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Oldfields Robotics Team Captures Innovation Project Award

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The hardworking robotics team Harborfield Tornadoes Lego Robotics team from Oldfield Middle School came home from the FIRST Lego League Long Island Championship Tournament as winners of the prestigious Innovation Project award. This honor recognizes the team that utilizes diverse resources for their Innovation Project to help them gain a comprehensive understanding of their problem; has a creative, well-researched solution; and effectively communicates their findings to judges and the community.

The eight-member Oldfields squad consists of dedicated robotics students Neela Bajon, Quintin Briggs, Chase Ciccone, Tanner Facella, Andrew Hollweg, Dylan Lakhani, Alexander Prudente and Imran Shah.

“Our students put in so much time and effort on all the ‘little things’ that really made a difference at the competition,” adviser James Temps said. “They had to make a professional presentation in front of independent judges explaining the idea of their own creation and describe the benefits this invention would have for the people it was designed for. They all had to contribute in some way and did so without hesitation. We couldn’t have been prouder of them.”


 
Date Added: 3/26/2024

A Sound Experience in Song

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Amelia Freiberger and Katherine Spahn, two of Harborfields High School's most accomplished vocalists, were recently recommended to participate in an outreach initiative sponsored by the celebrated eVoco Voice Collective. Both students had the opportunity to learn music in the ensemble’s repertoire, rehearse with the group and perform in concert with eVoco, under the direction of the esteemed Dr. David Fryling. Making the experience all the more special, composer Jocelyn Hagen was in attendance to hear the performance of her “On My Dreams.”

“Amelia and Katherine are two of the most dedicated musicians in our choral program,” HHS Choir Director Clare Sullivan said. “I am incredibly proud of the time and effort they put in to create such beautiful music with a very experienced and accomplished professional choir.”

Date Added: 3/21/2024

Fourth Graders Have Fun with Fractions at TJL

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Samantha Little and Shaina Zebrowski’s fourth grade classes at Thomas J. Lahey Elementary School in the Harborfields Central School District recently practiced fractions in a hands-on way. The students reviewed adding and subtracting fractions by making trail mix snacks and making slime. They renamed fractions from improper fractions to mixed numbers and played tic-tac-toe and Connect 4 when the fractions were renamed correctly. They also found equivalent fractions by playing bingo.

“Our students had a great afternoon working together and reviewing fractions,” Little said.

Date Added: 3/20/2024

A Week of Empathy at Oldfield Middle School

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Sixth grade English language arts classes at Oldfield Middle School in the Harborfields Central School District recently worked on a Project-Based Learning (PBL) assignment on how to teach empathy to their fellow students, culminating in a student-organized Empathy Week in February. Since last November, the sixth graders had researched empathy and brainstormed ideas every Friday, guided by teacher Monica Zenyuh.

“I attended an in-district workshop about PBL and wanted to fit it into my curriculum,” Zenyuh said. “I decided to ask my students, ‘How can we teach OMS students empathy?’ Empathy is the theme in my current ELA curriculum, so it fit perfectly. The kids ran with it. We started with individual research, where students researched what empathy was, how it could be taught and what were examples of empathy, and they posted everything they found and thought of on Padlet boards. I then asked, ‘What can we do with all of this? The idea was then proposed to have an Empathy Week for the school, and we dedicated every Friday for two months to work on this. Letters were written to the principal and groups formed to plan it all out. It was entirely student-run, I was just the tour guide.”

Empathy Week proved to be a different form of a spirit week at OMS, including a daily video feature, daily quote in morning announcements, activities and challenges during homeroom, events during lunch and recess, and empathy-themed songs between classes. Students were asked to wear certain apparel or colors each day to unify them. The ELA students created Valentine’s Day cards for nursing homes and veterans, and placed anonymous positive notes on classmates’ lockers. In addition, students reached out to the district’s primary and elementary schools and got both involved in poster making and book reading.

Emma Bemiss developed ideas like Empathy Bingo, while Anabella Czekaj, Leah Davila, Maeve Donovan and Jaclynn Smith came up with the idea of Kindness Jars, putting small slips of papers in each jar with empathy challenges for students to complete, and placing the jars in each homeroom.

“We just thought it would be nice if each class had a challenge that each kid had to complete within a week,” Donovan said. “And then if the kid completed it, they would get a tally and whoever had the most tallies would get a prize for completing those challenges because they were being kind to other people.”

A Conversation Cubes project, organized by student Arianna Bester, compiled lists of ideas from her classmates to use as conversation starters when they sit with new people at lunch.

“School has always been kind to me, and I wanted to help people spread kindness,” Bester said.

“We picked numbers and sat at a different lunch table than we usually do,” student Isidora Doeschner said. “We rolled the cubes and made new friends in the cafeteria.”

Empathy Week surely left a mark on Oldfield’s student body, leading to a greater sense of unity and compassion.

“Empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and understanding what they’re going through and not making it all about yourself,” sixth grader Olivia Castellano said.
 
“I’m so proud of where my students have taken this idea,” Zenyuh said. “Helping students understand how to think about things from another point of view, and that doing small things can make a huge impact on someone’s life, is an essential skill to possess in this day and age. Being able to facilitate that in my classroom has been a very rewarding experience.”

Date Added: 3/19/2024

Senior Liza McPherson and Junior Emily Xie Chosen for “Long Island’s Best”

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Two Harborfields High School AP art students – senior Liza McPherson and junior Emily Xie – were recently chosen for the 28th annual “Long Island’s Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher Museum” curated art show. This year, the Heckscher received 456 art submissions from 69 schools, with 87 entries selected for display. Both student-artists will attend an awards reception at the museum on March 23, and the show will be on view from March 24 to May 5.

Date Added: 3/19/2024