Wantagh High School’s youngest science research students are hard at work preparing for their first competition, Toshiba ExploraVision, with a Jan. 31 deadline to submit their projects.

This year, the school launched a new science research academy with 19 freshmen in two classes. It is held during the school day and will replace an afterschool science research program by the time it expands to grades 9-12 by the fourth year. The ninth graders in the course are taught by science teacher Casey Clark, and joined every other day by math teacher Maria Prisco, who supports them for statistical analysis. 

During the first few months of the school year, students learned research skills, such as how to find reliable sources and how to analyze and interpret data. Now, they are using that knowledge to enter the Toshiba competition with original research projects. Their task is to invent technology that solves a problem. Ms. Clark said that while the students don’t actually produce it, they write an extensive proposal and it still must be something that could reasonably be created.

Max Catok and Donovan Skelton are a team who are looking to make an app for a watch that can track screentime, sleep habits, physical activity and more. It can alert the user to abnormal behavior. Matt Como and Ben Furer are writing a proposal to create a fiberboard that is more durable and better withstand moisture so it could be used in more places, such as outdoors. They noted that medium density fiberboard is typically used to make shelves or furniture, but can easily be damaged by water. 

Matt said he is looking forward to taking part in the competition and getting feedback from the judges.

“It’s cool to see how your idea stacks up and what other people think of it,” he said.

The four-person team of Cara Coseglia, Leia Gallegos, Gianna Giglio and Charlotte Heron are proposing an invention that would take water from the atmosphere to rehydrate vaccines. They explained that by first dehydrating vaccines, it would make them easier to transport and preserve the shelf life so they could be sent to developing countries, where they could later be rehydrated. The girls said they wanted to come up with a project that focused on expanding access to medicine.

Lauren Furer and Andy Navetta’s invention is testing strips for tears, that would analyze hormones in tears and hopefully provide a more accurate diagnosis for ADHD.

“I’m so proud of the students because they’re all so focused on trying to help people,” Ms. Clark said. “It’s fun to watch them work together on their projects. I don’t think they realize how much they’ve grown since the beginning of the year.”

Ms. Clark added that her role is providing students feedback on their projects, to make sure that their papers achieve the objectives. She looks over their work from the perspective of a competition judge. As students advance in the science research academy, they will enter other competitions such as the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, Long Island Science Congress, New York State Science and Engineering Fair and the Regeneron Science Talent Search.