wasting away and smoking marijuana helped to improve her appetite. She said, "It is wrong that New Yorkers living with serious and life-threatening conditions have to break the law to use a medication that can relieve their symptoms.
Learn more at www.compassionatecareny.org.
Never Again
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Dr. John Gimesh, Holocaust survivor and father of Cynthia Samwick and Andrea Seiden, both of Scarsdale, will speak at the Holocaust Remembrance Program sponsored by JCY-Westchester Community Partners and Lincoln Park Jewish Center on Wednesday March 19 at 10 am at the Lincoln Park Jewish Center at 311 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers.
The program honors the memory of the 12 million victims of the genocide, and is open to Yonkers Public School students, as well as the entire community. Holocaust survivors will share their personal stories about how the Holocaust impacted real people. It is hoped that this living history lesson will promote empathy and underscore the importance of having respect for all people.
Dr. Gimesh will present his personal story of the terrible hardships he and his family endured before, during, and after World War II. After he escaped Hungary, he became a pediatrician in the United States Army and moved his family to Germany and eventually to North Carolina, where Cynthia and her sister Andrea grew up. Though the girls knew their father had a difficult childhood, he rarely shared details of this unpleasant past.
Along with seven other survivors, Gimesh will tell his story at the event that runs from March 17 – 21.
For more information, contact JCY-Westchester Community Partners at 30 South Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701.
Phone: (914) 423-5009
emails: info@jcy-wcp.com
Website: www.jcy-wcp.com
